La Maison sur la Sorgue

“It was around the time of the Popes, based in Avignon, in the 14th century. Do you know who went to Catherine de Burgondian to establish themselves in l'Isle sur la Sorgue ? I tell you this in confidence, he was called Hermand Barthelier. History does not tell us whether this noble and strong Bavarian warrior went to l'Isle Sur La Sorgue by chance or by necessity, but we do know that he bought the rights and built his house there, the same one where we are chatting today. The Barthelier family prospered in L'Isle and participated in the development of commerce in the town. There were many nobles in this city, they were influential, well intergrated with the other social classes, owned beautiful houses and luxuriously appointed mansions. They were rich landowners. In 1788, on the eve of the revolution, De Barthelier de Venasque owned 57 hectares of agricultural land and the barns of Barthelière at Puyverain, on the road to Caumont, barns and land at Costieres….. The Bartheliers were connected with the church: Francoise de Barthelier was born in 1573 and died in Paris in the odour of sanctity, 1st September 1645, after having started several houses 'Dames d'Elysabeth', of the Third Order of Saint Francois, of which the convent can be found on the site of the Manni garage. Since Francois the first, the inhabitants of Avignon and of Comtat enjoyed the privilege in France of rignicoles. Under this title the nobility served the King. Francois Pompee Liberal of Barthelier Venasque, born on 26th July 1743, was the Lieutenant of the Vermandois regiment. In his will of 18th October 1822, he signed as a old infantry captain, 'Chevalier de l'ordre royal and miliataire de Saint Louis'. His father, Claude Pompee Francois de Barthelier, co-seigneur of Venasque had married Madeleine de Silvan on 6th October 1742, a noble lady of Le Thor. It was she, who at the age of 74 during the year of 1794, would eagerly take up the defence of her eldest son, stuck in Mahon in Menorca for health reasons, reputed to be an 'émigré', whose belongings were sequestrated, with the exception of those absent-mindedly forgotten by his wife, Marie-Thérèse Rosalie de Varvarenne, who obtained the divorce (the eleventh of february 1794). Francois Pompée Libéral died in L'Isle sur la Sorgue on the 11th of February 1824, childless, after having been given an amnesty and reinvested in his house.

La Maison sur la Sorgue has been owned through the ages by different owners:

Alphonse Crousnilhon, the cousin, 1824

Joseph de Bressy, 1826

Famille Rousset 1933

Baptistin Bernard 1934

Aimé Léautier 1941

Marie-Claude and Frédéric, 2002

In 1714, the Barthelier house was enlarged through inheritance of the house of De La Forestier, their uncle. In 1856, Joseph de Bressy sold the south section of the property, a house with two courtyards, to the local authority of the city to make a school.After the school was demolished in the 1960s, there was only La Maison sur la Sorgue remaining, next to the new Rose Goudard square. This house was admirably restored in keeping with the fine dwelling of the Barthelier family, by Marie-Claude and Frédéric in 2004.”

Here