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The
restored Chateau overlooks a park-like south-facing garden
with water features and soaring mountain backdrops. It was
built as a small chateau with an adjoining chapel in 1676,
using massive blocks of local limestone.
The chateau entered Savoy history as the setting of a dramatic
tale of love and war during the mid-18th century. Savoy was
then an independent duchy, allied with Austria against France
and Spain in the War of the Austrian Succession. Its territories
on the French side of the Alps were seized and occupied by
Spain which sent cavalry units to Samoëns. Their dashing
captain, Don Juan Juradoz, braved local hostility to woo and
win the hand of a young beauty he saw leaning from the window
of the chateau. The couple were married with full Spanish
pomp in the village church. But the war ended within the year,
and Don Juan rode off with his troops, leaving a pregnant
wife who was never to hear from him again. When, years later,
her daughter sought her errant father's consent to her own
marriage, he was discovered to be the wealthy governor of
Cadiz. In a deathbed repentance, he left his entire fortune
to the daughter he had never seen, and a baggage train loaded
with treasures turned up in Samoëns in 1776. His daughter's
husband became the benefactor of the village and later established
a college of higher studies in the chateau.
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