Château de Barjac

En un regard

Le château en bref

The Château de Barjac, or Château of the Counts of Roure (Gard), combines three building ensembles from different periods: a 10th-century seigneurial tower on the rocky spur of ‘Bargacum’, raised in 1649 to house the communal bell; the former ‘Castel Viel’ of the 12th century, a three-storey stronghold later used as the municipal prison; and the present logis, built between 1634 and 1639 by Jacques de Grimoard de Beauvoir du Roure and his son, a square four-storey building pierced by numerous mullioned windows that bathe the interior in an unusually bright light, and where the apartments of Cardinal de Richelieu were lodged. Owned by the Counts du Roure until the Revolution, then a Catholic school of the Diocese of Nîmes until 2001, it was bought back by the commune and, since 2008, has housed the municipal services as well as a cultural venue: exhibition rooms, drawing and painting workshops, dance and music spaces, a library, a cinema and a function hall in the former stables, kitchens and galleries, with summer festivals held in the inner courtyard.