Looking across river from Avignon to the castle of King Rene
Looking across the river
Roof tops of Avignon
Walls of Avignon
King Rene's Castle in Tarascon
Castle moat
Castle
Collegiate Church of Saint Martha
Looking across road to road to Van Gogh's insane asylum in Saint-Remy
We visited the "Antiques of Saint-Rémy-de-Provence".
The Mausoleum of the Julii
The mausoleum of Glanum is a cenotaph erected in memory of Caius and Lucius Caesar , grandsons of the emperor Augustus 1 . Gallo-Roman monument erected between -30 and -20 .
Arc de triomphe de Glanum
The Municipal Arc of Glanum is a Roman arch located in the municipality of Saint-Rémy-de-Provence in the Bouches-du-Rhône. It is one of the oldest arches in France
Overlooking Les Baux
Les Baux looking across the parking lot
I was interested in Les Baux because bauxite, the ore from which aluminum was extracted was discovered here in 1822 by the geologist Pierre Berthier (who named it for the city). Charles Martin Hall invented a process to extract aluminum from bauxite at Oberlin in Ohio in 1886. That's where I went to school and we had an aluminum statue of Charles Martin Hall in the vestibule of our Chemistry building.
Unfortunately for France, the ore has been completely worked out; France now imports most of its bauxite from west Africa although they might still have been mining it when we were there in 1964
I was told that Dante wrote his description of Hell based on the twists and turns of the rocks in the landscape of Les Baux.
Dante's Landscape
Other artists and writers have also viewed the fantastic landscape and subsequently written or painted works where this landscape has figured. They include
ARTISTS
Yves Brayer
Antoine Serra
Van Gogh
WRITERS
Marie Mauron
Frédéric Mistral
André Suarès
ENGRAVER
Louis Jou
Desolation of Dante
«No one passes through Les Baux without a sense of true nostalgia, for here, more than anywhere else, the labours of time show what becomes of the most ambitious undertakings: ruined walls and breaches onto the void. The stones of man’s proud constructions devoured by the sun and wind. Only traces remain of their ambition, fears and solitude»
(T.Fréchier)
In the city in 1964
In early times, it was quite common to settle on a hilltop where a fort could be built to defend the town. But the fortifications could not stand against modern cannons.
Ruins
In the words of Mistral, the Lords of Les Baux were "never vassals". He was correct, since they were among the most powerful feudal lords in France’s Midi who ruled 79 fiefs with an iron hand for five centuries, crushing all insubordinance. They claimed to be the descendants of one of the three Magi, Balthazar. The evening star (Saint Estelle) was the sixteen-pointed star on the coat of arms of the Lords of Baux.
We might look at some events that occurred before Les Baux was finally overcome by France. For nearly twenty years, Raymond des Baux waged the Baussenque wars (1145 to 1162), fighting the Count of Barcelona for the earldom of Provence. He was known as "the scourge of Provence" - he found throwing prisoners off the top of the castle to be an effective solution. At the same time, Les Baux was also the location of the famous Courts of Love where poetry and song were occupations for the inhabitants.
Cats over a doorway
The castle was destroyed by Louis XI (in 1483). The most famous governor was Constable Anne de Montmorency, embarked on considerable restoration work, and the town saw a return to splendour. The Constable had the Treasury archives transferred to the citadel from Aix, where they were under threat from Charles V’s troops.
However, the castle and city walls were eventually destroyed under Richelieu’s orders because of the rebellious Protestantism of the Manville family who managed what had by now become just a barony. The ramparts were defended for 27 days but in the end they surrendered. Less than two hundred years later, Les Baux at last became the marquisate of the Grimaldi royal family of Monaco.
Now the village has been painstakingly restored and several buildings in the village are classified as "Historic Monuments." When we were there, it was still in the original ruins.
