Château de Novel

Novel Manor is located in the French department of Haute-Savoie in the commune of Annecy, in the middle of the plain, in the modern Novel district, at the foot of the Annecy-le-Vieux hill.

The site occupied by the manor was probably occupied by a Gallo-Roman villa. The toponym Novel refers to "recently cleared land". In the 12th century, it was the possession of the Counts of Geneva, who resided there during their visits to the Annecy basin before they settled in 1219 at Annecy Castle. In 1174, Count Amadeus I of Geneva and the abbot of Saint-Maurice d'Agaune signed an agreement there under the arbitration of the Bishop of Belley, Saint Anthelm of Chignin. On July 25, 1195, William I of Geneva died there. The castle is thus mentioned in 1205 as Novellas, apud Nansicum, in letters of protection from the Count of Geneva to the priory of Chamonix. In the 14th century, the family that held the fiefdom took its name. In the 15th century, it was in the hands of the Renguis family, then passed to the Chenex family. By marriage, it passed in 1512 to the Sales family. The father of Saint Francis de Sales held the title of Lord of Novel. In 1556, "Novel" was the property of Amédée Viollon. At the beginning of the 17th century, the five daughters, out of 12 children, of Michel Viollon de Novel, syndic of Annecy, entered the Visitation, bringing the manor as a dowry. The Visitandines, who kept it until the French Revolution, made it the heart of an agricultural estate. Confiscated and sold as national property, it retained this last function until the 1960s. In 1972, it was bought from the Gay family by the commune of Annecy, which restored it.

Novel Manor today appears as a quadrangular building dating largely from the 15th century, with a round tower in its southwest corner. It was previously surrounded by an enclosure wall and a moat, which was crossed by a drawbridge. In 1612, the latter was described in an inventory as: "the bridge in front and outside the said door supported in the middle by three oak posts placed in the middle of the ditch is completely spoiled". In the 19th century, the dovecote tower was connected to that of the fortified house by a building, which gives it its current appearance. The farm that flanked the dovecote has been replaced by a shed. In the courtyard, a large agricultural building was erected in the year XI of the Republic (1803). A text describes the dovecote as being in very poor condition: "item to restore the dovecote, it must be re-plastered, re-painted, and re-whitewashed".