Villages de Caractère du Var > Visit

15th-century Castellet castle

Résumé: The 15th-century château, listed as an Inventaire supplémentaire des Monuments Historiques in 1939 (now home to the town hall). In 1212, the Beaux family took [...]
Description:

The 15th-century château, listed as an Inventaire supplémentaire des Monuments Historiques in 1939 (now home to the town hall).

In 1212, the Beaux family took over the seigneury of the X-century castle. At the same time, the property was made available to the Templars, who left their mark on the village: the austere architecture of the castle and church.

1789 The Revolution (May 5, 1789 - November 9, 1799) arrived and the village had to submit to new rules: bells were melted down to make cannons, the tree of liberty was planted on the Place de l'Ormeau, privileges were abolished, the seigneurial window in the church was blocked, coats of arms were destroyed and the widow Lombard, heiress to the seigneury, fled abroad. The château became national property and was sold in 4 parts to farmers: an oil mill, a school classroom and two dwellings.
In 1969, the château became the property of the commune.

Adresse:
Place du Champ de Bataille, 83330 Le Castellet, France

CASTLE OF ENTRECASTEAUX

Résumé: A private castle dating from the 11th and 17th centuries, with a French garden inspired by the designs of Le Nôtre. It is inhabited [...]
Description:

A private castle dating from the 11th and 17th centuries, with a French garden inspired by the designs of Le Nôtre. It is inhabited and richly furnished (paintings, tapestries, period documents).

The fortress is thought to have been built in the 11th century. Destroyed, it was rebuilt in the 13th century, but most of it dates from the 16th and 17th centuries.

In 1669, it passed to the de Castellane family, and in particular to François Adhémar de Castellane de Monteil, Comte de Grigan and son-in-law of Madame de Sévigné. In 1678, the barony of d'Entrecasteaux was made a marquisate by Louis XIV.

A year before his death, the marquis sold the Entrecasteaux fief to Raymond Bruny, Treasurer General of France. The château is enlarged. A bay in the eastern section was raised, all in the style and order of 17th-century construction. But the Marquis also left his mark on the château's architecture, adding French windows - an innovation for the time - and Louis XV-style wrought-iron balconies. Entrecasteaux now enjoyed the splendor of other châteaux of the period.

When the Marquis died, his eldest son, Marquis Jean-Baptiste Bruny, inherited the property. Bruny is infamous for having murdered his wife in 1784. He fled and ended his life locked up in Portuguese jails.

Antoine de Bruny, his brother, requested retirement from the navy for family reasons, and came to the rescue of the château and his nieces. However, he resumed his military activities and died in 1793 while on an expedition in search of La Pérouse. During the Revolution, Jean-Baptiste de Bruny's daughters, the only heirs, were deprived of their property. The population called for the château to be demolished, but it was saved thanks to the intervention of the village priest.

Despite this, the château remained in the Bruny family until 1949, when the commune bought it. It was then abandoned for several decades. The château was then bought by a British painter, Hugh Ian Macgarvie-Munn, who continued to restore it to its former glory until his death. Since 2000, it has been owned by Alain Gayral, who has worked tirelessly to restore and embellish the château.

Built on a rocky promontory, the château appears as a building of perfect dimensions, equal height and harmonious proportions.
Simply decorated with wrought-iron balustrades and crowned with a spandrel roof, it has both the appearance of a country house and the pride of a fortress.
The interiors are seductively luminous, thanks to the multiplication of openings to different points of the compass within the same volume. The southern facade, facing the village, overlooks a formal garden. Le Nôtre is said to have given the Marquise de Sévigné the plans and sketches of the Orangerie garden at Versailles, so that his son-in-law could reproduce them at Entrecasteaux. To the north, the château opens onto a vast terrace built over vaulted cellars, at the foot of which a recently restored icehouse evokes the art of living of the period. It was supplied by water frozen on the meadows bordering the Bresque river, and probably by snow or ice from the Bessillon massif.

Pets are accepted under certain conditions, to be agreed with the owner.

Chapel of the Pénitents

Résumé: In Tourrettes, on the small departmental road 219 that runs through the village, the Pénitents chapel, formerly known as Notre Dame de Cavaroux, with [...]
Description:

In Tourrettes, on the small departmental road 219 that runs through the village, the Pénitents chapel, formerly known as Notre Dame de Cavaroux, with its typically Provencal bell tower, was built by the monks of Lérins in the 14th century.
Currently closed.

Adjacent to the cemetery, it was originally the tomb of the Lords of Tourrettes.
In the 17th century, it became the chapel of the Confrérie des Pénitents Blancs.
The penitents were exclusively lay people, representing all social classes.
Their charitable work of public assistance and distress relief extended to the widest fields until the French Revolution.
Each penitent wore a robe called a "sac", usually attached to a hood, which enabled them to work anonymously.
The color designates a specific charitable action and a recognized religious patronage.

Adresse:
Route Départementale 219 Espace des Romarins 83440 Tourrettes, TOURRETTES

Chapelle Notre Dame des Roses, the oldest building in the village (10th century)

Résumé: Listed on December 28, 1984. Protected features: 17th-century chapel, bell tower and 12th-century nave. A very attractive building, with a particularly interesting bell tower featuring [...]
Description:

Listed on December 28, 1984. Protected features: 17th-century chapel, bell tower and 12th-century nave.
A very attractive building, with a particularly interesting bell tower featuring blind arcatures with colonnettes.

It is on this site that Sainte-Maxime is said to have founded its monastery around the 7th century. The Lérins archives contain a deed of gift of the Notre-Dame land to the Prior of Callian, dating from 1354, which mentions: "among other things, the ancient and cloistered monastery of Notre-Dame".

Adresse:
Callian, France, Callian

CHAPELLE SAINTE PÉTRONILLE

Résumé: 17th-century chapel. Sainte-Pétronille. A Roman martyr, she was mistakenly considered to be the favored daughter of Saint Peter, and was therefore behind France's adoption as [...]
Description:

17th-century chapel. Sainte-Pétronille.

A Roman martyr, she was mistakenly considered to be the favored daughter of Saint Peter, and was therefore behind France's adoption as the "Eldest Daughter of the Church" of the patronage of Sainte-Pétronille, whose cult died out at the end of the 17th century.

Adresse:
Chapelle Sainte-Pétronille, Bargème, France, Bargème

Church of Our Lady of the Annunciation

Résumé: Begun in 1594, the church was enlarged by the addition of a lower side in 1678. It incorporated the former church, dedicated to Saint [...]
Description:

Begun in 1594, the church was enlarged by the addition of a lower side in 1678. It incorporated the former church, dedicated to Saint Trophyme, mentioned in 1079 in a bull of Gregory VII.

The nave contains this sanctuary...

Begun in 1594, the church was enlarged by the addition of a lower side in 1678. It incorporated the former church, dedicated to Saint Trophyme, mentioned in 1079 in a bull of Gregory VII.

The nave contains this original sanctuary. It has a barrel vault resting on a small cornice, with double arches resting on slender columns adorned with capitals that reinforce the vault.

Shallow chapels have been built into the side walls, topped by a semicircular arch.

The small vessel ends in a five-sided apse covered by a ribbed vault whose ribs meet at the top.

The Beaux-Arts department has classified the altarpieces of the high altar, the altar of Notre-Dame du Mont-Carmel and the altar of Saint-Joseph, as well as a 16th-century holy-water stoup and the bas-relief of a 17th-century door. Also of note is a carved wooden Christ.