A Provençal Château With Picasso Frescos Near Uzès, France

When Pablo Picasso visited Château de Castille in 1962, he exclaimed: “Give me a wall!”

This unique château in Argilliers, near Uzès, has origins reaching back to the medieval period, with elements of the site associated with a 13th-century fortress foundation. Its current architectural identity, however, is largely owed to Gabriel-Joseph de Froment, Baron de Castille, who transformed the estate in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

Born in Uzès in 1747, the Baron inherited the property in 1773 and began reshaping it after travels through Italy and England. “In Italy I fell in love with columns,” he wrote after his return. “I fell in love with them so much that in the gardens and courtyard of my own house, I’ve just built four different kinds of temples.” His fixation was so pronounced that friends reportedly teased him for it, and the estate became known as “the château with a thousand columns.”

Beginning around 1788, the Baron began transforming the former Manoir d’Argilliers into Château de Castille, drawing from the classical architecture he had encountered abroad. At the entrance, two symmetrical pavilions were wrapped in antique-style colonnades, setting the tone for an estate defined by columns, follies and theatrical perspective. His additions also included an elliptical colonnade inspired by Bernini, a replica of the round temple at Tivoli, and architectural references to Hadrian’s Villa, Paestum and Pompeii.

Behind the château, moss-covered allées lead into another layer of the estate’s mythology. Beginning in 1788, the Baron de Castille transformed the grounds into a parc à fabriques, a highly personal landscape of radiating avenues, columns, temples, cenotaphs and ornamental structures inspired by the antique ruins and garden traditions he encountered in Italy and England. The Committee of Parks and Gardens of France notes that the Baron spent the last 38 years of his life structuring and embellishing the park, arranging seven avenues to radiate from the château and placing small monuments in perspective to decorate views, commemorate family events, celebrate victories or invite meditation.

Between 1789 and 1826, he created 25 architectural fabriques, associating each edifice with a person he loved or admired and turning the park into a kind of landscape autobiography. One honoured his first wife, Épiphanie Dulong; another commemorated his son Édouard, killed at Essling; another was tied to his second wife, Princess Herminie de Rohan; and a later pyramidal cenotaph was dedicated to Louise de Stolberg-Gedern, Comtesse d’Albany, an admired friend and correspondent. Many of these structures have since vanished, been sold or fallen into ruin, but the moss-covered paths still preserve the park’s quiet, almost dreamlike atmosphere.

A true son of the Enlightenment, the Baron was arrested during the Terror, although his life was spared during the French Revolution after the downfall of Robespierre, and he was released from prison in 1794. He later dedicated much of his life to the estate, his architectural projects and charitable work in the local community. After his death in 1826, Château de Castille gradually declined. By the early 20th century, the property had reportedly fallen into a state of severe disrepair, with one government account describing “rabbits in the boudoir and cows in the main salon.”

In the 1950s, Château de Castille was purchased by Douglas Cooper, a British art historian and renowned collector. It is now on the market for the first time in over 50 years.

Cooper’s wartime work added another layer to his reputation. During the Second World War, he served with the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives section, the Allied unit later popularised by The Monuments Men, investigating networks involved in Nazi-looted art before becoming one of the most formidable Cubist collectors of the postwar period.

Cooper possessed one of the greatest 20th-century art collections and was known to move in circles with artists including Georges Braque, Fernand Léger, Paul Klee, Nicolas de Staël and Pablo Picasso, who frequented the château and reportedly tried to purchase it from Cooper.

Cooper had admired Picasso’s drawings engraved in concrete during a trip to Barcelona, and when Picasso visited Château de Castille in 1962, he exclaimed: “Give me a wall!”.

Picasso designed the drawings, which were later engraved by the Norwegian painter and sculptor, Carl Nesiar, a frequent Picasso collaborator. The five floor-to-ceiling frescoes which adorn the terrace walls of the eastern veranda were inspired by David’s “The Rape of the Sabine Women” and “Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe” by Manet.

The pieces, which cannot be removed due to the property’s historic monument status, could be worth millions. In 2020, Pablo Picasso’s painting “Nude, Green Leaves and Bust” set a new price record at auction, and sold for $106.5M in just 8 minutes.

The 20 room chateau offers 8611 square feet of interior space, with several living rooms, a unique dining room, library, 7 bedrooms, and 8 bathrooms. The interiors of the property are by renowned Provencal interior designer, Dick Dumas, with a mix of traditional French fabrics throughout, juxtaposed with modern prints, and featuring both antique furnishings and modern artwork.

The property is approached by a tree-lined drive and set within 4.94 acres, with formal gardens, a central water feature, additional outbuildings and a staff house completing the estate.

Château de Castille has been classified as a “Historic Monument” by the French State, in addition to the 5 Picasso frescos. This property was last on the market with Uzès Sotheby's International Realty for an undisclosed price, and has since sold.

All photos belong to the listing agency.