In 1530, Jacques Groslot built the Château de l’Isle on the now vanished Île aux Bourdons, situated within the enclave of the parish of Chécy. In 1535, King Francis I of France authorised Groslot to construct a drawbridge.
This residence, listed as a historic monument, served as a country house, a refuge, and a place of Huguenot preaching for the Groslot family. Built during the same period as the Hôtel Groslot in Orléans, it became one of the principal sites of Protestant memory in the region during the Wars of Religion, before being destroyed by a flood of the Loire in 1866.
His son, Jérôme Groslot, Bailiff of Orléans, took part in the struggles for the triumph of the Reformation by opening his château to his fellow Protestants. In 1570, condemned for treason, Jérôme Groslot nevertheless received authorisation from Charles IX to hold Protestant sermons within the Château de l’Isle. He perished in Paris during the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre in 1572.
The Château de l’Isle was also the scene of the massacre of Huguenots from Orléans.
