The Garden of the Château du Roy

This ancient fortress, already present in the writings of the Xth century, was one of the fiefs of the Counts of Albon. The Dauphins frequently stayed there.

The first castle, certainly made of wood like a motte castrale, was located at the level of a hump on the rocky spur. The stone castle that succeeded it must have been very extensive and spread out as far as a sort of terrace below, to the south (the site taken over by Lesdiguières for his castle). The ensemble was composed of two enclosures, the largest of which contained the Sainte-Marie chapel and two fortified houses. Four portals and two posterns allowed access. The situation of the castle, at the top of a rocky peak, a natural fortification, made Vizille the chief town of the territory.

In 1349, with the transfer of the Dauphiné to France, the castle became a Royal Castle.
Within the ramparts, the ruins and the garden of the old castle are the witnesses of the numerous conflicts between Catholics and Protestants.
At the time of Lesdiguières, a fire destroyed it. A rumor tends to say that Lesdiguières, not being able to obtain the castle by selling it, invited its occupants to dinner one evening and set the castle on fire...
All that remains today of this castle is a rampart, the remains of the fortified houses and a tower reused in the construction of the Duke of Lesdiguières' castle.