Our heritage

La Provence Verte enjoys a rich and varied heritage. Whether monumental or rather more modest, whether rural or more urban, the heritage of La Provence Verte bears witness to its past, its history – the history of the men and women of Provence who, for centuries, have been dedicated to the cultivation of vineyards and olive groves, for which they had to adapt the land.

Those visitors who are fond of history will visit La Provence Verte’s numerous museums: le Musée du Pays Brignolais, le Musée d’Art, Histoire et Société du Pays Sainte-Baume, le Musée du Santon (symbolic clay figurines representing saints and local figures and the evolution of the Provençal costume), le Musée d’Art Sacré (the Museum of religious Art), le Musée des Miniatures, la Maison de l’Olivier (the Olive Tree Museum), le Musée de la Faïence (earthenware)...

Romantic visitors will explore the ruins of beautiful places which were, alas, abandoned over the course of time; they will hunt for vestiges of the old rural middle class, such as the remnants of a rampart, of a mullioned window or of elaborately carved wooden doors...

Inquisitive visitors will go to see the workshops of the craftsmen, the ‘santonniers’ (who make symbolic clay figurines), the ‘faïenciers’ (who work with earthernware), the potters, the tanners, the stone-cutters, and the manufacturers of the traditional Provençal instruments, the three-holed flute and the narrow drum; they will visit the oil mills and the esteemed wine cellars, and they will walk in the footsteps of the ‘red miners’ who extracted bauxite...

Visitors to the countryside will marvel at the ‘restanques’ which shape the landscape, at the magnificent cut-stone walls, at the canals which dart across the land and at the cleverly positioned apiaries…They will cross the medieval bridges and take note of their parapets and their mortice and tenon joints and will then take a rest alongside the ‘lavoirs’ (washing-places), some of which are still in use...

Spiritual visitors will explore the places of worship – churches and chapels erected in the depths of the valleys and on hilltops to mark the faith of a people whose land has been transformed by numerous shifts in population...

No matter which kind of visitor you wish to be, we cordially invite you to learn about our traditions and to appreciate our way of life.