History — Suze-la-Rousse

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A place, a story

The château of Suze-la-Rousse used to belong to the prestigious family of the Princes of Orange. The site was occupied as early as the Gallo-Roman period. The name of Suze first appeared in 852 in an imperial diploma of the Emperor Lothair: the Emperor Charlemagne is said to have given the land of Orange and its surrounding area (of which Suze was a dependency) to William Short Nose, his cousin.
In the 12th century, Tiburge, William's descendant, brought the land of Suze by marriage to Bertrand des Baux, Prince of Orange. In 1392, Raymond IV, Bishop of Saint-Paul, gave Suze to his niece Marguerite des Baux, dubbed the Red-Haired ("Rousse" in French), hence perhaps the origin of the name of the village...
However, it is more likely that the qualification "la Rousse" came from the colour of the stone used for the castle. In 1426, Marguerite's daughter, Antoinette, married Louis de La Baume. That was the start of the Baume-Suze's lineage. Count François de la Baume-Suze, Governor of Provence and passionate defender of the catholic cause during the Wars of Religion, was one of their most famous members.

The castle was only slightly damaged during the Revolution. Pierre Louis de La Baume-Suze died in Switzerland in 1797 at the age of 19. The castle therefore became the Isnards' property following the marriage between Aldonce-Julie, Pierre-Louis' sister, and Marquess des Isnards. This family undertook the first restoration projects.
Much later, their great-granddaughter Éliane married Baron Jean Gaspard de Witte whose daughter, the last lady of the manor, Germaine de Witte, wedded Marquess de Bryas who died during the First World War.
Marchioness de Bryas passed away in 1958 and bequeathed the castle to a charity, the Orphelins Apprentis d’Auteuil.
In 1964, the château of Suze-la-Rousse became a Listed Building (Monument Historique).
In 1965, it was bought by the Drôme Department.
The second floor of the château has been occupied since 1978 by the Wine University, an establishment for research and training in vines and wines.

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Famous people

The château of Suze-la-Rousse owes its importance to two famous families who inhabited it for seven centuries: the Baux, Princes of Orange (12th-15th centuries) and the La Baume-Suzes (15th-18th centuries). The latter included various religious figures who contributed to the architectural development of the building.

François de la Baume - Suze

He was undoubtedly the most famous inhabitant of Suze-la-Rousse. He is mainly remembered for his role in the Wars of Religion in which he was opposed, as leader of the Catholics, to the terrible Baron des Adrets, for example in Valréas in 1562. The visit of Catherine de Medici and King Charles IX in 1564 was an opportunity for the head of the catholic troops of Bas-Dauphiné (lower Dauphiné) to have a real tennis court built, a rare vestige in today's France.    
For 15 years, he waged battles and skirmishes, with varying success, before being injured in 1587 by a Huguenot harquebus blow in front of the walls of Montélimar that Lesdiguières' troops were defending with fury. Legend has it that François, agonising, turned to his faithful mare, wounded also, and said: "Come on, my grey, let's go and die in Suze". And the master and his mount expired together, a few hours later, in front of the walls of the château of Suze-la-Rousse.

Marchioness de Bryas

Marchioness de Bryas' personality goes back to a form of provincial and philanthropic aristocracy of the first half of the 20th century. Having inherited the château from her mother, a remote descendant of the Baume-Suzes, the lady of the manor was Marquess Georges de Bryas' widow, who had been reported missing during the Battle of Guise (Aisne) in August 1914. She definitely settled in Suze-la-Rousse in 1939. A member of the Red Cross, Mrs de Bryas kept some medical equipment during World War II, whilst some French men who had refused to work in Germany found refuge in her adjoining warren. During those years, the château started to deteriorate and could not be restored. A few repairs were nevertheless made to St. Michael's chapel in 1942. When she died in 1958, Mrs de Bryas bequeathed the château to the charity Les Apprentis Orphelins d’Auteuil.

Marchioness de Bryas

Architecture

From fortress to "pleasure residence"

Built on a former defensive site (a Roman hill-fort), this fortress-looking château dominates the village of Suze-la-Rousse. This fortified chef-lieu (local administrative centre) was placed in 1272 under the authority of the Bishop of Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux and in the hands of the des Baux family of Orange. It was composed of a village and of a walled-in group of dwellings belonging to knights. Those situated on the edge of the hillock were later included in a fortress following numerous wars at the end of the 14th century, thus forming the first fortified castle.
In the 16th century, Guillaume de La Baume transformed the castle into a "pleasure residence" whilst keeping its external defensive shapes. On the Bishop of Orange's initiative, Rostaing de La Baume, a series of building projects was undertaken between 1547 and 1556. At the centre of the edifice, the grand courtyard was converted and organized around three arched galleries with groin vaults. The façades were composed according to the classical arrangement of the three Orders: Tuscan pillars on the ground floor, Ionic pilasters on the first floor and Corinthian columns on the second. A prestigious example of French Renaissance architecture, the courtyard was from then on a place for special occasions worthy of important guests. King Charles IX, his mother Catherine de Medici and the Court were thus entertained there in 1564. It was for that occasion that the real tennis court was built near the château. Covered with a sloping roof and lined with galleries, it attracted all those keen on that ball game, the forerunner of modern tennis.

In the 17th century, Louis François de La Baume, Bishop of Viviers, undertook restoration work. He built a grand double-helix staircase in marble, fitted the octagonal drawing room in the north-western tower, transformed the access by getting rid of the drawbridge and shifting the entrance. The château, without losing its defensive look, became more and more refined with in particular its eighteenth-century decorative plasterwork in the blue dining-room representing the theme of the four seasons with Spring and the Earth, Summer and the Air, Autumn and Water and Winter and Fire.
During the French Revolution, the arms decorating the arches of the courtyard façades and the decoration of the south façade pediments were destroyed. The double helix staircase ended up the same way but was to be rebuilt in the 19th century.  A property of the Drôme Department since 1965, the château and the surrounding warren form a remarkable heritage complex, a vast park with a great geological, botanical and architectural wealth.

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