Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Château de La Buzine, located in the 11th arrondissement of Marseille, is a 19th century building marked by a rich and varied history. Originally, in the 15th century, the estate belonged to the Diodium family before being fragmented and partially bought by Guillaume Cabofigue in 1457. In 1667 Henry de Buzens, a Marseille squire, gave him his current name, "La Buzine". In the 18th century, the property, then a typical Provencal bastide, was confiscated from the Flotte family during the Revolution, before being rebuilt by a descendant under the First Empire.

In 1865, architect-entrepreneur Pierre-Hilaire Curtil acquired the estate, razed the old bastide and built the present castle in an eclectic style inspired by Viollet-le-Duc, surrounded by a 40 hectare park fed by the Marseille Canal. The castle changed hands several times: bought by Victor Régis in 1869, handed over to his son Joseph-Théodore Mante in 1883, then to Jean-Charles Camous in 1889. The Pallez family added a wing in 1903 and organized parties during the Belle Époque. After several owners, including the Crédit de France in 1936, the castle was bought in 1941 by Marcel Pagnol, who dreamed of making it a "Cité du cinéma".

During the Second World War, the castle was requisitioned by the German army, then occupied by resistance and the French army after the Liberation. In 1973, Pagnol became unsanitary and sold it to a developer, who built a subdivision around the park's remaining five hectares. In 1995, the city of Marseille bought the castle, registered it for historical monuments in 1997, and restored it between 2006 and 2011. Since 2011, it has housed the "Maison des cinématographies de la Méditerranée", with a cinema room, a restored music salon and a library-video library.

The castle is inseparable from the work of Marcel Pagnol, who evokes in My Mother's Castle (1957) as a symbolic place of her childhood, although doubts remain that her family has actually crossed this domain. The film My Mother's Castle (1990) by Yves Robert, shot at the castle of Astros, contributed to her fame. Today, the site combines architectural heritage, literary memory and Mediterranean cultural vocation.

The history of the castle reflects the social and political upheavals of Provence, from its bastidary origin to its transformation into a place of culture. Its restoration preserved a witness to 19th-century architectural eclecticism and the pagnolesque heritage, while offering it a new life dedicated to the seventh art.

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