Château d’Alphéran: A Provençal Country Estate in France
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.6
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- France
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- French
- Site type
- Domestic
- Remains
- Elite Residence
On this page8 sections
History
Château d’Alphéran is a historic country estate in France, near Puyricard in the commune of Aix-en-Provence. Built from the early seventeenth century and completed in 1724, it began as a residential Provençal bastide, or rural country house, associated with the Forbin des Issarts family.
The Sainte-Croix estate
The property originated as the Sainte-Croix estate, linked to the Forbin des Issarts, lords of Sainte-Croix. Jean-Baptiste Renaud de Forbin, lord of Sainte-Croix, the Issarts, and the Angles, is identified as its first owner. He served as a black musketeer, a member of a royal musketeer company whose name referred to the color of its horses, and as an infantry captain. The property is also associated with Jean-Baptiste de Forbin as its initial owner.
On 19 September 1724, Claude Alphéran de Bussan purchased the Sainte-Croix bastide from Jean-Baptiste de Forbin. Claude had been ennobled by letters patent, formal legal documents granting status or privilege, in June 1724 for services during the great plague. He was an écuyer, a rank commonly translated as squire, and lord of Montmeillan. The purchase gave the estate the name associated with the Alphéran family.
Inheritance and marriage
After Claude Alphéran de Bussan, the property passed to his son, Melchior Boniface Louis Alphéran de Bussan, and then to his grandson, Paul François Alphéran de Bussan. In 1818, Paul François transferred the Sainte-Croix estate as the dowry of his daughter Marie-Alexandrine when she married Joseph Barthélémy de Ferry du Plantier. The estate subsequently passed to their daughter, Henriette Marie Louise de Ferry du Plantier.
Henriette married Marquis Charles Gratien de Monléon in 1847, bringing the château into their household. It later passed to their daughter Mathilde de Monléon, who married Raymond Adrien Henri de Galbert in 1874 and became Countess of Galbert. Mathilde regularly cared for and visited the château, seeking the quiet of the Provençal hinterland. She also gave land to Puyricard, including a parcel used for the village cemetery and another for a large square.
Mathilde’s elder daughter, Marie Paule de Galbert, married Henri Charlet at Château d’Alphéran near the end of the nineteenth century. Their daughter Simone Charlet was born in 1901. In 1921, Simone married Raymond de Roquefeuil-Montpeyroux, and the ceremony took place in the château’s orangery.
Earthquake and reconstruction
On 11 June 1909, an earthquake measuring magnitude 6.2 caused substantial damage to the château, although the building survived. Henri Charlet directed the reconstruction of the damaged buildings and used the work to alter and embellish the residence. The estate remains privately owned and extends across more than 30 hectares.
Remains
Château d’Alphéran stands in the countryside north of Puyricard, within Aix-en-Provence, at the foot of the Trévaresse range. The property consists of the château, associated buildings, and more than 30 hectares of grounds. Its original form as a seventeenth-century Provençal bastide was substantially changed by alterations made over the following centuries, producing an architectural character described as atypical for Provence.
Château and associated buildings
Main residence
The principal building developed from the early seventeenth-century residential bastide and was completed in 1724. Later changes reshaped its initial appearance. Reconstruction after the 1909 earthquake added a balcony and a central tower, while the east wing, formerly used as stables, was rehabilitated. These interventions form part of the château’s present architectural character.
Orangery
The orangery is an associated garden building traditionally intended to shelter citrus trees and other tender plants. At Château d’Alphéran it also served a ceremonial purpose, hosting the 1921 wedding ceremony of Simone Charlet and Raymond de Roquefeuil-Montpeyroux.
Nearby sites
