Overlooking the town of Salon-de-Provence, Château de l’Empéri which shelters the museum, is the oldest fortified castle in Provence, and one of the three main strongholds, with those of Avignon and Tarascon. Begun at the end of the 10th century, it was the favourite residence of the archbishops of Arles, lords of Salon from the 11th to the 18th centuries, under the suzerainty first of the Holy Roman Emperor (hence the name ‘Empéri’), then of the King of France.
Many historic figures stayed there, popes, emperors and kings: King René of Naples and Count of Provence, Francis I of France, Catherine de Medici, Queen of France (who came to consult the seer Nostradamus who lived nearby), King Henri IV of France, Cardinal Mazarin (chief minister to the French Crown), King Louis XIV…
Owned by the City of Salon since the French Revolution, the castle became a barracks in the 19th century for regiments of the Armée d’Afrique.
Restored and converted into a museum of local history after World War II, it has housed, since 1976, one of the world’s finest collections of military art and history, the Raoul and Jean Brunon Collection of some ten thousand objects, acquired by the State in 1967.
