The Château de la Buzine

History of Château de la Buzine

Marcel Pagnol’s childhood memories

In his autobiographical stories, in particular Le Château de ma mère (My Mother’s Castle), Marcel Pagnol recounts the long walks his family undertook to reach their holiday home: Bastide Neuve, in the hills between Marseille and Aubagne.

The journey, nicknamed the “ holiday path “, was long and tiring. One day, the family came across a former pupil of Joseph Pagnol, a certain Bouzigue. He gave them a key to a passage along a canal, shortening the walk by almost two hours.

On this path lined with private properties, the family passed four large mansions they called châteaux: Château Régis, Château de la Reynarde, Château Saint-Antoine and Château de la Buzine.

It is in front of the latter that one of the most striking episodes in the story takes place. Watched over by a particularly strict guard, the estate becomes the ” castle of fear ” for the child Marcel, when the family is stopped at the last gate, in a humiliating and distressing scene for his parents.

When Marcel Pagnol bought the château

In the 1940s, having become a famous film-maker, Marcel Pagnol bought the Château de la Buzine with an ambitious project in mind: to create a major cinema complex close to his Provencal hills.

He imagined a veritable “cinema city”, with studios, workshops, accommodation and open-air film sets. Some were already talking about a “Provençal Hollywood”, set up less than five kilometres from the landscapes that inspired his films.

Ironically, Pagnol was unaware at the time that this château was precisely the one that, in his childhood, had become his mother’s château of fear. By buying it, he symbolically transformed this emotionally-charged place into a ” château of tenderness “, putting an end to the family curse.

The Château de la Buzine, or the House of Cinematography

After decades of neglect, the Château de la Buzine was finally saved in the 1990s. Listed as a Historic Monument in 1997, it was restored as part of a project led by the City of Marseille.

Since 2011, it has been home to the Maison des Cinématographies de la Méditerranée, a cultural centre dedicated to cinema and the history of the château.

The site now offers

• Permanent and temporary exhibitions
• Film screenings in an old-fashioned cinema with balcony and orchestra
• Cultural and film events
• Self-guided or guided tours

Among the areas to discover

A period classroom

A classroom from the early 20th century has been meticulously reconstructed, with wooden desks, a blackboard, a platform and wall maps to take visitors back to the school of over a hundred years ago.

A media library dedicated to the arts

The media library contains books and resources on cinema, as well as archive photographs tracing the history of the château and its inhabitants in the early 20th century.

Visits to the château are free of charge, while some temporary exhibitions and screenings are subject to a charge.