BOURBON DUKES' CASTLE

The present-day site of the Château des Ducs de Bourbon was occupied very early on. Castrum and stronghold benefited from the incomparable position of Mount Lucens, which shines in the eastern and western sun. In the^5th century, the proconsul Lucius built a castrum on this site, another explanation for the town's name. In any case, by the ^11th century, the fortress of Monte-Lucii already appeared in official documents: two large keeps were built on either side of the main body, one where the square, crenellated tower now stands, the second at the other end. In 1250, Eudes, Count of Burgundy, built the first walls of today's château. The old Merovingian ramparts were preserved, and the inner courtyard was raised to the level of today's esplanade. In 1370, Louis II, Duke of Bourbon, came to live in the town, which was now part of the fiefdom of the Sires de Bourbon. Rebuilt by Louis II, it was enlarged and embellished in the ^15th century by his successors, Dukes Jean ^I and Charles ^I. At the time, the château consisted of a large two-storey main building, the second of which was under the rafters. It features vast rooms lit by large mullioned windows, and is embellished by an Italian-style wooden gallery and a clock tower whose chimes, established in 1709, were modified several times until 1863, when a dial was installed on all four sides. Since then, it has continued to tell Montluçonnais the time. At the time, Montluçonnais was a frontier town at the gateway to a territory under English domination. Duke Louis made it his principal residence. He died here in 1410 at the age of 74. Recaptured by the King of France in 1527, the city experienced a period of stagnation that ended with the Industrial Revolution in the ^mid-19th century. Montluçon's population increased tenfold. The château, devastated during the Terror, was successively transformed into a municipal building, a courthouse and a fashionable café, before being handed over to the Ministry of War, which converted it into barracks from 1859 to 1913. Restored in 1925, it became home to the Musée de la Vielle à Roue in 1955, with a collection of some fifty hurdy-gurdies from the region, the Paris Basin and elsewhere. In 1959, it became the Musée des Musiques Populaires, with nearly 700 instruments. Since 2013, it has served as a storeroom for the MuPop museum in the medieval town of Montluçon.