The Gard is the department of the garrigue and the Cévennes, situated between the Rhône and Languedoc, a region scarred by the Wars of Religion that devastated these Protestant lands in the 16th and 17th centuries. Its castle heritage bears the scars of these conflicts: castles destroyed, ramparts razed, towns razed to the ground by Catholic armies.
The Pont du Gard, a Roman aqueduct dating from the 1st century AD, is not a castle, but it towers majestically over the department’s built heritage and bears witness to the grandeur of Imperial Rome in this southern province. Beaucaire, whose royal castle was one of the major centres of medieval trade with its annual fair renowned throughout Europe; Uzès with its duchy, the first in France; Villeneuve-lès-Avignon with the Philippe-le-Bel tower and Fort Saint-André… The Gard boasts a heritage of unexpected richness.
The Cévennes, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site for their cultural landscape of terraces and farmhouses, complete this picture with their vernacular rural architecture, a testament to how people have adapted to a landscape of schist and chestnut trees.