Château Miraval - A brief history

Miraval, sited close to the Via Aurelia - one of the five main roads radiating from Rome - has always occupied an important place in history.

First settled by the Ligurians and then by the Celts, who were in their turn driven out by the advancing Romans, Miraval first appears on a map in the 1200s when it was a monastery and attached to the Pignans Monastery.

In 1252, it seems probable that St. Thomas Acquinas broke his journey here en route to the University of Paris from the University of Naples.

In the 1400s the Prince of Naples joined the French Court and settled at Miraval. This was when the Domaine first appears in the Register of Noble Houses.

The Estate was in the hands of the Orsini family for centuries and then, at the turn of the twentieth century, Miraval was home to the celebrated inventor of reinforced concrete - Joseph Lambot.

In the 1970s Jacques Loussier, the well-known jazz pianist, created one of the world's foremost recording studios - Studio Miraval - where many great musicians including Pink Floyd, Sting, Sade and the Cranberries have all recorded their music in idyllic surroundings.