Château de la Causéga

En un regard

Le château en bref

The Château de la Causéga stands in the commune of Fontan, in the Roya valley, at an altitude of about 400 metres. Built in the 19th century by Baron Schirrer, a wealthy German industrialist, it was originally intended to serve as the base for an industrial operation harnessing the water of the Causéga torrent. The baron's heirs later sold the property to an association from Menton, which set up a holiday camp there for underprivileged children. The estate was subsequently acquired by the town of Menton, which turned it into a holiday camp for the town's schoolchildren. During the Second World War, the château was occupied first by Italian and then by German troops, who were billeted there and held partisan prisoners on the premises. After the war, it resumed its role as a holiday camp, before housing for a time a museum devoted to beekeeping arts and traditions, in tribute to Philippe-Jean Baldensperger (1856-1948), regarded as a pioneer of modern beekeeping. Left abandoned for several years, the building has, since the early 2020s, been the subject of a restoration programme led by the Nice-based association « La Maison du Bonheur », with financial support from the Fondation des Hôpitaux, with a view to converting it into a respite home for sick or dependent people and their families.