Le Tholonet

Geography

History

Population

Sights

• The Château du Tholonet was built by Alexandre de Galliffet in the 1640s. Galliffet had bought the plot from the Jarente family, and was president of the Aix-en-Provence parliament. His grandson Louis-François added a theater for his mistress Émilie de Marignane, wife of the famous orator Mirabeau. A marble cutting mill was used for Tholonet marble, known under the name Brêche d'Alep. Currently, the domain is owned by the Société du Canal de Provence .
• Moulin Cezanne, an old windmill that has been restored. Currently it is used to host painting and sculpture exhibitions.
• Ruins of the Roman aqueduct that brought water from Saint-Antonin to Aix-en-Provence. This fifteen-kilometre aqueduct bridge, located in the Cause ravine, had a rate of nearly 80 liters per second and was one of four aqueducts that supplied Aquae Sextiae, Aix-en-Provence during the Roman period. The Aix painter Jean-Antoine Constantin drew sketches of it, which are now in the Aix-en-Provence Méjanes libraries.
• The Zola Dam in the valley of the Cause river.

  Media

• Paul Cézanne, who painted Sainte-Victoire and the black castle at Tholonet, would often eat at the Berne restaurant, today named Relais Cézanne.
• Jacqueline de Romilly, member of the Académie française, wrote the book Sur les chemins de Sainte-Victoire, published by Fallois.
• In 2006, Michel Bernascolle's book Les Rapegons de Sainte-Victoire was published by Cheminements.

  Personalities

• Georges Duby, a medieval historian and former member of the Académie française, is buried in Tholonet's small cemetery.