La maison dite de la Reine Jeanne

THE ARCHITECTURAL DATING CONTRADICTS THE LEGEND Oddly located in a dead-end alley, at the corner of Petite and Beaujeu streets, this "little palace" is "an extraordinary example of Aix-en-Provence Mannerist style, from the 1590s" (1). Although it is nowadays quite dilapidated, it is the most remarkable house in the Old Town The people of Pertuis gave it the name of the legendary queen evoked in many Provençal sayings: "Se crei la rèino Jano", "Parla coumo la rèino Jano", to say that she is the most beautiful... But none of the three "Queen Janes" who were Countesses of Provence in the 14th and 15th centuries were able to have this residence built, not even Queen Jeanne de Laval (1433-1498), wife of the "Good King René", who was "Lady of Pertuis" a century before its construction. (1) Gloton J-J. Renaissance and Baroque in Aix-en-Provence. Thesis, 1975. A SMALL MANNERIST PALACE "À L'ITALIENNE The rigor of the order of the two facades, alternating Tuscan and Ionic bays on three levels, and cross-beams devoid of ornamentation, is only apparent. The treatment of the decorations is a matter of singular choices, of sought-after complications: the leaning columns are sunk into the wall, the entablatures discontinuous. The main portal, which protrudes strongly, conceals truncated Tuscan columns. Equipped with strange pilasters, in the form of consoles, it is decorated with a frieze, where bucranes (sculpted ox skulls) can be guessed. This Mannerism, between Renaissance and Baroque, recalls the architecture of the Italian palaces of the end of the 16th century This masterpiece remained unfinished. It is assumed that it was commissioned by a wealthy patron: the Duke de la Valette, brother of the famous Duke of Epernon, Governor of Provence from 1587 to 1592, who made Pertuis the seat of his government during the Wars of Religion Registered as a historical monument on January 12, 1931.