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The Château de Beaumont le Vieux is a ruined castle in the commune of Beaumont-du-Ventoux in the Vaucluse département of France.
A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages by predominantly the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble. This is distinct from a palace, which is not fortified; from a fortress, which was not always a residence for royalty or nobility; and from a fortified settlement, which was a public defence – though there are many similarities among these types of construction. Usage of the term has varied over time and has been applied to structures as diverse as hill forts and country houses. Over the approximately 900 years that castles were built, they took on a great many forms with many different features, although some, such as curtain walls and arrowslits, were commonplace.
The commune is a level of administrative division in the French Republic. French communes are analogous to civil townships and incorporated municipalities in the United States and Canada, Gemeinden in Germany or comuni in Italy. The United Kingdom has no exact equivalent, as communes resemble districts in urban areas, but are closer to parishes in rural areas where districts are much larger. Communes are based on historical geographic communities or villages and are vested with significant powers to manage the populations and land of the geographic area covered. The communes are the fourth-level administrative divisions of France.
Beaumont-du-Ventoux is a commune in the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France. This commune wine co-operative "cave" draws on local vineyards. The overall area is at the foothill of the famous Mont Ventoux, a famous cycle stage of the Tour de France.
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The castle was built towards the end of the 10th century under the reign of the Counts of Toulouse. It was probably destroyed during the Wars of Religion in the 16th century. All that remains is a ruined tower. [1]
The French Wars of Religion were a prolonged period of war and popular unrest between Roman Catholics and Huguenots in the Kingdom of France between 1562 and 1598. It is estimated that three million people perished in this period from violence, famine, or disease in what is considered the second deadliest religious war in European history.
