XI. HISTORY

The Château de Tourreau is situated at about 2 km west of Sarrians. Coming from its neighbouring small town of Sarrians in the direction of Orange, one gets there by a small road, which turns left off the Route Nationale Carpentras-Orange, which road then leads to the river Ouveze, 1km along which Tourreau is situated.

It was in 1612 that Paul Tourreau (a bourgeois from Avignon, who was to be knighted later) bought, through Jean de Guerin, a plot of land situated at Sarrians in a district called Rioubert well known for its waters and cool leafy trees.

He first built a house and then built a chapel dedicated to Our Lady. Nothing is known about the house, but the Chapel, which still exists today, is believed to have been built before 1651, because a letter was found from Paul Tourreau dated the 15th June, 1651 asking a certain Mr. M. Bastide, sculptor in Avignon, to carry out some improvement work inside the Chapel. He also created a park to the south of the house and surrounded the park by a large rectangular moat.

The first house built by Paul Tourreau was probably not large and most likely there was not any wing joining it to the Chapel. However, in 1748 one of his descendants, Francois Benezet, who had just inherited a large sum of money (about which he had a dispute for ages with one of his relations, a Mr. des Isnards), decided to demolish all the old buildings (excluding the Chapel) and to replace them by a building for which he asked the well known architect, Mr. Le Brun, to prepare the plans.

A deed, which was prepared by Jean-Francois Montillery, public, apostolic and royal notary, secretary to the Order of Saint Jean de Jerusalem, and which deed was recently discovered in the Vaucluse archives, included some notes describing the works ordered by Mr. de Tourreau on the 3rd April, 1748. The notes state that the works were to be executed by three master stone masons Messrs. Chambon, Chabrier and Blanchard and requesting that the building was to be built in stone from Villeneuve-les-Avignon, except for the foundations and the staircase steps for which stone from Caromb and Barbentane had to be used respectively. In the notes it states: "the owner of Tourreau will have the site visited as often as he judges necessary by the gentleman Brun, architect, to make sure it conforms in every way with the said architect's instructions, and the drawings, and to make sure the building is secure. The said builders will have to demolish and rebuild the existing buildings following the said architect's instructions". Further on the notes state that: "the stone masons and contractors promise to make and perfect duly and according to the drawings and the dimensions without deviating in any way from the said plans".

This suggests that nothing was left to chance and that the contractors were required to follow the plans by Le Brun with the utmost faithfulness. Therefore, it is reasonable to presume that the execution of the building works conformed faithfully with the plans. This thus minimises the unfortunate loss of Le Brun's plans and drawings, which were originally appended to two sheets to the notary's deed, which was signed by all the parties concerned and which sheets have since disappeared.

As the notes further stated that the demolition and construction work should start very shortly and that, without including the unskilled workers, four skilled workers should be employed every day, it is reasonable to presume that the building was finished sometime between 1760 and 1770.

Because the idea for re-building the Château was conceived in the second half of the 17th Century, at that time such a house would be described as either a country seat or a folly. Examples of such houses, in the region, which were built at around the same time can be seen at Saint Remy de Provence; Château Lagoy, near Arles; Château La Jansonne, and at Sorges; Château Guerre.

It is known that the rebuilding of the Château is due to Francois Benezet de Tourreau receiving an inheritance in 1748. Prior to this time he did not have sufficient resources to enable him to rebuild the Château. However, as can be seen from existing documents, he had already dreamed of restoring the old Chapel. In his will, which he altered in April 1746, he had added the following clause: "If at the time of my death I have not yet made the restoration, decoration and other embellishment to the aforesaid Chapel, dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, which is in the enclosure of the said Château, I want and order that the sum of Livres 600 to be used for the said restorations and other things, be given to my heir so named below to carry out my wishes".

Unfortunately, Francois Benezet de Tourreau died 10 years later, apparently without having time to restore the Chapel but he did start the restoration of the Château itself. His heir, Claude Joseph de Tourreau, Musketeer in the King's First Regiment, completed his father's wishes by finishing the restoration of the Chapel and the Château but only many years later, due to his frequent absences from the estate, which explains the date of 1779 over the entrance of the Chapel.

Then came the French Revolution. In 1791, when the people of Avignon came to lay siege to Carpentras, which had remained faithful to the Pope, they came across a small troop of loyalist soldiers near Sarrians on the 19th of April. According to abbot Bruyere, author of the historical research on Sarrians (cf. Avignon, Seguin, 1869), Monsieur de Tourreau, Captain of Dragons in the service of the King of France, without any thought attacked the Avignon army. He was made prisoner, and the Avignon army then ransacked and set fire to the Château and also looted the neighbouring houses. Additionally, it is said that the elderly Madame de Tourreau and her servants were massacred. However, the fire doesn't seem to have caused too much damage to the Château and its dependencies (the Tourreau estate), for its owner, once released, soon settled back there.

