Château de Savigny-lès-Beaune, Medieval castle in Savigny-lès-Beaune, France

Château de Savigny-lès-Beaune is a 14th-century castle on a 20-hectare vineyard estate in the Côte de Beaune. Its light grey-beige stone walls have a long central block with dormer windows and two taller projecting wings, one with a chimney. A second view shows a tall round tower with a conical roof flanked by shorter round towers and a long wing with shuttered windows.

Built around 1340 by Jean de Frolois, Marshal of the Duchy of Burgundy, for Duke Eudes IV, the castle was razed in 1478 on the orders of Louis XI as reprisal for its owner siding with Marie of Burgundy and Maximilian I. Only the machicolation corbels on two towers survived. The Bouhier family restored it in the early 17th century, and Bénigne Bouhier added the adjoining Petit Château after 1671.

The castle now contains unusual museum collections with race cars, fighter planes, motorcycles, tractors, and fire trucks displayed within its medieval walls. This vehicle collection creates an interesting contrast between the historic architecture and modern machinery.

The estate covers 20 hectares of Beaune vineyard, with the château and the adjoining Petit Château both listed since 1940. Collections are split between the two buildings and the park, so plan to move between them on foot. The château lies in Savigny-lès-Beaune, in the Côte-d'Or of Burgundy-Franche-Comté.

Michel Pont, a former Abarth rally driver who bought the castle in 1979, built the aircraft collection; in 2018 Guinness World Records certified it as the largest private collection of fighter aircraft. The planes stand outdoors in the park rather than in hangars, alongside some twenty fire engines kept under a marquee.