Isère is the department of the Dauphiné, a former principality that was ceded to France in 1349 by its last Dauphin, Humbert II, thereby bestowing the title of ‘Dauphin’ upon the eldest son of the King of France and giving the region the name Dauphiné. This Alpine region, nestled between the Vercors, Chartreuse, Belledonne and Oisans ranges, boasts an exceptional heritage of castles closely linked to the history of this mountain principality.
Grenoble, capital of the department and the French Alps, is surrounded by mountain ranges that bear the traces of Dauphiné’s history: the Bastille, a 19th-century fortress on the city’s heights, offers a striking panorama of the three mountain ranges that frame it. The Grande Chartreuse, a monastery-fortress hidden in the heart of its mountain range, is the birthplace of the Carthusian order, founded in 1084 by Saint Bruno. Vizille, whose castle was the setting in 1788 for the Assembly of Vizille that paved the way for the French Revolution, Virieu, Bon-Repos, Pupetières…
The Château de Sassenage, residence of the Barons of Sassenage who claimed descent from Melusine, and the ruins of La Motte de Colombe illustrate the richness of an Alpine heritage less well known than the mountain landscapes but just as remarkable.