Château de Pontevès

In the Middle Ages Pontevès, in the Var, was the seat of a powerful seigneury on which the nearby town of Barjols depended. Recorded as a castellum as early as 1021, the castle stands on a rocky hill above the plain. At the end of the 12th century the village around it built a wall that doubled that of the fortress. From the 15th century, however, the Pontevès family lived in their Barjols mansion, and they sold the castle in 1650.

Its new owner, Maurel, an Aix financier nicknamed 'the Croesus of Provence', had it completely rearranged: it then had three wings flanked by four towers, entered from the village by a gate that still exists, and some fifty rooms, including 14 bedrooms, 4 cellars, a chapel and a gallery. During the 18th century the castle was gradually abandoned. The site and the ruins have belonged to the Sabran-Pontevès family since 1862.

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