gallery

The Church of Our Lady of the Assumption is a Romanesque church located in Moustiers-Sainte-Marie in the French department of Alpes-de-Haute-Provence and the region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur . The church and its remarkable Romanesque bell tower benefit from the extraordinary site of Moustiers-Sainte-Marie, which is one of the most beautiful villages in France . The Church of Our Lady in Heaven originated in a monastery founded in the v th century by monks in the monastery of Lérins , called by the Bishop of Riez . Driven by the Saracens , the monks returned xi th and xii th century. The church was built in the xii th century in Romanesque style . In 1336, the former Pierre de Pratis began the reconstruction of the church in Gothic style, but only the choir was rebuilt, which explains why the latter is not in the axis of the nave.
It has been classified as a historical monument ever sinceMarch 18, 1913.

The most notable element of the Church of Notre-Dame is the magnificent Romanesque bell tower from Lombardy , the ancient name of the first Romanesque art. This limestone tuft tower consists of five levels: a first level reinforced by impressive supports, a blind level and three floors decorated with twin bays and Lombard bands of the first Romanesque art. The two bays are separated by small columns, except those on the penultimate floor, which are separated by columns.The nave , in Provencal Romanesque style, is divided into five sections is covered with broken barrel vaults carved in tuff stone. The choir was rebuilt in the Gothic style by Stone Pratis prior to 1336-1361: it is adorned with an altar made of a sarcophagus of marble in the iv th century . The columns separating the choir from its corridors are overcome by capitals decorated with oak leaves.

Moustiers-Sainte-Marie ( Mostiers Santa Maria in Provencal according to the classical standard and Moustié-Santo-Mario according to the Mistralian standard ) is a French commune located in the department of Alpes-de-Haute-Provence in Provence . Alpes -Côte region Azure .

Situated against a rocky slope, Moustiers is often compared to a nativity scene with its star hanging in the air. The town has been given the official brand Villages and character towns , it is part of the regional nature park Verdon and contributes to the association Les Plus Beaux Villages de France . The prehistoric and ancient periods have left several important sites, including the tomb of the Grand Segriès excavated by André Muller in the late 1980s. A habitat was found on the dome of the Quinson Plain in the Second Iron Age . Numerous remains date from the period of Roman presence. Several places indicate human occupation from this period.

The small town of Moustiers was founded in the v- th century by a colony of monks. A chapter of canons was founded there in 1052 and continued until the donation of all the churches in Moustiers and the valley to the monastery of Lérins in 1097. The monastery shared seigneurial rights with the monastery of Lérins until xi th and xii th centuries before the city to join the field with the Counts of Provence .

The site Ourbès was already occupied at the time Carolingian : the villa Orbesio , founded in the viii th century. Located on a plateau 1000 m above sea level, it can be at the head of a large domain.

The Priory Saint John, may be mentioned in 909 among the possessions in the convent of Cluny , then up to the convent of St. Victor and Marseille , who dividends to the monastery of Lerins early xii th century, then return it to him. The other churches, Saint-Saturnin, Saint-Michel, come under Lérins.

The Count of Provence gives consulate residents to xiii th century and moved the seat of a Bailiwick in Moustiers in 1300. In 1305, a small Jewish community with nine fires was established in Moustiers (ie fifty inhabitants). The presence of this community, of an important market, are traces showing that Moustiers at that time was a small regional capital.

Guillaume de Moustiers-Gaubert was Lord of Ventavon. He gave his son, Damoiseau Bertrand, a power of attorney in 1312 to sell his share of Moustiers to King Robert. The Moustiers-Gaubert family was one of the oldest noble families in Provence. JP Poly reports that xi th century, it is one of the oldest worldly owners of families whose property was located in the Verdon region.

Death Queen Joanna I re opened a crisis of each other to stand at the head of the county of Provence , the cities of Aix Union (1382-1387) support Charles of Durazzo against Duke Louis I st of Anjou . Moustier's community gathers for the Angevin party inApril 1386, after the Duke's death and negotiations with Regent Marie de Blois . This gives society affiliation with the royal domain, which meant coming under a different legal and fiscal regime.

After the Hundred Years' War and when security returned, from 1442 to 1471], several families settled from Sausses settled in Moustiers to repopulate the community.The community is several times under trial with prior to the chapel of Saint-Jean, not assuming its functions: prior praising , he lived in Marseille and rented the properties of his priory. The former was first convicted in 1541, so another trial in the xvii th century failed. Finally, he was again condemned to the xviii th century. According to tradition, a religious who comes from Faênza (Italy) would have taught a potter in the city the secret behind the beautiful milky white enamel, which with the blue, known as "by Moustiers", was to secure the reputation of the local pottery. By the end of the xviii th century, twelve workshops functioned. Then kilns died one by one, the last in 1873. Marcel Provence undertook in 1925 to revive the pottery in Moustiers. He built an oven and, with the help of decorative artists and skilled craftsmen, produced an original production inspired by the flora and insects of the country.

Moustiers is one of the rare villages in Haute-Provence that hosts a Masonic hut before the revolution , called Les Indissolubles and affiliated with the Grand Provincial Lodge in 1788.

The news of the storm on the Bastille is welcome, this event announces the end of royal arbitrariness and perhaps deeper changes in France's organization. Immediately after the arrival of the news, France seized a great phenomenon of collective fear. Rumors of troops from thousands of armed men, paid for by the aristocrats and destroying everything in their path, spread at high speed, causing panic. We sound the alarm, we arm ourselves, we send messages to nearby villages for information that spreads fear. Solidarity is thus created; the militias formed on this occasion form the base of the National Guard battalions. This great fear that came from Digneand belonged to the stream of "fear of Mâconnais", reached Moustiers and its region.July 31, 1789before extinguishing.

A patriotic community was quickly created there: it was one of the first 21 created in the Basses-Alpes beforeJune 1792. The 5th Frimaire III (November 25, 1794), the representative on mission Gauthier cleans the company. The revolution and the first empire brought a number of improvements, including equal property taxation for all, and proportional to the value of each person's property. To get it in place on precise bases, the lifting is decided by a cadastre . The Finance Act forSeptember 15, 1807specifies its modalities, but it takes a long time to implement, as the cadastral officials treat the municipalities according to successive geographical groups. It was not until 1836 that Napoleon's land register of Moustiers was completed.

The coup d'état of 2 December 1851 by Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte against the Second Republic provoked an armed uprising in the Basses-Alpes, in defense of the Constitution. Following the failure of the uprising, severe repression followed those who rose up to defend the republic: 14 inhabitants of Moustiers-Sainte-Marie were brought before the Joint Commission, the majority being sentenced to deportation to Algeria .

Like many municipalities in the department, Moustiers-Sainte-Marie had a school long before the Jules Ferry laws : in 1863 it already had one that provided primary school education to boys and girls in the capital: the Falloux Act (1851) requires the opening of a girls' school in municipalities with more than 800 inhabitants .

Until the middle of the xx th century, the wine was grown in Moustiers-Sainte-Marie. Several dozen acres produced a wine intended for home consumption and for sale at local markets. This culture was then abandoned.