It was in 1612 that Paul Tourreau (a bourgeois from Avignon, who was to be knighted later) bought, through Jean de Guerin, a plot of land situated at Sarrians in a district called Rioubert well known for its waters and cool leafy trees.
He first built a house and then built a chapel dedicated to Our Lady. Nothing is known about the house, but the Chapel, which still exists today, is believed to have been built before 1651, because a letter was found from Paul Tourreau dated the 15th June, 1651 asking a certain Mr. M. Bastide, sculptor in Avignon, to carry out some improvement work inside the Chapel. He also created a park to the south of the house and surrounded the park by a large rectangular moat.
The first house built by Paul Tourreau was probably not large and most likely there was not any wing joining it to the Chapel. However, in 1748 one of his descendants, Francois Benezet, who had just inherited a large sum of money (about which he had a dispute for ages with one of his relations, a Mr. des Isnards), decided to demolish all the old buildings (excluding the Chapel) and to replace them by a building for which he asked the well known architect, Mr. Le Brun, to prepare the plans.
A deed, which was prepared by Jean-Francois Montillery, public, apostolic and royal notary, secretary to the Order of Saint Jean de Jerusalem, and which deed was recently discovered in the Vaucluse archives, included some notes describing the works ordered by Mr. de Tourreau on the 3rd April, 1748. The notes state that the works were to be executed by three master stone masons Messrs. Chambon, Chabrier and Blanchard and requesting that the building was to be built in stone from Villeneuve-les-Avignon, except for the foundations and the staircase steps for which stone from Caromb and Barbentane had to be used respectively. In the notes it states: "the owner of Tourreau will have the site visited as often as he judges necessary by the gentleman Brun, architect, to make sure it conforms in every way with the said architect's instructions, and the drawings, and to make sure the building is secure. The said builders will have to demolish and rebuild the existing buildings following the said architect's instructions". Further on the notes state that: "the stone masons and contractors promise to make and perfect duly and according to the drawings and the dimensions without deviating in any way from the said plans".
This suggests that nothing was left to chance and that the contractors were required to follow the plans by Le Brun with the utmost faithfulness. Therefore, it is reasonable to presume that the execution of the building works conformed faithfully with the plans. This thus minimises the unfortunate loss of Le Brun's plans and drawings, which were originally appended to two sheets to the notary's deed, which was signed by all the parties concerned and which sheets have since disappeared.
As the notes further state that the demolition and construction work should start very shortly and that, without including the unskilled workers, four skilled workers should be employed everyday, it is reasonable to presume that the building was finished sometime between 1760 and 1770.
Because the idea for re-building the Chateau was conceived in the second half of the 17th Century, at that time such a house would be described as either a country seat or a folly. Examples of such houses, in the region, which were built at around the same time can be seen at Saint Remy de Provence; Chateau Lagoy, near Arles; Chateau La Jansonne, and at Sorges; Chateau Guerre.
It is known that the rebuilding of the Chateau is due to Francois Benezet de Tourreau receiving an inheritance in 1748. Prior to this time he did not have sufficient resources to enable him to rebuild the Chateau. However, as can be seen from existing documents, he had already dreamed of restoring the old Chapel. In his will, which he altered in April 1746, he had added the following clause: "If at the time of my death I have not yet made the restoration, decoration and other embellishment to the aforesaid Chapel, dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, which is in the enclosure of the said Chateau, I want and order that the sum of Livres 600 to be used for the said restorations and other things, be given to my heir so named below to carry out my wishes".
Unfortunately, Francois Benezet de Tourreau died 10 years later, apparently without having time to restore the Chapel but he did start the restoration of the Chateau itself. His heir, Claude Joseph de Tourreau, Musketeer in the King's First Regiment, completed his father's wishes by finishing the restoration of the Chapel and the Chateau but only many years later, due to his frequent absences from the estate, which explains the date of 1779 over the entrance of the Chapel.
Then came the French Revolution. In 1791, when the people of Avignon came to lay siege to Carpentras, which had remained faithful to the Pope, they came across a small troop of loyalist soldiers near Sarrians on the 19th of April. According to abbot Bruyere, author of the historical research on Sarrians (cf. Avignon, Seguin, 1869), Monsieur de Tourreau, Captain of Dragons in the service of the King of France, without any thought attacked the Avignon army. He was made prisoner, and the Avignon army then ransacked and set fire to the Chateau and also looted the neighbouring houses. Additionally, it is said that the elderly Madame de Tourreau and her servants were massacred. However, the fire doesn't seem to have caused too much damage to the Chateau and its dependencies (the Tourreau estate), for its owner, once released, soon settled back there.
Unfortunately, there is no information available on Tourreau during the "Empire", the "Restauration" and the "July Monarchy" periods. Members of the de Tourreau family continued to reside at Tourreau, with one de Tourreau being mayor of Sarrians from 1808 to 1821, except for the "Hundred Days" interruption. On April 5, 1852 Frederic-Marius de Tourreau, who was both the last son of the de Tourreau of the revolution and a bachelor, sold his property to Mr. Petrus Fraysse of Avignon, who was married to Miss Emilie Fortunet. The deed was prepared by Maitre Aviel, a notary in Sarrians. The de Tourreau family itself died out in 1868.
