The architecture of Provence includes a rich collection of monuments from the Roman era, Cistercian monasteries from the Romanesque period, medieval castles and fortifications, as well as numerous hilltop villages and fine churches. Provence was a very poor region after the 18th century, but in the 20th century it had an economic revival and became the site of one of the most influential buildings of the 20th century, the Unité d'Habitation of the architect Le Corbusier in Marseille.
Provence, in the southeast corner of France, corresponds with the modern administrative region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur and includes the departments of Var, Bouches-du-Rhône, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, as well as parts of Alpes-Maritimes and Vaucluse. The original comté de Provence extended from the west bank of the Rhone River to the east bank of the Var river, bordering the comté of Nice. Provence culturally and historically extended further west of the Gard to Nîmes and to the Vidourle river.
Prehistoric and ancient sites in Provence (27,000 BC to the 2nd century BC)
Remains of a prehistoric settlement dating to between 27,000 and 19,000 BC were found by divers in 1991 at the Cosquer Cave, an underwater cave in a calanque on the coast near Marseille.Clottes, J., Beltrán, A., Courtin, J. et Cosquer, H. (1992) - «La Grotte Cosquer (Cap Morgiou, Marseille)», Bulletin de la Société Préhistorique Française, t. 89, 4, pp. 98-128.
A Neolithic site dating to about 6000 BC. was discovered in Marseille near the current Saint Charles railway station, which has remains of walls made of baked clay with holes for posts, as well as tools.
Marseille was founded in about 546 BC by Greek colonists coming from the city of Phocaea (now Foça, in modern Turkey) on the Aegean coast of Asia Minor, who were fleeing an invasion by the Persians. They called their settlement Massalia.
Traces of the original settlement have been found on the west side of the butte Saint-Laurent in Marseille. The original settlement extended to the east toward the butte des Moulins and finally the butte des Carmes, covering about fifty hectares. The size of the original settlement were not exceeded until the 17th century.
Remains of the ancient Phocaean fortifications of Massalia dating to the end of the 7th century BC can be seen in the Jardin des Vestiges and on the butte des Carmes. In the 2nd century BC the entire system of fortifications were rebuilt in pink limestone. Parts of the ramparts can still be seen in the Jardin des Vestiges.Treziny, Les fortifications de Marseille dans l'Antiquité. In M. Bouiron, H. Tréziny éd., Marseille. Trames et paysages urbains de Gyptis au Roi René. Actes du colloque international d'archéologie. Marseille, 3-5 novembre 1999. Marseille, Edisud, 2001 (Études Massaliètes, 7), pp. 45-57.
According to the historian Strabo and other ancient sources, the city of Massalia had temples to Apollo and Artemis, but no trace of them remains. The only remaining structure from ancient Massalia are the cellars of Saint-Sauveur, near the Place de Lenche in Marseille. They probably served as either a granary or an arsenal.(H. Tréziny, Les caves Saint-Sauveur et les forums de Marseille. In M. Bouiron, H. Tréziny éd., Marseille. Trames et paysages urbains de Gyptis au Roi René. Actes du colloque international d'archéologie. Marseille, 3-5 novembre 1999. Marseille, Édisud, 2001 (Études massaliètes, 7), p. 213-223.
The Phocaeans also established colonies at Nice, Arles, Cannes and south of Nîmes. Later the region was also inhabited by Celts, who were also known as the Liguress or Celto-Ligurians. who built oppida, or forts. Little trace remains of their architecture.Dominique Garcia, La Celtique méditerranéenne. Paris, Errance, 2004, 206 p.)
Roman monuments in Provence (20 BC to 476 AD)
In the 2nd century BC, the Romans began their conquest of the region, sending legions which defeated the Ligurians and destroyed their fortresses. In 123 BC the Romans founded Aquae Sextiae, and two years later began a new town at Nemausa (today Nîmes.) The Roman colony known as provincia was organized in about 120 BC. A Roman road, the Via Domitia, named for Roman Consul Domitius Ahenobarbus, was built to connect Rome with the Pyrenees, following the path of the old Greek Way of Hercules. It led to a great expansion of commerce in the region.
In the 1st century BC, Roman legions completed the conquest of Gaul and began building towns, triumphal arches, amphitheatres, theatres, public baths and aqueducts in Provence.
The Roman aqueduct of Pont du Gard (1st century AD), built during the time of the Emperor Claudius, is one of the most impressive examples of Roman civil engineering. Fifty meters above the Gardon, it is the highest existing Roman aqueduct. The aqueduct carried water a distance of fifty kilometres.
The Triumphal Arch of Orange at Orange, Vaucluse, was probably built to honor the veterans of the 11th legion in about twenty BC, during the time of the Emperor Augustus, and was later dedicated to the Emperor Tiberius. It was designed to show travellers to the new Roman province the superiority and power of Rome.
The triumphal arch near the Roman town of Glanum, just outside Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, shows Roman soldiers leading away defeated prisoners. It was constructed between 10 and 25 AD, sometime after the Romans had conquered the town, which was inhabited by Celto-Ligurians. Glanum was destroyed in 260 AD. by the Alamanni, a Germanic tribe, as the Roman Empire began to crumble.
The Roman theatre in Orange, Vaucluse, was constructed by the Emperor Augustus in the early 1st century BC, is the best-preserved Roman theatre in Europe. It was closed by the authorities of the Christian church in 391 because of its "barbaric spectacles" and not re-opened until the 19th century. Today, it is the home of music and theatre festivals.