Unfortunately, there is no information available on Tourreau during the "Empire", the "Restoration" and the "July Monarchy" periods. Members of the de Tourreau family continued to reside at Tourreau, with one de Tourreau being mayor of Sarrians from 1808 to 1821, except for the "Hundred Days" interruption. On April 5, 1852 Frederic-Marius de Tourreau, who was both the last son of the de Tourreau of the revolution and a bachelor, sold his property to Mr. Petrus Fraysse of Avignon, who was married to Miss Emilie Fortunet. The deed was prepared by Maitre Aviel, a notary in Sarrians. The de Tourreau family itself died out in 1868.

The new owners of the Tourreau estate, Mr. and Mrs. Fraysse did a large amount of work inside the Château, as well as outside. Some of the work was no doubt very necessary, because it is most likely that when Mr. de Tourreau sold it, he left it in a poor state of repair. Unfortunately, the new owners did not stop at repairing and restoring the Château. They wanted to embellish it following the taste of that period and because they probably found the buildings too simple and too classical.

They added onto the east side of the Château a two storied wing with a brick tower at the east end, the whole architectural aspect of which was most unfortunate. Then they called upon an artist from Avignon, Etienne-Napoleon Cournaud, who wasn't without talent, and asked him to resculpt a large number of the sculpted figures on the two facades (north and south). They also asked him to add some more, among them probably the ones which were framing the door on the northern facade. The Chapel facade and interior also no doubt seemed too austere and too bare to its new owners, as they adorned the top of the door with two prostate angels. They also had the painting inside the chapel redone. Once again to quote the Abbot Bruyere, he stated that "a beautiful late XVII or early XVIII stone altar was placed at the heart of the apse".

The gardens suffered the same fate, as they were redesigned following new plans inspired from the then "English" style. As for the interior of the Château, which was most likely ornamented with "gypseries" (decorations and cornices in plaster), these were replaced by different decorative plaster work in keeping with the fashion and taste of the second Empire period. Additionally, the floors of both the entrance hall and the dining room, were covered with multicolored mosaics, replacing the traditional stone and marble floors.

At the death of Madame Maurice Fraysse, daughter-in-law of the original Mr. Fraysse, the land and house were sold by tender (auctioned) in Carpentras on the 15th June, 1941 to Mr. Gabriel Meffre from Gigondas. A short time after that, the German army occupied Tourreau and used it as their regional Headquarters. When they left, the Tourreau estate, part- icularly the Château and its park were in a bad state.

During the 15 years which followed the liberation of France after World War II, Tourreau remained empty and nobody lived in it. Ambassador Claude de Boisanger then bought the estate from Mr. Meffre. Having sold off most of the estate to leave himself with only some 16 acres of land around the Château, Ambassador de Boisanger, with the help of Mr. Jean Moguett, architect from Avignon, did their best to return Château de Tourreau and its surrounding parks to its original XVIII century state. For example, he had the interior of the Chapel redecorated, and he had the late additions, such as the brick tower at the end of the east wing and the Cournaud sculptures, removed. He also cleared the south park, in the middle of which he installed a large octagonal pond framed in stone. However, most of the work he did was superficial and restricted to the south park, the north and south facades and part of the ground floor of the Château, without restoring the fabric of the Château or its dependencies.

In 1963, the entrance drive and its trees, the roof, the two facades, and the Chapel of Château de Tourreau were listed (inscribed) in the French Government's Inventaire Supplementaire des Monuments Historiques.

When President Mitterand came to power in France in the early 1980's, Ambassador de Boisanger, being concerned about the implications of maintaining a large house and estate under the new socialist government, sold the Château to a Mr. Obae (a French banker in Paris) in late 1980.

Mr. Obae, in turn, became concerned about the new wealth tax subsequently introduced by the Mitterand government and, as a result, sold the Château to a Mr. Giorgi in 1982.

Mr. Giorgi, who attempted some modest restoration work, finally ended up effectively camping in the Château, because he did not have the resources to restore it properly.

The present Owners bought the Château from Mr. Giorgi in September, 1984. They then spent six years in restoring the Château to its original XVIII century state by using either XVIII century building materials, flooring and wood paneling or perfect reproductions where XVIII century materials were unavailable. In addition, before undertaking the restoration work, the entire Château was reduced to its bare stone work and then totally rebuilt, incorporating the latest technology in telecommunications, plumbing, wiring and central heating/cooling. At the same time, the Estate's parks, communicating streams, moat and gardens were all restored and replanted to produce a harmonious whole. Subsequently, in February, 2000, the Owners invited a close friend; David Heller, to become a partner and together they fully restored the adjacent Farm building to provide further bedrooms, an extra dining room and kitchen, and a fully equipped Conference and Business Centre. All the Estate's basic infrastructure was completely re-done to ensure the best possible services, with appropriate back-up systems. Further sports facilities were also added.