The history of the Château built in southern Burgundy in the Middle Ages is rarely as tranquil as the rivers that run through the region. 
 
True to form, the Château d'Igé was under threat as soon as it was planned. A legal document dated September 1235 and bearing the seal of Louis IX, the future Saint Louis, attests that the powerful Cluny Abbey wished to prevent the Count of Mâcon. Lord of Igy, from commencing or pursuing the construction of a fortified mansion since he was acting in total disregard of the rights the monks claimed they had over the land. 
 
The Château was later built as a royal estate; the lord of the manor dispensed justice in all its forms to the village and several others in the vicinity.

We have the Mâcon Academy to thank for this information, published in its Annals in 1936. They go on to reveal that the Château - that now has three towers- had six at one time in its history, and that at another point was deprived of a whole wing. The 18th century, shortly before the French Revolution, saw the building of the two fine towers at the north and south corners of the western boundaries of the garden. The southern tower housed the chapel. 
 
Within the structure of two of these three towers that have resisted the ravages of time and of human intervention lies a curious enigma. They both contain vertical conduits in the thickness of the walls, running from the groung floor to the top floor. They are broad enough for a man to pass or to hide, but have no access to outside, at least they no longer have. They are however provided with openings that seem to have been made to air the passages. They may well have served as hiding places in the event of danger, or as secret passages. They can still be seen today.

The Château was one of the first in the Mâconnais region to suffer from the insurrections resulting from the storming of the Bastille in Paris on July 14 1789. On July 26 it was sacked and pillaged, the fine trees were cut down and a barn was destroyed. As they were sought by the rebels, the Lord of Igé and his wife chose to flee to the neighbouring woods. The same year saw a fierce conflict between the Lord and the villagers regarding a well that part of the fact it appears that neither of the two parties, who had submitted their dispute to the Mâcon court, then on appeal to the Parliament of Paris, was right. In the end, the enclosure that the Lord of Labletonnière had built around the well, to prevent people either from using it or from gaining access to it, was destroyed by his opponents. Thereafter, according to the Annals, the "horde" spread throughout the region and the Châteaux of Saint-Maurice, Clessé, Péronne and Montbellet were pillaged and plundered. The Châteaux of Lugny and Senozan were burned to the ground. 
 
To commemorate this event, in 1989 the street leading to the entrance of the estate where the Château stands was renamed the "Rue du 26 juillet 1789". 
 
In the late 19th century, the Château was more or less left to turn to ruin. 
 
Beginning in 1972, the Château was restored by Henri Jadot and converted into a luxury hotel. Since 1990, current owner Françoise FAUCON LIEURY has been running the Château d' Igé. 
Backed by a highly professional team, she pays particular attention to the preservation of the Château so that guests may experience, as they sample its gastronomic delights, the mysterious yet somehow familiar charm of the Middle Ages in an authentic setting.