Photo : Matthieu Perona / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)
Château-Rocher
Château-Rocher, also called the castle of Blot-le-Rocher, is a ruined medieval fortress perched on a cliff some 150 metres above the Sioule, in the commune of Saint-Rémy-de-Blot, in the Puy-de-Dôme. It watched over the valley and the bridge of Menat, which linked Auvergne and the Bourbonnais.
The fortress was built at the end of the 11th century on the initiative of Archambaud the Strong, lord of Bourbon. After Philip Augustus took the region in 1213 it was rebuilt and enlarged, and work continued until the 15th century. It then lost its strategic value and was abandoned in the 17th century; some of its stones were used to build nearby houses.
Listed as a historic monument in 1913, the site has been consolidated since 1964 by the Château-Rocher association. It can be visited freely, sometimes with guided tours and events; visitors should stay behind the barriers because of possible falling stones.
