The Château de Vernègues is a ruined
castle
A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...
in the ''
commune'' of
Vernègues in the
Bouches-du-Rhône
Bouches-du-Rhône ( , , ; oc, Bocas de Ròse ; "Mouths of the Rhône") is a department in Southern France. It borders Vaucluse to the north, Gard to the west and Var to the east. The Mediterranean Sea lies to the south. Its prefecture and l ...
''
département
In the administrative divisions of France, the department (french: département, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level ("territorial collectivities"), between the administrative regions and the communes. Ninety- ...
'' of France.
History
The village of Vernègues developed in the 8th century when, according to ancient maps, there were two hill top fortifications, the "Castrum de Avallone" and the "Castrum Alvernicum". The latter, constructed on a rocky escarpment, became Vernègues and its medieval castle. On the evening of 11 June 1909, the
Lambesc earthquake (magnitude 6 on the
Richter scale
The Richter scale —also called the Richter magnitude scale, Richter's magnitude scale, and the Gutenberg–Richter scale—is a measure of the strength of earthquakes, developed by Charles Francis Richter and presented in his landmark 1935 p ...
) shook the region and destroyed practically all of the castle and the old village that had developed around it. Today, ruins on the south flank of the plateau are witness to the severity of the earthquake.
The castle is the property of the commune. It has been listed since 1934 as a ''
monument historique'' by the
French Ministry of Culture
The Ministry of Culture (french: Ministère de la Culture) is the ministry of the Government of France in charge of national museums and the . Its goal is to maintain the French identity through the promotion and protection of the arts (visual ...
.
See also
*
List of castles in France
This is a list of castles in France, arranged by Region and Department.
;Notes:
# The French word ''château'' has a wider meaning than the English ''castle'': it includes architectural entities that are properly called palaces, mansions or viney ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vernegues, Chateau de
Ruined castles in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
Monuments historiques of Bouches-du-Rhône