Château de Saumane

This stunning building towers over the village, the Sorgues plain, Luberon and Alpilles in the distance. The 12th century fortified château of Saumane de Vaucluse was transformed into a veritable bastion in the 15th century. Its mazelike architecture was added to during various periods and you’ll find secret corridors and dungeons which surely sparked the young Marquis de Sade’s imagination.
Donatien Alphonse François de Sade, a.k.a. the "Marquis de Sade," lived in this château from the age of 5 to 10.
There are other fascinating parts of the château : a dining room with a twin calotte-shaped vaulted ceiling whose acoustics are such that a person standing in one corner can hear what someone in the opposite corner is whispering. According to an agreement between Monsieur de Sade and his farmer, mass on Saturdays and midnight mass were taken in the untouched little Sainte Rose Chapel...

The château remained in the Sade Family until 1868 when it was sold to the Mayor of Saumane then bought by the Croset Family in 1872. Vaucluse Council bought it in 1983 and in 2004 entrusted it to the Communauté de Communes du Pays des Sorgues des Monts de Vaucluse on a 40 year lease.