Château Laurens

In 1897, the young Emmanuel Laurens, a medical student, inherited an immense fortune. Back from a long journey through Russia, Uzbekistan and Austria, from 1898 he had a villa built on the banks of the Hérault in Agde, intended as a total work of art. Architecture, painted decoration, stained glass, furniture and ceramics combine Art Nouveau, the neo-Greek style, Egyptomania and Orientalism; the bathroom contains a remarkable pool-sized bathtub decorated with Sarreguemines tiles.

Sold in 1938, occupied during the war and then abandoned, the villa was bought in 1994 by the town of Agde, which has restored it and opened it to the public. It is discovered on a guided tour, amid its park, and is one of the most unusual testimonies to the Belle Époque in the south of France.

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