Château d'Assas (Hôtel de Faventines)

En un regard

Le château en bref

The Château d'Assas, formerly the Hôtel de Faventines, in Le Vigan (Gard), was built between 1750 and 1759 by Pierre de Faventines, a fermier général (tax farmer), for the marriage of his eldest son Jacques, a testament to the prosperity of Le Vigan in the eighteenth century. Laid out on a Parisian plan between courtyard and garden (16 toises of frontage by 10 in depth), its garden façade rises over four storeys owing to the slope of the ground; the interior retains stucco work, polychrome marble fireplaces, marquetry parquet floors and a wrought-iron staircase balustrade. Having become a prison and then a town hall after the Revolution, it was acquired in 1850 by the Assas-Faventines family, who gave it its present name, before passing in 1935 to the Diocese of Nîmes, its current owner. Listed as a monument historique since 9 April 2002, it may only be visited from the outside, a project to convert it into social housing being under consideration.