Domaine de la Cavalière sis Quartier La Fourragère
MonumentHidden Treasure
Domaine de la Cavalière sis Quartier La Fourragère, located in Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône), is a Renaissance château built in the 16th century. The monument is currently closed to visitors.
Key facts
- Type
- autre
- Period
- Renaissance (16th century)
- Location
- Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 43.3022, 5.4364
- Mérimée Reference
- PA13000051
On the outskirts of Marseille, the Domaine de la Cavalière offers an exceptional setting of bourgeois elegance: Provençal country houses, an English-style park and the only surviving example of Délicourt panoramic wallpaper in France.
History
Nestling in the La Fourragère district to the east of Marseille, the Domaine de la Cavalière is one of the best-preserved private estates in the city. This vast estate combines two bastides of distinct character, a working farmhouse, outbuildings, a chapel and an English-style park of rare coherence, all listed as Historic Monuments in 2006. Far from the urban frenzy that now surrounds its walls, the estate retains the atmosphere of a world apart, that of Marseille's 19th-century industrial upper middle class. What sets Cavalière apart from its Provençal counterparts is the maniacal precision with which Frédéric Fournier, the man who commissioned it, fashioned every corner of the estate in his own image. With his passion for exotic horticulture, he had no fewer than eight specialised orchid greenhouses built, as well as an orangery and a conservatory - an arrangement that would do credit to a public botanical establishment. The water system that irrigates the entire estate, a clever interweaving of open-air canals and underground pipes fed by three ponds, bears witness to a technical mastery that is extremely rare on a private estate. The avenues that criss-cross the English-style park offer a stroll through a world of refined rockeries: green rooms, sculpted borders, flower beds, stone benches, belvederes and garden fabriques follow one another with a consummate sense of picturesque staging. Each vantage point seems to have been carefully calculated to provide a surprise or reveal an unexpected perspective, in the purest tradition of the romantic gardens of the Second Empire. The interior of the 19th-century bastide is home to a little-known treasure: a panoramic wallpaper by Délicourt depicting large-scale hunting scenes. Rare to the point of being considered a heritage document of the first order, this wall decoration testifies to the enlightened taste of a bourgeoisie capable of competing, in the intimacy of its homes, with the great aristocratic residences. For lovers of 19th-century interior design and decorative arts, this alone is worth a visit.
Architecture
The Domaine de la Cavalière is an eloquent illustration of the architectural duality typical of the great estates of Marseille: the 18th-century bastide, sober and massive in the Provencal tradition, with its simple volumes, rendered facades and low-pitched roofs covered with canal tiles, contrasts with the 19th-century bastide, more ornate and representative of the bourgeois taste of the Second Empire, eager to display its modernity in the treatment of openings, mouldings and interior decor. The buildings - bastides, farmhouse, chapel, outbuildings, glasshouses and orangery - are set around English-style parkland criss-crossed by carefully laid-out paths. The garden fabriques and rockeries that dot this picturesque landscape bear witness to a distinctly Romantic taste: sculpted benches, belvederes offering unobstructed views and green rooms bordered by rockeries are all characteristic features of the landscape garden of the second half of the 19th century. The hydraulic system, the technical backbone of the estate, is in itself a feat of domestic engineering. Inside, the absolute jewel is the panoramic wallpaper from the Délicourt manufacture, adorning the walls of a 19th-century living room in the bastide. These panoramic papers, produced in Paris in the 19th century, depicted hunting scenes, exotic landscapes or great historical moments on rolls several metres wide. Rare in private homes, and even rarer in this state of preservation, the Cavalière's panoramic paper is a heritage and artistic document of exceptional value.
Related Figures
Frédéric Fournier — commanditaire du domaine en 1883, passionné d'orchidées, membre d'une grande famille bourgeoise marseillaiseLa famille Fournier — industriels marseillais enrichis par la fabrication de bougies et de savons au XIXe siècleManufacture Délicourt — éditeur parisien du rare papier peint panoramique conservé dans la bastide du XIXe siècle
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Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Domaine de la Cavalière sis Quartier La Fourragère located?
Domaine de la Cavalière sis Quartier La Fourragère is located in Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône department, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, France.
When was Domaine de la Cavalière sis Quartier La Fourragère built?
Domaine de la Cavalière sis Quartier La Fourragère dates back to a period built during the Renaissance (16th century).
Is Domaine de la Cavalière sis Quartier La Fourragère open to visitors?
Domaine de la Cavalière sis Quartier La Fourragère is currently closed to visitors.