Château des Soieries: A 19th-Century Silk & Water Mill Haven in Uzès’ Golden Light

Beneath the honeyed Provençal sun, where the Alzon’s whispering currents have turned millstones for centuries, stands **Château des Soieries**—a 19th-century *maison de maître* woven from the threads of industry and elegance. Built in 1860 upon the bones of a silk farm and a water mill, this grand estate is not merely a home but a living tapestry of Uzès’ artisanal soul, its stone walls humming with the echoes of looms and rushing water, its gardens drenched in the scent of wild lavender and ancient oak.

Step through the wrought-iron gates into a **5,500m² park of dappled emerald and gold**, where towering plane trees cast lace-like shadows over a river that still murmurs secrets to the house’s foundations. The façade, proud and patinated by time, guards three soaring levels—**each a sprawling 240m² canvas of possibility**. The ground floor cradles two intimate *pieds-à-terre*, their original beams and terracotta tiles whispering of merchants and craftsmen. Ascend the **monumental staircase**, its banister worn smooth by generations, to discover the *pièce de résistance*: a **luxurious four-bedroom apartment** where sunlight spills across herringbone parquet, illuminating a salon of grand proportions, a dining room built for feasts, and a kitchen where copper and marble gleam like jewels. Above, the attic unfurls beneath an **impressive oak framework**, a vaulted sanctuary awaiting transformation—perhaps a library, an artist’s retreat, or a celestial suite where the stars press close to the skylights.

But the true magic lies below. Descend into the **474m² basements**, where the air is cool and thick with history—here, the **original silk farm’s stone arches** and the **mill’s gearworks** stand frozen in time, begging to be reborn as ateliers for sculptors, vintners, or a private spa carved from the earth itself. Adjacent, the **old mill’s 600m² halls** stretch like a cathedral to industry, their raw beauty ripe for reinvention, while above, the **300m² silk farm** (its roof a blank slate for restoration) offers a lofted perch over the river’s song.

Outside, the **walled garden**—a sunlit stage for roses and wisteria—leads to a **Finnish sauna** tucked among the trees, where steam rises like mist over the water. A garage and workshop stand ready for vintage cars or a potter’s wheel, and every evening, the golden stone glows as if lit from within, a beacon in Uzès’ fabled *duchy of light*.

This is more than a château; it is a **legacy property**, a **960m² masterpiece** where the past is not just preserved but *lived*. Here, you could host a salon in the mill’s grand hall, dine by candlelight as the river sings below, or wake to the scent of figs and the knowledge that this land—this **rare, unrestored jewel**—is yours to shape. In the heart of **Uzès**, where medieval squares and olive groves blur the line between myth and reality, Château des Soieries awaits its next steward. A place where history breathes, and the future is limited only by imagination.