Château de Montfort-sur-Argens

This château, whose façade is on the Supplementary Inventory of Historic Monuments, is the only one the Templars owned in Provence. Alfonso II, Count of Provence, gave it to them in 1207 together with many surrounding lands. After the Order's disappearance, this château became the property of the Hospitallers of Saint John then in the sixteenth century of the Order of Malta. It was turned into a prison during the Revolution, which let it escape destruction.

It is a massive construction, framed by 2 square towers with powerful buttresses and pierced with cross-windows in the sixteenth century. You can still glimpse inside, above the main door, the Maltese cross; a fine spiral staircase serves the floors. In one tower, arrow slits dating from the thirteenth century are still visible. The Commander's drawing room, reorganised and given a fireplace in the eighteenth century, has kept its French-style ceiling.

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