The Château du Grand-Saint-Jean is a listed chateau in Puyricard, Bouches-du-Rhône, France.
Location It is located in Puyricard, a former village now part of the city of Aix-en-Provence, in Provence.Dominique Auzias, Jean-Paul Labourdette, Aix-en-Provence 2012, Le Petit Futé, 2012, p. 295 Festival d'Aix: Grand Saint-Jean It is located 30 kilometers away from the centre of Aix. It can be accessed via the Chemin du Grand-Saint-Jean.Google Map
History The construction of the first chateau and the chapel began in the eleventh century. In 1564, King Charles IX of France (1550–1574), Catherine de' Medici (1519–1589), and Henry IV of France (1553–1610) visited the chateau.Grand-Saint-Jean Website
The current chateau was built from 1583 to 1591 by Antoine Laurens and Esprit Boyer. In 1622, King Louis XIII (1601–1643) visited the chateau. Four decades later, in 1660, King Louis XIV (1638–1715) was also a guest.
In 1933, Blanche d'Estienne de Saint-Jean, the heiress to the estate, donated the chateau and its grounds to the city of Aix-en-Provence.La longue marche vers une renaissance du Grand-Saint-Jean, La Provence, March 9, 2015
Since the 1990s, an outdoors theatre has been one of the venues of the Aix-en-Provence Festival. In 2013, Portuguese composer Vasco Mendonça created an opera based at the Château du Grand-Saint-Jean. It is called, The House Taken Over.
Heritage significance It has been listed as a "monument historique" since November 3, 1975.
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