The name of the Murol fortress first appears in the 13th century. At the time, there were three fortified houses in Saint Amant-la-Cheyre, ("cheyre" meaning lava flow). The fortress at Murol was also called "la forteresse de l'église" (the church fortress), because it housed the village church within its walls - and did so until 1850.

The first occupants were the Lords of Murol, who also owned the large Château de Murol in Le Chambon.

The de Murol family died out around 1490, with buyouts, marriages, wars and inheritances passing the stronghold from the Murol family to the Bouchard, La Tour d'Auvergne, Cousin, Damas d'Aubière, Canillac and La Tour Fondue families...

 

 

In November 1586, Queen Margot spent several days here on her way to exile at the Château d'Usson near Issoire.

 

In 1865, Anatole de la Tour Fondue inherited the Murol stronghold and transformed it into a neo-Gothic château. Under the supervision of architect Bruyerre, a pupil of Viollet-Le-Duc, he undertook a gigantic project that would last over thirty years: heightening by one storey, enlarging the main building, building towers, roofs, galleries, walkways, balustrades, moats, watchtowers, sentry boxes and an underground passageway, opening doors, windows and loopholes, repairing the floors, privatizing the Romanesque church, preserving the choir and crypt and supporting it with powerful buttresses, with the idea of creating a keep. . Anatole left his fortune behind.

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It was in a state of unfinished restoration that the Giscard d'Estaing family bought the château from their cousins La Tour Fondue in 1921, and it remains the property to this day.