Roofless ruin from the Middle Ages, this building towers over lake Annecy (with recent stairs). It probably was the centre of a fortified lordly residence with an economic role rather than a watchtower as tradition would have it.
The Beauvivier site is mentioned in the 9th century in a chart through which King Lothaire II (835-869) gives the Dulzianum villa (Doussard) - a property located in the marshes - to his wife Theuteberge. Then around 1305 Beauvivier appears in a text mentioning a fortified manor house with a chapel belonging to the Duingt family, provided with an important judicial role and surrounded with ditches, agricultural lands, barns, mills, threshers, fisheries and a harbour.
The silting of the site probably led to its desertion.
The Beauvivier tower is a 7.30m x 6.90m quadrilateral building with an indoors space of 3.20m x 3.25m. Built with roughly squared off limestone rubbles, you can enter it through a recent metal staircase. The ground floor is windowless and the access is through a centring arch door on the first floor.
The architectural characteristics of the tower - a roughly leveled brickwork, a quadrangular plane, a windowless ground floor, an access through a centring arch door on the first floor, very thick walls and the absence of defensive elements - make it a typical tower from the late 12th or early 13th century. It can be compared to the local towers of Ugine (the Castle), Albertville (Conflans), Montailleur (the Castle), Tournon (Tourmotte) etc.
The silting of the site probably led to its desertion.
The Beauvivier tower is a 7.30m x 6.90m quadrilateral building with an indoors space of 3.20m x 3.25m. Built with roughly squared off limestone rubbles, you can enter it through a recent metal staircase. The ground floor is windowless and the access is through a centring arch door on the first floor.
The architectural characteristics of the tower - a roughly leveled brickwork, a quadrangular plane, a windowless ground floor, an access through a centring arch door on the first floor, very thick walls and the absence of defensive elements - make it a typical tower from the late 12th or early 13th century. It can be compared to the local towers of Ugine (the Castle), Albertville (Conflans), Montailleur (the Castle), Tournon (Tourmotte) etc.
