An ancient fortified castle, its gîte and 12 ha of grounds in a hamlet between the Cèze and Ardèche rivers, with a commanding view of the Cévennes.
Situated atop the plateaux of the northern Gard region, the village of Issirac has thrived thanks to the privileged vantage point it affords over the surrounding mountains, as well as to its terroir, yielding excellent agricultural and viticultural produce. The many hamlets surrounding the property feature buildings with Occitan names that hark back to days gone by. This hamlet, surrounded by the Valbonne forest, part of the Natura 2000 nature protection area, and overlooking the Cèze woodlands and gorges, is accessed via a tarmac road. It is situated roughly 2 km from the village centre and 30 minutes from the A7 motorway. Montélimar and its TGV station with services connecting to Paris in 2 hours are a 50-minute drive away. Both Avignon and Nîmes, with their respective TGV stations and international airports, can be reached in 1 hour. Last but not least, it takes only 40 minutes to drive to the Duchy of Uzès.
The tarmac road is the only access from the village, turning soon into a track stretching over the last few hundred metres to the property entrance. The hamlet of Sauvan fully embodies its Occitan name, derived from the Latin "Silvanus" - "man of the woods". Like a haven in a green desert, some of its buildings can be spotted at the bottom of the space reserved for vehicle parking.
The owners, who restored the hamlet from ruins, have taken great care to create a series of cobbled paths and steps leading to a central square offering a breathtaking view of the setting sun and the Cevennes mountains in the distance: Mont Lozère and Mont Aigoual.
Providing an obvious natural protection, the gorges of the Cèze, whose meanders and cliffs can be glimpsed from this spot, have been populated for thousands of years. Subsequently, the region developed thanks to the presence of the Knights Templar, as evidenced by the village of Montclus with its square keep, the remains of a castle built in 1275, and the Bernas Commandery, which formed part of the latter. The Sauvan hamlet, which fell into ruin and oblivion for decades, saw its history fade away. However, its prominent position and its connection to the "Castrum de Montecluso", as well as the presence of older fortifications, suggest that it was a strategic spot for the Order of the Knights Templar.
The property complex as it stands today is a succession of buildings, probably dating back to the 13th century, arranged around the central square and its cross. The estate is divided into five separate living areas - not including the gîte (guest house), a former drying shed built on the other side of the square, to the south: "le grand mas" ("the large farmhouse") and "le tunnel" ("the tunnel"), accessed from the south courtyard, "les paillers" ("the straw barns"), "l'épiscopal" ("the bishop's residence") and "les muriers" ("the mulberry trees"), from the alley to the east. Entirely enclosed by stone walls, the only entrance is to the south, into a first courtyard at the bottom of a flight of steps. It is accessed via a porch topped by a keystone dating from 1783, which is adjoined by an impressive bakehouse with a slate roof (in an impeccable state of conservation) or from the north via an impressive carriage door featuring a chestnut lintel, which opens onto a second courtyard.
The large farmhouse, the most impressive building in the hamlet, stretches along a south-north axis from the lime-tree square to the mulberry tree alley, which runs along the eastern facade of the complex. While the latter, which borders single-storey dwellings, appears to be low, the western facades, taking advantage of the sloping terrain, comprise three levels. The buildings are of limestone, with dressed stone used for the jambs and structural elements, and coursed rubble masonry for the load-bearing ...