The Arles Amphitheatre was built in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, when Arles was the capital of Roman Provence. It was used for combat by gladiators and other spectacles. It has a diameter of 102 meters, and could hold twelve thousand spectators.
The Maison Carrée in Nîmes, built in 16–19 BC, is one of the best-preserved Roman temples in the former Roman Empire. It survived intact because it was converted into a Christian church in the 4th century AD. It was built according to the principles of Vitruvius, the chief theoretician of ancient Roman architecture. In the early 19th century, it was chosen as the model for the church of the Madeleine in Paris.
Romanesque architecture in Provence (5th–13th centuries)
In 380 AD, Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire and Christian churches, cathedrals and monasteries were founded all across Provence. Sometimes Roman temples, such as the temple at Nîmes, were turned into churches. Often churches were built on the sites of Roman temples or fora (Arles and Aix-en-Provence) and used columns, such as the columns in the baptistery at Fréjus, and other elements of Roman temples.
Many of the churches were built in a new style, later called Romanesque, which combined Gallo-Roman architectural elements with elements of a new style coming from Lombardy in Italy. It was particularly influenced by the new churches in the Byzantine style in Ravenna. The and the valley of the Rhône had some regional decorative elements, borrowed from the Gallo-Romans, particularly the use of eagles and busts, traditional ancient Roman elements, to decorate the capitals of Corinthian columns.Histoire de l'Art, Flammarion -Moyen Âge - Chrétienté et Islam, p. 244.
The baptistery of the Fréjus Cathedral (406–409 AD), built shortly before the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, is the oldest Christian structure in Provence, and one of the oldest buildings in France. The octagonal building, about seven metres across, is covered by a dome set on arches supported by columns. In the center of the building is an octagonal baptismal font 1.3 meters deep and 92 centimetres long, large enough for the person baptized to be immersed in the water. It was only discovered in 1925, hidden behind later modifications to the church, and restored.Denizeau 2003, p. 32.
Montmajour Abbey (French: Abbaye Notre Dame de Montmajour) is a fortified Benedictine monastery built between the 10th and 13th century on what was then an island five kilometres north of Arles, in the Bouches-du-Rhône département. The Abbey is famous for its 11th–14th century graves, carved in the rock, its subterranean crypt, and its massive unfinished church. It was an important pilgrimage site during the Middle Ages, and in the 18th century it was the site of a large Maurist Monastery, now in ruins.
In the 12th century, monks of the Benedictine Order broke away to form a new order, the Cistercians, who adhered strictly to the rules of St. Benedict. Cistercian monasteries were located in remote valleys next to rivers, were devoted to prayer, meditation, and manual labor, and were built following religious principles to avoid anything that would distract the monks from their prayers.
Sénanque Abbey was the first Cistercian monastery founded in Provence in 1148. The church was finished in 1178. A small community of monks still lives in the Abbey. The lavender fields around the Abbey make it one of the most photographed spots in Provence.
Thoronet Abbey, in a remote valley near Draguignan, in the Var department, was founded in 1160. The cloister is among the oldest Cistercian cloisters still existing. Le Corbusier visited the monastery in 1953 and imitated the play of light and shadow in his priory of Sainte Marie de La Tourette, near Lyon. It also influenced the modern monastery by John Pawson at Nový Dvůr Monastery, in the Czech Republic. Thoronet Abbey is now a museum open to visitors.
Silvacane Abbey was founded in 1175, the third of the Cistercian monasteries known as the Three Sisters of Provence. It is located by the Durance River at La Roque-d'Anthéron, between Avignon and Aix-en-Provence. It is open to the public, and is the only one of the three that no longer serves a religious purpose. It hosts prestigious piano and vocal music festivals.
The Church of St. Trophime (Trophimus) is a Roman Catholic church and former cathedral built between the 12th century and the 15th century in the city of Arles, in the Bouches-du-Rhône department. The sculptures over the portal, particularly the Last Judgment, and the columns in the adjacent cloister, are considered some of the finest examples of Romanesque sculpture. The church was built upon the site of the 5th century basilica of Arles, named for Saint Stephen.Jacques Thirion, Saint-Trophime d'Arles dans Congrès Archéologique de France - 1976 - Pays d'Arles, page 360: ""Cette nouvelle cathédrale (note : Saint-Trophime), bâtie en exploitant les monuments romains tout proches, fut placée, comme l'atteste la Vie de saint Hilaire écrite après 461, sous un vocable dont la vogue était toute récente, celui de saint Etienne, dont les reliques avaient été découvertes en 415."" In the 15th century a Gothic choir was added to the Romanesque nave.
Aix Cathedral (Cathédrale Saint-Sauveur d'Aix) in Aix-en-Provence shows the transition from Romanesque to Gothic architecture. It is built on the site of the 1st century Roman forum of Aix, and was re-built from the 12th until the 19th century; it includes Romanesque, Gothic and Neo-Gothic elements, as well as Roman columns and parts of the baptistery from a 6th-century Christian church.
Gothic architecture in Provence (12th–14th century)
The Gothic architecture style was invented in the middle of the 12th century with the facade of the Basilica of Saint-Denis in Paris, and spread rapidly to England and Germany, but did not arrive in Provence until the late 13th century.