THE CHÂTEAUX DE SADE
HISTORY
Legend or truth? It would be in 1325 that the ancestor of the marquis, Hugues de Sade, married Laure de Noves. She gave birth to eleven children and died in 1348.
The Sade Family provided the Provence with provosts and deputies. During the XIVth century, the Popes who sit in Avignon, will draw many colonels of cavalry, masters of galleys, town councillors and clergymen from this noble family.
Donatien de Sade (the Marquis de Sade) owes a lot to his father, Jean Baptiste, a soldier, diplomate, poet, philisopher, adventurer and libertine, who will somehow be the matrix of the future writer. His mother, on the other hand, is a close relative of the Bourbon-Condé. She was named lady-in-waiting of the Princess of Condé.
CHÂTEAU DE SADE AT LACOSTE
The castles was built in the XIth century. Lacoste's castle was the Simiane family's castle until the XVIIth. It is bequeathed in 1716 by Isabelle Simiane to his cousin Gaspard-François de Sade, Lord of Saumane and of Mazan, and also grandfather of The Divin Marquis.
Sade maintained an extraordinary attachment for Lacoste. In 1765, he arrived there with his mistress, Mademosielle Beauvoisin. Then, he returned there in 1766 to begin and to watch works of restoration and embellishment. He stayed there from 1769 to 1772. During this time, he built in the castle a theatre capable of holding 120 spectators. In the following years, he stayed on numerous occasions in his beloved dwelling.
Plundered and destroyed during the French Revolution, the Castle is sold to the Marquis of Rovère, delegate, this last one compromised himself in a royalist plot.
Maestro André, notary in Bonnieux for Mrs Marie de Belmont, widow of Rovère, tried to sell the castle by auction. The deal ends on June 29, in 1816: Maestro André drafted the bill of sale to Mr. Pierre Grégoire, carpenter and farmer. The Castle "in ruin... without doors, windows nor chains... is bought for twelve hundred francs".
It is only in 1952 that André BOUER became owner and began his restoration. The new owner, the fashion designer Pierre CARDIN, takes care of the castle and creates every year a Festival of music and theater in his quarries.
CHÂTEAU DE SADE AT SAUMANE
The XIIth century has seen the birth of Château of Saumane de Vaucluse which was transformed into a veritable bastion in the XVth century. This stunning building towers over the village, the Sorgues plain, Luberon and Alpilles in the distance. Its mazelike architecture was added to during various periods and secret corridors and dungeons were discovered which surely sparked the young Marquis de Sade’s imagination.
As the Château belonged to his father, Lord of Saumane and Mazan, the Marquis de Sade lived in this impressive edifice from the age of 5 to 10. The Château was given to the Sade Family by the Pope in 1450.
The Château has many fascinating parts : a dining room with a twin calotte-shaped vaulted ceiling whose acoustics are such that a person standing in one corner can hear what someone in the opposite corner is whispering. According to an agreement between Monsieur de Sade and his farmer, Mass on Saturdays and midnight Mass were taken in the untouched little Sainte Rose Chapel.
The château’s Orangerais is adorned with sculpted lion’s heads. The building is still stunning despite undergoing renovation on several occasions to suit the period and the lords’ wishes. It still has its medieval soul, Renaissance charm and 18th century imagination.
It is nowadays a museum about Marquis de Sade history, that can be visited.
CHÂTEAU DE SADE AT MAZAN
Nestled in the heart of Provence, in the Vaucluse, Mazan host another former castle of the Marquis de Sade. Built around 1720, the castle was the birthplace of the Father and the uncle of the Divin Marquis, the famous Abbé de Sade.
The Marquis, who spent most of his life in Paris stayed there many times and organized some memorable celebrations. After having built a theater in Mazan and arranged one second auditorium where he engaged new actors, stagehands and technicians. In 1772 he organized what was to be the first theater festival in France. The plays in which he took part were presented alternately at Mazan and Lacoste.
The castle remained the property of the Sade family until 1850. It was then residence of an individual and religious school before becoming a retirement home during the XXth centuries.
From now on, the castle hosts since 2003 a 4 star hotel with gourmet restaurant.
DOMAINES & CHÂTEAUX DE SADE IN RHÔNE VALLEY
CHÂTEAUX de SADE from XI century
Those two castles were built in the XI and XII century.
Lacoste's castle (XI century) was the Simiane family's castle until the XVIIth. It is bequeathed in 1716 by Isabelle Simiane to his cousin Gaspard-François de Sade, Lord of Saumane and of Mazan, and also grandfather of The Divin Marquis.
Sade maintained an extraordinary attachment for Lacoste. In 1765, he arrived there with his mistress, Mademosielle Beauvoisin. Then, he returned there in 1766 to begin and to watch works of restoration and embellishment. He stayed there from 1769 to 1772. During this time, he built in the castle a theatre capable of holding 120 spectators. In the following years, he stayed on numerous occasions in his beloved dwelling.
The XII century has seen the birth of Château of Saumane de Vaucluse which was transformed into a veritable bastion in the 15th century. This stunning building towers over the village, the Sorgues plain, Luberon and Alpilles in the distance. Its mazelike architecture was added to during various periods and secret corridors and dungeons were discov- ered which surely sparked the young Marquis de Sade’s imagination.
As the Château belonged to his father, Lord of Saumane and Mazan, the Marquis de Sade lived in this impressive edifice from the age of 5 to 10. The Château was given to the Sade Family by the Pope of Avignon in 1450.