page_title: Château de Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne
section_title: Geography
hierarchical_section_title: Château de Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne / Geography
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Vue de Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne et du vieux Bourg (Espace Alu, église Saint-Michel et tour carrée) depuis le plateau de Chambarlet (août 2018).
context_page_description: The Château de Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne is a 13th century castle in the commune of Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne Savoie département of France.
context_section_description: The ancient castle, of which only a single tower remains, dominates the town of Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne to the east, on the right bank of the River Arc. The location is a rounded hill called Chambarlet.
  The castle therefore dominates the town but also an ancient glacial tarn, called Saint-Michel, closed on its downstream side by the glacial remnant of Pas-du-Roc that separates it from Saint-Martin-de-la-Porte, and also closes from the south the access to the valley of Valloirette and the town of Valloire. Finally, it oversees the route leading to the Tarentaise Valley, through the mountain pass of the Encombres and the mountain towns of Beaune and Thyl.
  The location is strategic, making it "an important military junction position positioned at the crossing of roads leading to Italy, Tarentaise and Briançonnais". The historian Christian Sorrel wrote that through the medieval period, "in the 14th century, people from the Piedmontese valleys, Tarentaise, l'Oisans and Briançonnais, coming by passes with an altitude of between 2,000 metres (6,600 ft) and 3,000 metres (9,800 ft) crowded the fairs of Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne".
caption: View from the castle esplanade of the town of Saint-Michel. In the background, the Pas-du-Roc.
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