Château de la Fauconnière (Allier)

The castle is located near the town of Gannat and the ruins of the Château de Chiroux.^[1]

Legend has it that the land was used by the dukes of Bourbon on their hunts.^[1]

The land belonged to Pierre Filliot, who was born in the castle, then a primitive structure with four towers and arrowslits.^[1] In 1518, he asked Anne of France to make it a fiefdom.^[1] Once this request was granted, Filliot added a terrace.^[1] After his death, the castle was inherited by his nephew, Philippe Filliot, who was the seigneur, or Lord, of Marcelange.^[1] The latter married Elizabeth de Favières, and they had a daughter, Marie Filliot de la Fauconnière, who in 1694 married Hughes de Fontanges, a knight and seigneur of Hauteroche.^[1] The castle was inherited by their son, Hughes de Fontanges, in 1722, who married Lady Marie-Gasparde de Boissieux in 1738.^[1] The castle was inherited by their third son, Viscount François de Fontanges, who served as the governor of the Southern part of Saint-Domingue (now known as Haiti).^[1]

In the summer of 1940, the château was home to a "High center for the training of leaders of the General Youth Secretariat at Vichy", under the leadership of Captain Pierre Dunoyer de Segonzac.^[2][3] The aim was to train the French elite in the spirit of the Revolution nationale heralded by Marshal Philippe Pétain.^[2] Later that year, the school was moved to the Château d'Uriage, where it became known as the Ecole Nationale des Cadres de la Jeunesse.^[2]