Château de Vernègues, Heritage castle in Bouches-du-Rhône, France.

Château de Vernègues is a ruined castle of light beige and grey rectangular stone blocks on a rocky escarpment at the south flank of the Vernègues plateau. Its broken mass rises to a tall wall face pierced by three small vertical window openings near the top and one lower opening to the right. Below them a large round-headed archway opens into a dark interior, its curved top partly collapsed at the right edge, while a lower wall on the left curves inward around a rounded gap.

Vernègues grew in the 8th century around two hilltop fortifications, the Castrum de Avallone and the Castrum Alvernicum. The latter, built on a rocky escarpment, became the village and its medieval castle. On the evening of 11 June 1909 the magnitude 6 Lambesc earthquake destroyed almost all of the castle and the old village around it. The commune owns the ruins, listed as a monument historique since 1934.

The castle has belonged to the commune of Vernègues since the 20th century and was listed as a monument historique in 1934 by the French Ministry of Culture. The name Vernègues comes from the medieval Castrum Alvernicum, one of two hilltop fortifications recorded on old maps of the area.

Access to the ruins is on foot via a trail from the village, with uneven and rocky terrain in places. Visitors should wear sturdy footwear and be aware that some sections of the ruin are unsafe to enter.

A magnitude 6 earthquake struck in 1909 and devastated the castle and the village below in a single catastrophic event. The ruins preserve traces of this disaster and show the raw destructive force of nature.