CastleArgelès-sur-Mer

Château de Valmy

Hotel

Valmy Castle is an Art Nouveau style castle, typical of the Belle Époque, built on the heights of Argelès, in the Pyrénées-Orientales. It is the work of the Danish architect Viggo Dorph-Petersen.

Description+

Construction began in 1888 and lasted 12 years, until 1900, with its inauguration in 1904. It is a large, extravagant Art Nouveau bourgeois residence, whose elaborate bell towers, slender turrets, long and asymmetrical windows, bay windows, and floral ceramic medallions form curious, yet harmonious, mixtures of styles. This castle is one of the first private buildings constructed with a reinforced concrete frame.

History of Valmy Castle+

Pierre Bardou, a very wealthy industrialist from Perpignan who developed the JOB cigarette paper brand created by his father, Jean Bardou, commissioned the architect Viggo Dorph-Petersen to build a castle for each of his three children. For his son Justin, Aubiry Castle, in Céret. For one of his daughters, Camille (died in 1934) married to Charles Ducup de Saint-Paul (1841-1909), Ducup de Saint-Paul Castle (bequeathed in 1934 to the Catholic Church) on the outskirts of Perpignan. Finally, for Jeanne, Valmy Castle in Argelès-sur-Mer. In 1888, Jeanne Bardou married Jules Pams, a major political figure of the Third Republic: lawyer, president of the General Council of the Pyrénées-Orientales, deputy, senator, Minister of Agriculture then Minister of the Interior, in the cabinet of Georges Clemenceau (1917-1920). He was the unfortunate opponent of Raymond Poincaré for the presidency of the Republic in 1913. In 1930, upon the death of Jules Pams, his second wife, Mrs. Holtzer, heiress of the Pams fortune and part of the Bardou fortune, sold Valmy Castle to Victor Peix, a distiller in Millas. The latter expanded the wine estate and created the Valmy and Valmya brands. These quality wines quickly gained great renown. His descendants are still the owners of the castle today. They relaunched the wine-growing activity on the 24-hectare estate in the 1990s. Offering a true wine tourism experience, there are five guest rooms at the castle and a restaurant opening onto a unique panorama stretching from the Albères to the Mediterranean.

Culture+

From 2007 to 2020 (cancelled in 2020 due to Covid-19), the "Les Déferlantes" festival, an event bringing together different music styles, took place on the grounds of this castle in July.

Notes and references+