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Origin and history

The Château de Villeneuve-Loubet was built in the 13th century by Romée de Villeneuve, great servant of the Counts of Provence, on a hill overlooking the Var. This castle, erected between 1231 and 1234 on ancient Comtal lands ceded after the takeover of Nice, marked the affirmation of Provençal power in the face of Genoese ambitions. The site, probably occupied in the 11th century by a castrum, became the heart of a new village, Villeneuve, founded simultaneously.

In 1251, in debt, Romée de Villeneuve sold the castle, which passed under Comtal control while remaining bound to the Maison de Villeneuve, lords of Vence. In the 15th century, he changed hands several times: Antoine de Villeneuve (1422), then the Lascaris de Tende family (1437), who installed settlers in Tende to repopulate the village. Honoré Lascaris, Count of Tende and advisor to King René, made him a strategic fief, before his daughter Anne Lascaris married René de Savoie in 1501, marking the entrance of the castle into the Savoyard orbit.

Between 1516 and 1533, the medieval castle was profoundly remodelled in Renaissance style: a second enclosure was added, carried by the weapons of René de Savoie, and the buildings were rearranged around a trapezoidal courtyard. The 37-metre-high pentagonal dungeon remains the only vestige of the original building. The castle welcomed major figures such as Charles Quint (1536) and François I (1538), during the truce of Nice. After successional conflicts in the 16th century, he passed to the Mayennes, then to the Bouthilliers (1644) and Thomas de La Garde (1678).

The French Revolution spared the castle, transformed into a hospital for the army of Italy, before being restored by the Panisse-Passis in the 19th century. Damaged by an earthquake in 1887 and the bombings of 1944, he was enrolled in the Historical Monuments in 1986. Today, its ramparts, park and bent dungeon bear witness to nearly 800 years of history, between medieval conflicts and reborn fascists.

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