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Key figures

Origin and history

The Queen Jeanne Love Pavilion, located in the Vallon de la Fontaine aux Baux-de-Provence, is a Renaissance-style temple and decorative arts built in the 16th century. Sponsored by Baron Jeanne de Quiqueran, wife of Honoré des Martins (baron des Baux from 1568 to 1581), this monument was conceived as a tribute to romantic love, in the heart of a pleasant garden planted with cypress trees, near the old washhouse of the village. Ranked as a historical monument since November 25, 1905, it now embodies a fragile heritage, left abandoned and threatened with ruin.

The original pavilion, now in a state of advanced decay, inspired two notable replicas. In 1906, the writer Frédéric Mistral built a version of it for his tomb at Maillane Cemetery, where he has been resting since 1914. Another identical replica was built in the late 1920s by industrialist Gustave Trasenster as a family tomb in Belgium. These replicas could become the only testimonies of this Provencal monument, whose historical and architectural authenticity may disappear.

The site, once part of an ornamental garden belonging to the Baux family, is located in a picturesque valley at the gates of the village. The old photographs, contrasting with the current state of degradation, underline the cultural and sentimental importance of this place. Despite its early classification as a historic monument, the pavilion and its environment have not benefited from any significant restoration, endangering this heritage linked to local history and the memory of Jeanne de Quiqueran.

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