The Château de La Roche is a restored castle situated in the commune of Saint-Priest-la-Roche in the Loire département of France, 20 km from Roanne. The castle stands on an island in the lake formed by the Villerest dam.
History
The earliest written records of the castle date from 1260. It was built on a rocky platform overlooking the Loire river from a height of 30 metres. The fortress allowed a watch to be kept and tolls to be collected for the County of Forez border. The building suffered floods from the Loire more often than attacks from enemies.
In the 17th century, because of repetitive floods, the castle lost its attraction, resembling more and more a fortified house that would become a ruin in later centuries. At the end of the 1900s, an industrilaist from Roanne bought the castle and restored it in the Gothic style, intending it as a second home.
During the 1930s, the construction project for the Villerest dam by EDF condemned the château to disappear below the water. The structure degraded very quickly and was subject to numerous acts of vandalism. It was finally bought for a symbolic one franc by the commune.
During the construction of the dam in 1984, the château was the only building spared by the waters. It is now situated on an island. In 1996, it was entirely restored and the side facing the water was remodelled to permit access throughout the year.
The regulation of the waters of the Loire have not fully protected the château; it was affected by floodwater in 2003 and 2008.

Château de la Roche

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Le château d'Ailly is mentioned for the very first in 1050.
Robert d'Ailly built here a manor surrounded with walls, of moats, as well as mill.
This is the same period that the church consecrated to St Gerbold (a 6th century Norman Saint) is built. 
Jean de Villiers, alias le Sauvage, Lord d'Ailly, de Grisy and of Vendeuvre would stand out for his valor against the english in the recapture of the cities of Caen and of St Malo .
In1431 english King Henri VI appointed the Cardinal, his uncle, in place of the then governor, when the englis retook Normandy. He then gave him the lands of Ailly, Grisy and Vendeuvre confiscated from Jean de Villiers who has followed the King of France's party.
Back in french possession, the manor for a time belonged to the Courseulles, a normand family, then to the De Saint Laurens family before being acquired by the d'Aubert de Caudémone in the 17th century. Charles d'aubert d'Ailly, a Knight of Malta, transformed it in 1721, giving it its current configuration.
The château was then passed on, as always by marriage, to the powerful family of the des Vauquelin des Chênes, Eustaches, baron de Verneuses, descendant of Nicolas Vauquelin des Yveteaux (born in 1567 at the château of la Fresnaye in Falaise and died march 9,1649 in Paris, libertine french poet, tutor of Caesar de Vendôme, natural son of Henri IV and Gabrielle d'Estrées, in charge of the future Louis XIII.)
Eustache Louis Vauquelin des Chesnes, (a Chevau léger de la Garde then an officier in yhe "armée d'émigration" - Knight de Malte) married Victoire Louise Marguerite d'Albon in 1805 au château of Fontainebleau. Princesse d'Albon daughter of Angélique Charlotte de Castellane who was "Lady in Waiting" for Madame Victoire de France, would have the latter for godmother ( louis XV daughter) and LouisXVIII for godfather.
Eustache Louis de Vauquelin des Chenes, inherited the marquess of Avernes from his second four times removed, Charles Antoine de Bernard d'Avernes who died childless.
In addition to the land of d'Avernes, Eustache would also inherite an invaluable work from the fifteenth century on a history of Normandy entirely illuminated wich for a century would a possession of the Vauquelins ans wich now at British Museum since 1941.
Their eldest son Louis-Charles Vauquelin des Chênes (1807-1877) woukld be"one of richest landowners in the Falaise region" and thanks to his travels to England he recreated a model farm on his land to promote new agricultral practices. I
It was undertaking these large-scale projects in 1832 that he would unearth the 9 famous d'Ailly helmets. Helmets in parfect state dating to the end of Bronze Age.(Similar to a type of helmets once used in central Europe and in Italy in the 8th century B.C. They testify to the great mastery achieved by the craftsmen at the end of the Bronze Age. musée de Normandie Caen)
A second is currently preserved at the Palazzo Barbérini, in the 'Armoria Odescalchi, à Rome.
It is envisaged that it transfert to Palazzo Venezia.
A third helmet is still preserved in the Musée départemental des Antiquités de Rouen.
The reste is on exhibit in the Musée de Normandie in the Château of Caen.
Leaving no offspring, it is his sister, Henriette-Louise de Vauquelin des Chesnes (1811-1886) who inherited the domain. She would marry, Marie-Gustave de Vigneral.
The domain remained in the family until 2007, date on wich was acquired by the its current owner.
http://www.chateaudailly.fr

Le château d'Ailly

Le lieu de Matel fut habité dès l’époque gallo-romaine ainsi qu’en témoigne une tête en bronze du musée de Roanne. Il est mentionné au XIIIe siècle. Au XVIe siècle, il y avait déjà à Matel un manoir qui fut incendié pendant les troubles de la Ligue. Il fut reconstruit sous Henri IV par un sieur Jean Chézard, gentilhomme originaire de Florence et fixé en Roannais. Il eut pour fille la grande mystique française, Jeanne Chézard de Mâtel (1596-1670) fondatrice de l’ordre du Verbe Incarné. Le manoir, encore reconstruit par les Dumas, passa à Antoine Terray de Rosière, frère du redouté abbé Terray, contrôleur général des finances, puis par alliance aux du Myrat et aux du Rosier. Il devint ensuite la propriété de l’abbé Claude Eléonore de Chavagnac qui y construisit une chapelle et le légua, après sa mort en 1811, à son neveu le Comte Camille Marie Alexandre de Chavagnac.
Il fut acquis en 1849 par Charles Michel et Mme J.-B. Michel qui le laissèrent à leur nièce, Eugénie Michel. Celle-ci épousa le commandant Poulot qui eut pour enfants Charles Poulot, ingénieur chimiste (1859-1929) et Mme Calemard de Genestoux. Après avoir appartenu de janvier à juillet 1919 à André Citroën, il fut racheté par la famille Calemard de Genestoux. Enfin en août 1941, il acheté avec 40 hectares, par la société France-Rayonne. En 1990 le château fût racheté par des japonais pour y implanter une école de cuisine et de langue : l'école des 3 ponts.
Le Château est à présent la résidence principale d'une famille française, Laure et Olivier Bourgeois.
https://www.chateaudematel.fr

Château de Matel

The Château de la Bastie d'Urfé (also known as Bastie d'Urfé or Bâtie d’Urfé) is a French château in the town of Saint-Étienne-le-Molard, historically within the province of Forez. In the 16th century it was rebuilt in the Renaissance style by Claude d'Urfé and bought in 1836 by Caroline de Lagrange (1806-1870), daughter of count Joseph Lagrange (1763-1836). The intarsia panelling of the 16th-century chapel is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.