CastleUzès (30)

Price :

$936,700

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Surface609 m²bedrooms10 land853 m²

A listed Renaissance chateau surrounding a wooded courtyard in the heart of a market town to the north of Uzès. Standing in the north-western part of the village, the chateau backs onto the town hall and the medieval wall that is still in place. Dating back to 1567, the edifice overlooks a courtyard and features two wings at right angles, facing south and east. The facades and the roof have been listed as French historic monuments since 1990.
In the 20th century, the two Renaissance facades, then still in a state of disrepair, were extensively restored. They are adorned with decorative carvings whose scrolls contrast with the austerity of the remaining surrounding fortifications, including the base of a medieval keep dating back to the 12th century.
Between the 13th and 14th centuries, the La Fare family built a fortified house at the foot of the keep, which was transformed into a residential chateau in the 15th century. Burnt down during the Wars of Religion, which were particularly devastating in these Huguenot lands, the house was rebuilt in its current form “jusque a la mesme aulteur que cy devant estoyt” (to the same height as before).
At the time, the highly elaborate facades featured six cross windows framed by carvings in the form of Doric, Ionic and Corinthian pilasters. They have now been restored to their original noble appearance thanks to two restoration campaigns undertaken in the 20th century, which remain to be completed.
Once again destroyed by fire in the 18th century, the south wing remained in ruins until the 1950s, when the building envelope was completely rebuilt.
When the La Fare family decided to join the Court of Versailles a few years before the Revolution, the remaining part of the building passed into the hands of the neighbour, Scipio de Nicolaï, owner of the other chateau in the village. He precipitated the ruin of his new acquisition, not without a certain degree of gloating. It was the family of the current inhabitants who saved the La Fare chateau after acquiring it in 1919.
From then on, the chateau was put to all sorts of uses, in turn housing the village brass band, catechism classes and later a wigmaker, who kept powder and curling irons on the premises. As a result of these varied uses, the interior has been fashioned in a way that is quite surprising compared to the appearance of its facades, creating a cheerful structural disorder.