a small branch of the river, another island in the middle of the Rhône on which sat the castle, several gravel banks and a farm on land that was contiguous with Châteauneuf. The land of the fief was initially considered to be part of the commune of Roquemaure, but in 1820 the castle and the land were transferred to the commune of Châteauneuf-du-Pape. In 1992 the castle was listed as one of the French historical monuments. It is privately owned. Almost nothing survives of the two churches mentioned in the early documents. The church of Sainte-Marie was destroyed during the Revolution. The ruins were visible until the canalization of the Rhône in the 1970s. The other church, dedicated to the Saints Cosmas and Damian, was probably the earlier of the two. It is mentioned in a papal bull issued in 1138 by Pope Adrian IV that confirmed that the bishop of Avignon possessed the fief of Lhers. The church is mentioned again in another document from 1560. Wine Although viticulture must have existed in the village well before the arrival of the popes, nothing is known about it. The Introitus et Exitus, the financial record of the Papal Treasury, shows regular purchases of small quantities of wine from the village. At the time, wine was difficult to transport and difficult to conserve so most was drunk locally when less than a year old. Wine production expanded in the 18th century with the rapid development of the wine trade. From the correspondence of the Tulle family who owned the vineyards of the La Nerthe estate, we learn that the 40 hectolitres of wine produced was exported to England, Italy, Germany and all over France. In 1923, the local wine producers led by the lawyer Pierre Le Roy de Boiseaumarié began a campaign to establish legal protection for the wine from the commune. The delimited area and the method of wine production were awarded legal recognition in 1933. Small changes to the initial regulations were made in 1936 and 1966. The wine classified as Châteauneuf-du-Pape Appellation d'origine contrôlée (AOC) is produced from grapes grown in the commune of Châteauneuf-du-Pape and portions of the four adjoining communes in the Vaucluse. The vineyards cover an area of approximately 3,200 hectares. Of this total 1,659 hectares (52%) lie within the commune of Châteauneuf, 674 hectares (21.1%) within Courthézon, 391 hectares (12.3%) within Orange, 335 hectares