An enchanting 400m² apartment with a garden, court and patio in a 16th-century
town mansion listed as a historical monument in southern France's Camargue region
town mansion listed as a historical monument in southern France's Camargue region
Tarascon,
BOUCHES-DU-RHONE
provence-cote-dazur
13150
FR
Location
The old town of Tarascon is a gateway to the beautiful Camargue region of southern France. It lies close to the city of Arles. It is a vibrant town that is evolving. Tarascon is known for its wealth of built heritage, which includes its towering royal chateau dating back to the Middle Ages and its royal collegiate church: the Collégiale Sainte-Marthe. This charming Provençal town is also famous for its rich private heritage, which delights lovers of historical architecture.
The town offers two lower secondary schools, including a private one, an upper secondary school, a hospital and a range of shops. From its train station, you can reach all the surrounding towns by rail.
It is also 10 minutes from Arles train station. From there, you can get to Paris by high-speed rail. It is 15 minutes from the high-speed train stations of Avignon and Nîmes and only 40 minutes from Marseille and its international airport.
Description
The majestic fortified mansion was listed as a historical monument in 1943 in the middle of the Second World War. It has a ground floor, a first floor and a second floor. It was built in around 1530 during the first French Renaissance and it bears the main traits of this period.
The edifice stands where several paths of history meet. This crossroads is both literal and figurative.
It lies just south of the town’s royal collegiate church and the fortified chateau of René of Anjou. The house was the jewel in the crown of the medieval town’s aristocratic district, which showcased sumptuous princely homes up to the Second World War when the Allied bombings, carried out to liberate France, razed these gems to the ground.
Among the ruins, this mansion was the only survivor from the district’s past splendour. In the 1950s, the charming home had to start sharing the company of soulless concrete blocks of accommodation born of the frenzied drive to rebuild liberated France and urgently rehouse its people based on a post-war Corbusian model of architecture.
So the edifice is now at a junction between two worlds, where the Middle Ages and contemporary design collide, between two pivotal chapters in France’s long story. The building illustrates this poignantly: it seems to be turning its back on the royal chateau to face the modern housing nearby.
It is guarded by tall walls that it inherited from its initial propose as a fortified house. These walls separated it from the nearby royal chateau and protected it from any devastating flooding from the River Rhône. Its old facade looks south at a range of 1950s brutalist buildings. To tone down this sharp contrast between historical architecture and modern structures, the local authorities added vegetation to the large paved square in front of the mansion, planting a cypress and olive trees here. Before then, this square was in a state of decline. Now it is a no-parking area. From this pleasant square, the property’s large entrance gate leads into the main courtyard of this Italian-style palace.
The edifice stands where several paths of history meet. This crossroads is both literal and figurative.
It lies just south of the town’s royal collegiate church and the fortified chateau of René of Anjou. The house was the jewel in the crown of the medieval town’s aristocratic district, which showcased sumptuous princely homes up to the Second World War when the Allied bombings, carried out to liberate France, razed these gems to the ground.
Among the ruins, this mansion was the only survivor from the district’s past splendour. In the 1950s, the charming home had to start sharing the company of soulless concrete blocks of accommodation born of the frenzied drive to rebuild liberated France and urgently rehouse its people based on a post-war Corbusian model of architecture.
So the edifice is now at a junction between two worlds, where the Middle Ages and contemporary design collide, between two pivotal chapters in France’s long story. The building illustrates this poignantly: it seems to be turning its back on the royal chateau to face the modern housing nearby.
It is guarded by tall walls that it inherited from its initial propose as a fortified house. These walls separated it from the nearby royal chateau and protected it from any devastating flooding from the River Rhône. Its old facade looks south at a range of 1950s brutalist buildings. To tone down this sharp contrast between historical architecture and modern structures, the local authorities added vegetation to the large paved square in front of the mansion, planting a cypress and olive trees here. Before then, this square was in a state of decline. Now it is a no-parking area. From this pleasant square, the property’s large entrance gate leads into the main courtyard of this Italian-style palace.
