Château de la Calade
CastleHidden Treasure
Joyau maniériste du XVIIe siècle niché aux portes d'Aix-en-Provence, la Calade abrite le tout premier papier peint panoramique attesté de France, les fascinants « Jardins de Bagatelle ».
History
Hidden away in the Aix countryside, Château de la Calade is one of those Provençal bastions that you discover with the feeling that you've discovered a well-kept secret. Built in the second quarter of the 17th century for a councillor of the Provence Court of Audit, the building's deliberately backward-looking appearance is pleasantly disconcerting: where you'd expect the Louis XIII style, it's the spirit of the previous century that reigns, treated with the mannerist subtlety of the region's grand residences. The interior is the true theatre of this Provençal art of living. The stairwell is decorated with exceptional gypsum work - staff worked with the precision of a goldsmith - which continues into the reception rooms. The elaborate stucco motifs interact with the door surrounds and cornices, revealing the cultural ambitions of their patron, who was clearly familiar with the private mansions for which Aix-en-Provence was famous at the time. At the turn of the 19th century, a new occupant enriched the residence with an absolute curiosity: the salon on the first floor received the panoramic "Les Jardins de Bagatelle", a wallpaper produced between 1800 and 1804 by the Mâcon manufacturer Dufour. Specialists agree that this is the first documented example of panoramic wallpaper in France, a first that gives the château a special place in the history of the decorative arts. The large bedroom on the first floor offers a more intimate counterpoint with its striking trompe-l'œil of draperies, whose virtuosity invites us to reach out for folds of fabric that do not exist. Taken together, these superimposed decors - Mannerist, Empire, illusionist - make La Calade a veritable architectural cabinet of curiosities, where each room tells the story of a different period and a different sensibility. The château was listed as a historic monument in 2011, a belated but well-deserved accolade for a place that bears rare witness to the history of French decorative arts. Its Provençal bastide setting, bathed in the characteristic light of the Pays d'Aix, makes for a truly unique experience, far from the beaten tourist track.
Architecture
Château de la Calade is in the tradition of Provençal bastions and bastides, the country residences between manor house and castle that the aristocracy and parliamentary bourgeoisie of Aix-en-Provence were so fond of on the outskirts of Aix-en-Provence. Its exterior massing - sober and squat, with its elevations punctuated by mullioned or transomed windows - displays a marked attachment to sixteenth-century forms, giving the ensemble a slightly archaic silhouette that is nonetheless aesthetically coherent. This assertive conservatism is part of what historians of regional architecture refer to as "late Provençal mannerism", a trend that extended the influence of the Italian Renaissance in the south of France well beyond its national vogue. The interior reveals the true ambition of the client. The stairwell is the showpiece of the building: its walls are entirely covered in gypsum - moulded and sculpted stucco - whose plant motifs, grotesques and cartouches testify to a fine knowledge of the Mannerist repertoire. This plastic decoration extends into the ceremonial rooms, creating an ornamental unity that is rare for a building of this scale in a rural setting. The salon on the first floor is home to the panoramic "Jardins de Bagatelle" (Manufacture Dufour, 1800-1804), while the adjoining master bedroom features an ambitious trompe-l'œil of draperies, an illusionist technique that underlines the sophistication of the successive owners. The superimposition of these different decorative layers - from the 17th to the early 19th century - makes the interior of La Calade an exceptional document of the evolution of taste in Provence.
Related Figures
Jérôme Duranti — conseiller à la cour des comptes, aides et finances de Provence, commanditaire et maître d'ouvrage du château (1632-1653)Pierre-Antoine Mougin — peintre auteur du dessin original du panoramique « Les Jardins de Bagatelle »Philibert-Louis Debucourt — graveur et peintre dont le recueil « Modes et manières du jour » inspira directement la composition de MouginJoseph Dufour — fondateur de la manufacture mâconnaise Dufour, productrice du premier papier peint panoramique attesté de France (vers 1800-1804)
