Euroguides - essential for visitors and travellers to Europe - France - Provence - Vaucluse

Le Beaucet is a commune in the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France. The village is located southeast of Carpentras, at the western end of the Monts de Vaucluse.
It was no doubt seeing this promontory, naturally erected as an almost impregnable stronghold, that the Counts of Toulouse had the idea of building a fortress here in the 12th century.
This "fortified work", which exists from 1160 under the name of "castrum de Balcio", was erected on a strategic site, in outpost of the Monts de Vaucluse which marked the border between the County of Forcalquier and the Marquisate of Provence. The castle served as a barracks for a garrison of soldiers, often Italian mercenaries, who lived there sparsely watching the surroundings.
Then ceded by the Count of Toulouse to the bishops of Carpentras, it kept this military vocation until the beginning of the 17th century. It then has four crenellated towers, dwellings, a guard room and a prison. This enabled it to resist in particular the attacks of the reformed troops, which in 1573 devastated the chapel of Saint-Etienne, located outside the walls.
Very degraded despite everything at the end of the wars of religion, the castle was the subject of various restorations. It was certainly enlarged or restored by Geoffroy III de Vaisols, bishop of Carpentras, then by his successors during the 16th century. An inventory of 1599 indicates that it has about fifteen rooms.
Deeming its upkeep too expensive, especially since the papal garrisons had not stayed there for 60 years and its location was no longer of strategic interest, Cardinal Marcel de Duras sold the castle in 1690 to François de Gualtéri, a noble the pontifical administration of Avignon; he added the name of the village to his surname and made the building his residence. The castle then loses its status as a defensive site.
In 1783, lightning struck the castle. Fanned by a strong wind, a fire breaks out and totally destroys the castle. Everything is burning. Only ruins remain, still visible today: some ramparts and sections of walls, traces of the drawbridge and the moat as well as a staircase, suspended on an arch and carved into the rock, to reach the village.
Abandoned, the castle passed through the hands of several private owners until its acquisition by the Commune of Beaucet in 1994. The idea of Roger Bouvier, then mayor, was that the castle revive as a place belonging to the Beaucétains .
Hence the double impetus given to the restoration: on the one hand to protect the site from degradation, while leaving it its romantic aspect of ruins; on the other hand, renovating and enlarging the existing building using sustainable energy techniques (photovoltaic glass roof covering electrical needs, green roof, heat pump heating, etc.)
Since 2014, the castle has regained its full place in the lives of Beaucétains. In addition to the esplanade, they have many rooms there for association meetings, conferences, exhibitions, concerts, etc.