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Origin and history

Beaume Castle, located in Saint-André-en-Vivarais (Ardèche), is a 15th-century building, partially renovated in the 16th and 17th centuries. It consists of a rectangular house flanked by two towers (one round and one hexagonal), surrounded by a fence wall delineating two terraces: an inner courtyard to the north and a garden to the south. The materials used include granite rubble and cut stones, while the roofs, covered with tiles or lauze, reflect medieval and Renaissance architectural techniques. The castle preserves defensive elements such as an archer-cannonière and a staircase in screws without a day, typical of the fortifications of this period.

The castle was linked to the Beaume family from 1390, which owned it for nearly two centuries. In the 15th or 16th century, it was rebuilt with cross-windows and carved decorations (burned coats of arms, cladding lintel). In 1556 Bernard de Beaume enlarged the estate, and an engraved date (1578) remained on a redesigned portal. In the 17th century, interior changes transformed some windows, while a chapel dedicated to Saint Claude and Saint Anne, blessed in 1775, was destroyed around 1860. The castle, registered with the Historical Monuments in 1974, was restored at the end of the twentieth century.

Originally, the castle could go back to the 12th century and would have belonged to the Commanderie des Hospitaliers de Saint-Jean-de-Jérusalem in Devesset. After the family of Beaume, he passed into the hands of Claude Jullien de Ronchol in 1745, then Pierre Tardy in 1901, who acquired a 64 hectare estate including the castle, agricultural buildings, gardens and woods. The outbuildings (grange-table, common) and the outbuildings (courtyard, vegetable gardens) bear witness to its role both residential, defensive and agricultural over the centuries.

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