The town mansion
The mansion, which bears the names of its successive past owners, was rescued from ruin in 2010. It was restored extensively as part of a large-scale project to bring back its former splendour. The edifice owes its architectural and decorative wealth to François de Clémens, who remodelled the place in the 17th century, based on a fortified house that already existed here.
Yet the Renaissance facade has kept some Louis XII style features, as has the interior with its groined vaults and monumental fireplaces.
In the main courtyard, stone-mullioned windows framed between pilasters are embellished with motifs that represent the four seasons.
The town mansion is proud to have accommodated Cardinal Richelieu back in the 17th century – he came here to watch the Château de Beaucaire be demolished.
The apartment
The apartment faces south-southeast. It takes up the entire ground floor of the town mansion. Two courtyards and a garden divide the dwelling into different spaces for everyday life at the same level. All the rooms lead outside. Groined vaults extend above a vast lounge, a billiard room with a fireplace, an open-plan kitchen, a dining room and a library.
Generously sized corridors connect to three bedrooms. There is a master bedroom, which takes up a former courtyard, the old eaves of which the bedroom has preserved. There is a second bedroom in a small two-floor apartment with well-designed passages that almost make it a self-contained unit. And lastly, there is a spare bedroom. A television room completes the apartment on its north-west side.
Large limestone tiles adorn the floors. The surprising spaciousness of the passages that lead around the place reinforce this dwelling’s palatial splendour.
The studio apartment
The studio apartment offers a floor area of around 40m². It has a mezzanine and a bathroom and fitted kitchen with tiled flooring. Like the main apartment, it lies on the ground floor of the town mansion. This studio apartment is a self-contained unit of accommodation that is separate from the main apartment. You reach it via the broad covered corridor that connects to the edifice’s baluster staircase and upper floors. It looks east with windows that face the main courtyard. It has been restored with the same desire to stay faithful to the French Renaissance style that we find throughout the edifice.
The studio apartment could be rented out as holiday accommodation. It would delight any discerning traveller looking for a rare gem like this.
The outdoor spaces
The three outdoor areas are all enclosed spaces, but they have different traits.
The main courtyard is majestic and rich in ornamentation. It offers an area of around 90m², dotted with old Anduze vases in which elegant palm trees grow. Every aspect of architectural articulation here is a work of fine art, for example the mascarons that adorn the pilasters and represent the four seasons.
The inner patio is characterised by straight lines, yet it pays a sculptural tribute to Michelangelo’s ‘Moses’ in the shadow of the collegiate church’s slender steeple. This delightful patio offers an area of around 60m² and separates the kitchen from the office.
Lastly, there is the oriental exuberance of the large garden, which offers a splendid area of more than 280m². The lounge leads out into this vast outdoor space via a colonnade, taking you to an abundance of lush plants of different species, including jasmine, rosemary, sage, honeysuckle and wisteria.
Our opinion
This rare gem will delight lovers of history and built heritage. The apartment has been restored to offer exquisite comfort. It is nestled on the ground floor of its sumptuous edifice, taking up the whole of this level yet avoiding any monotony with its secret outdoor havens: a courtyard, a patio and a garden. Like in all Mediterranean palaces, these oases of calm with their palms and orange trees blend seamlessly into the beautiful interior. The generous sizes of the rooms and reception areas reinforce the palatial splendour of this unique dwelling and make it possible to give some spaces new purposes. The extra self-contained studio apartment looks out at the front courtyard and completes the overall sense of ease and freedom here. When you step through the gate into this enchanting place, you are still in the south of France but you feel as if you have been whisked to Italy.
Reference 490318
| Land registry surface area | 1183 m2 |
| Main building surface area | 400 m2 |
| Number of bedrooms | 3 |
| Outbuilding surface area | 40 m2 |
| including refurbished area | 440 m2 |
| Number of lots | 32 |
Une ou plusieurs procédure(s) en cours menée(s) sur le fondement des articles 29-1 A et 29-1 de la loi n°65-557 du 10 juillet 1965 et de l’article L.615-6 du CCH
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NB: The above information is not only the result of our visit to the property; it is also based on information provided by the current owner. It is by no means comprehensive or strictly accurate especially where surface areas and construction dates are concerned. We cannot, therefore, be held liable for any misrepresentation.