The new owners of the Tourreau estate, Mr. and Mrs. Fraysse did a large amount of work inside the Chateau, as well as outside. Some of the work was no doubt very necessary, because it is most likely that when Mr. de Tourreau sold it, he left it in a poor state of repair. Unfortunately, the new owners did not stop at repairing and restoring the Chateau. They wanted to embellish it following the taste of that period and because they probably found the buildings too simple and too classical.
They added onto the east side of the Chateau a two storied wing with a brick tower at the east end, the whole architectural aspect of which was most unfortunate. Then they called upon an artist from Avignon, Etienne-Napoleon Cournaud, who wasn't without talent, and asked him to resculpt a large number of the sculpted figures on the two facades (north and south). They also asked him to add some more, among them probably the ones which were framing the door on the northern facade. The Chapel facade and interior also no doubt seemed too austere and too bare to its new owners, as they adorned the top of the door with two prostate angels. They also had the painting inside the chapel redone. Once again to quote the Abbot Bruyere, he stated that "a beautiful late XVII or early XVIII stone altar was placed at the heart of the apse".
The gardens suffered the same fate, as they were redesigned following new plans inspired from the then "English" style.
As for the interior of the Chateau, which was most likely ornamented with "gypseries" (decorations and cornices in plaster), these were replaced by different decorative plaster work inkeeping with the fashion and taste of the second Empire period. Additionally, the floors of both the entrance hall and the dining room, were covered with multicolored mosaics, replacing the traditional stone and marble floors.
At the death of Madame Maurice Fraysse, daughter-in-law of the orignal Mr. Fraysse, the land and house were sold by tender (auctioned) in Carpentras on the 15th June, 1941 to Mr. Gabriel Meffre from Gigondas. A short time after that, the German army occupied Tourreau and used it as their regional Headquarters. When they left, the Tourreau estate, particularly the Chateau and its park were in a bad state.
During the 15 years which followed the liberation of France after World War II, Tourreau remained empty and nobody lived in it. Ambassador Claude de Boisanger then bought the estate from Mr. Meffre. Having sold off most of the estate to leave him with only some 16 acres of land around the Chateau, Ambassador de Boisanger, with the help of Mr. Jean Moguett, architect from Avignon, did their best to return Chateau de Tourreau and its surrounding parks to its original XVIII century state. For example, he had the interior of the Chapel redecorated, and he had the late additions, such as the brick tower at the end of the east wing and the Cournaud sculptures, removed. He also cleared the south park, in the middle of which he installed a large octagonal pond framed in stone. However, most of the work he did was superficial and restricted to the south park, the north and south facades and part of the ground floor of the Chateau, without restoring the fabric of the Chateau or its dependencies.
In 1963, the entrance drive and its trees, the roof, the two facades, and the Chapel of Chateau de Tourreau were listed (inscribed) in the "Inventaire Supplementaire des Monuments Historiques".
When President Mitterand came to power in France in the early 1980's, Ambassador de Boisanger, being concerned about the implications of maintaining a large house and estate under the new socialist government, sold the Chateau to a Mr. Obae (a French banker in Paris) in late 1980.
Mr. Obae, in turn, became concerned about the new wealth tax subsequently introduced by the Mitterand government and, as a result, sold the Chateau to a Mr. Giorgi in 1982.
Mr. Giorgi, who attempted some modest restoration work, finally ended up effectively camping in the Chateau, because he did not have the resources to restore it properly.
The present owners bought the Chateau from Mr. Giorgi in September 1984, after which they spent six years in restoring the Chateau to its original XVIII century state by using either XVIII century building materials, flooring and wood panelling or perfect reproductions where XVIII century materials were unavailable. In addition, before undertaking the restoration work, the entire Chateau and its dependencies were reduced to their bare stone work and then totally rebuilt, incorporating the latest technology in plumbing, wiring, and central heating.
A modern PBX switchboard with eight lines (two for Fax machines) was installed, through which, by electronic switching units, most of the mechanical functions within the Chateau and in the grounds could be effected by dialling numeric codes through the switchboard. For additional convenience a "hands free" intercom system was also installed in every room in both the Chateau and its dependencies. A new drinking water system with filtration, purification and water softening equipment was installed and is supplied by a new well.
A sports complex containing a squash court, a large 25m x 10m x 4.5m swimming pool (with an ancilliary dining room, kitchen room, living room and changing rooms), a tennis court and a croquet lawn were installed. In addition, a substantial amount of new trees, shrubs and flowers were planted, as well as two orchards. An underground automatic watering system was installed throughout the gardens to ensure that even in the driest summer weather, the grounds are properly watered. To provide this another new well and a backup pumping system from the moat were installed. A sophisticated alarm system was installed in the Chateau and the estate has now been enclosed with a three metres high fence (with trees or hedges planted on both sides of it) in order to provide full security.
The Chateau estate has been restored in such a way as to provide a wide variety of fruit, nuts, vegetables, honey, game duck and fowl, the normal farmyard fowl, pigeons, rabbits, as well as having ornamental wild fowl, horses, bees and three aviaries with a wide variety of birds.
