Château de Genas

The château stands as a rectangular main block set on an east–west axis, with a woodland to the north that historically sheltered the grounds from the prevailing mistral wind. The primary east-facing elevation presents an Italianate decorative treatment noted for its acoustic qualities, and the general appearance of this façade closely matches a drawn perspective made in 1697.

At each end of the central block are projecting pavilion-like towers historically called the north and south towers. Their fronts rise with curving pediments and are finished beneath projecting eaves capped with tile courses, while the building’s projecting central sections show similar eaves. Laterally placed secondary staircases with balustrades serve these projecting portions.

A principal double staircase with balustered rails ascends to the main upper hall. This stair is carved with lion figures on each side and is topped by the family coat of arms. The front pediment above the entrance displays quartered heraldry combining the arms of the Genas family and the Spifame family.

Interior arrangement recorded in the eighteenth-century inventory survives in plan. The principal apartment has a vaulted ground floor that contains a chapel, while the upper level opens into a large reception hall reached from the double stair. That hall is flanked by three main rooms on the right and three on the left, with an additional smaller chamber equipped with a fireplace and a number of closets and utility spaces. Interior finishes are documented as including plaster cornices, boarded or parquet floors, tiled sections, and fireplaces; chimneys are specifically described as unusually ornamented with spike-like finials.

Service and agricultural buildings remain organized around a broad courtyard that separates working structures from the lordly apartment. A large enclosed farmyard is closed by a wall and an iron-grilled gate. To the west a courtyard and outbuildings occupy the service zone, including a prominent sheepfold noted in inventories and plans.

The designed park once included an extensive hydraulic irrigation network of retention basins and canals that distributed water through the grounds. That system was supplied in part by a wind-driven pump located in the orchard, which lifted water from a substantial vaulted underground chamber traversed by a natural stream. Documentary and physical evidence record those installations and their layout, and archival plans and the 1739 room inventory match the present internal dispositions. The exterior staircase received formal historic protection in 1981, and the château together with its park, surrounding walls, and gate was inscribed as a protected historic property on 31 July 1989.