Fortified City Falls to Canon
looking down
Looking across the river
Roof tops of Avignon
Walls of Avignon
King Rene's Castle in Tarascon
Castle moat
Castle
Collegiate Church of Saint Martha
Looking across road to road to Van Gogh's insane asylum in Saint-Remy
We visited the "Antiques of Saint-Rémy-de-Provence".
The Mausoleum of the Julii
The mausoleum of Glanum is a cenotaph erected in memory of Caius and Lucius Caesar , grandsons of the emperor Augustus 1 . Gallo-Roman monument erected between -30 and -20 .
Arc de triomphe de Glanum
The Municipal Arc of Glanum is a Roman arch located in the municipality of Saint-Rémy-de-Provence in the Bouches-du-Rhône. It is one of the oldest arches in France
Overlooking Les Baux
Les Baux looking across the parking lot
I was interested in Les Baux because bauxite, the ore from which aluminum was extracted was discovered here in 1822 by the geologist Pierre Berthier (who named it for the city). Charles Martin Hall invented a process to extract aluminum from bauxite at Oberlin in Ohio in 1886. That's where I went to school and we had an aluminum statue of Charles Martin Hall in the vestibule of our Chemistry building.
Unfortunately for France, the ore has been completely worked out; France now imports most of its bauxite from west Africa although they might still have been mining it when we were there in 1964
I was told that Dante wrote his description of Hell based on the twists and turns of the rocks in the landscape of Les Baux.
Dante's Landscape
Other artists and writers have also viewed the fantastic landscape and subsequently written or painted works where this landscape has figured. They include
ARTISTS
Yves Brayer
Antoine Serra
Van Gogh
WRITERS
Marie Mauron
Frédéric Mistral
André Suarès
ENGRAVER
Louis Jou
Desolation of Dante
«No one passes through Les Baux without a sense of true nostalgia, for here, more than anywhere else, the labours of time show what becomes of the most ambitious undertakings: ruined walls and breaches onto the void. The stones of man’s proud constructions devoured by the sun and wind. Only traces remain of their ambition, fears and solitude»
(T.Fréchier)
In the city in 1964
In early times, it was quite common to settle on a hilltop where a fort could be built to defend the town. But the fortifications could not stand against modern cannons.
Ruins
In the words of Mistral, the Lords of Les Baux were "never vassals". He was correct, since they were among the most powerful feudal lords in France’s Midi who ruled 79 fiefs with an iron hand for five centuries, crushing all insubordinance. They claimed to be the descendants of one of the three Magi, Balthazar. The evening star (Saint Estelle) was the sixteen-pointed star on the coat of arms of the Lords of Baux.
We might look at some events that occurred before Les Baux was finally overcome by France. For nearly twenty years, Raymond des Baux waged the Baussenque wars (1145 to 1162), fighting the Count of Barcelona for the earldom of Provence. He was known as "the scourge of Provence" - he found throwing prisoners off the top of the castle to be an effective solution. At the same time, Les Baux was also the location of the famous Courts of Love where poetry and song were occupations for the inhabitants.
Cats over a doorway
The castle was destroyed by Louis XI (in 1483). The most famous governor was Constable Anne de Montmorency, embarked on considerable restoration work, and the town saw a return to splendour. The Constable had the Treasury archives transferred to the citadel from Aix, where they were under threat from Charles V’s troops.
However, the castle and city walls were eventually destroyed under Richelieu’s orders because of the rebellious Protestantism of the Manville family who managed what had by now become just a barony. The ramparts were defended for 27 days but in the end they surrendered. Less than two hundred years later, Les Baux at last became the marquisate of the Grimaldi royal family of Monaco.
Now the village has been painstakingly restored and several buildings in the village are classified as "Historic Monuments." When we were there, it was still in the original ruins.
Fortified City Falls to Canon
looking down
- Next entry in the series 'Visiting Europe - 1950, 1964, 1992, 2002, 2015': Les Baux to Arles in Provence in 1964 - post 24
- Previous entry in the series 'Visiting Europe - 1950, 1964, 1992, 2002, 2015': Exploring - Beginning at Avignon in 1964 - post 22
