Château de Joux
A castle on a rocky promontory
Château de Joux is a castle with over a thousand years of history in an amazing setting at the entrance to the ""Cluse de Pontarlier"". It dominates one hundred metres of the narrow pass which in the 13th century developed into an important trade route which became the’ Salt Road’.
After Franche-Comté became part of the Kingdom of France under Louis XIV in 1674, the king sent his military architect and engineer, Vauban, to fortify the new borders. Throughout the reign of Louis XIV, the Château de Joux housed a garrison of several hundred soldiers.
In the middle of the 18th century, the castle became a state prison, as well-known as the Bastille. Among its most famous inmates were Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, Comte de Mirabeau, and Toussaint Louverture.