Everything about The Architecture Of Provence totally explained
The
Architecture of Provence includes a rich collection of monuments from the
Roman Empire;
Cistercian monasteries from the
Romanesque Period,
medieval palaces and churches; fortifications from the time of
Louis XIV, 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 Swiss architect
Le Corbusier in
Marseille.
Provence in the southeast corner of
France, is generally defined as the French Departments of
Var,
Bouches-du-Rhône,
Vaucluse, and part of
Alpes-de-Haute-Provence and
Alpes-Maritimes. 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 (27000 A.D. to the Second Century B.C.)
Remains of a
prehistoric settlement dating to between 27000 and 19000 B.C. were found by divers in 1991 at the
Cosquer Cave, an underwater cave in a
calanque on the coast near
Marseille.
A
neolithic site dating to about 6000 B.C. 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 B.C. 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 B.C. can be seen in the
Jardin des Vestiges and on the butte des Carmes. In the 2nd Century B.C. the entire system of fortifications were rebuilt in pink limestone. Parts of the ramparts can still be seen in the Jardin des Vestiges. .
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. .
The
Phocaeans,also established colonies at
Nice,
Arles,
Cannes, and south of
Nimes. Later the region was also inhabited by
Celts, who were also known as the
Ligurians or
Celto-Ligurians. who built
oppida, or forts. Little trace remains of their architecture.
Roman Monuments in Provence (20 B.C. to 476 A.D.)
In the second century B.C. the
Romans began their conquest of the region, sending legions which defeated the Ligurians and destroyed their fortresses. In 123 B.C. the Romans founded
Aix-en-Provence, and two years later began a new town at Nemausa (today
Nimes.) The Roman colony known as Provincia was organized in about 120 B.C. 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 first century B.C.,
Roman legions completed the conquest of Gaul and began building towns,
triumphal arches,
amphitheatres,
theaters,
baths and
aqueducts in Provence.
The Roman aqueduct of
Pont du Gard (first 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 River Gard,it is the highest existing Roman aqueduct. The aqueduct carried water a distance of fifty kilometers.
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 A.D, sometime after the Romans had conquered the town, which was inhabited by
Celto-Ligurians. Glanum was destroyed in 260 A.D. by the
Alamanni, a Germanic tribe, as the Roman Empire began to crumble.
The Roman theater in Orange, Vaucluse was constructed by the Emperor
Augustus in the early first century BC, is the best-preserved Roman theater 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 nineteenth century. Today it's the home of music and theater festivals.
The
amphitheatre in Arles was built in the first and second 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 tweve thousand spectators.
The
Maison Carrée, in
Nimes,built in 16-19 B.C., 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 A.D.. It was built according to the principles of
Vitruvius, the chief theorician of 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)
380 A.D.
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 Nimes, 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 Frejus, 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 Romanesque style in Provence 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 .
The
Baptistry of the
Cathedral of Saint-Léonce at
Frejus (406-409 A.D.), built shortly before the fall of the
Roman Empire, is the oldest
Christian structure in Provence, and one of the oldest buildings in France. The octagonal building, about seven meters 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 centimeters 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.
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 kilometers 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 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.
Le 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
Novy Dvur, in the Czech Republic. Thoronet 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 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 Judgement, 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
St. Stephen. 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. 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
Basilique Saint-Denis in Paris, and spread rapidly to England and Germany, but did not arrive in Provence until the late 13th century.
The first purely gothic church in Provence was the Basilica Sainte Marie-Madeleine in
Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume, which was begun in 1295. It was built to contain what was believed to be the sarcophagus of
Mary Magdalene, which was discovered in a
Gallo-Roman crypt in Saint-Maximin in 1279. The basilica was consecrated in 1316, but the
Black Death in 1348, which killed half the local population, interrupted construction. Work started again in 1404, and the sixth bay of the
nave was completed in 1412. Work continued until 1532, when it was decided to leave the basilica just as it was, with an unfinished west front, and neither a portal nor bell towers. The church today has a main apse flanked by two subsidiary apses. The nave has no transept, and is flanked by sixteen chapels in the aisles. In the crypt is displayed what is said to be the skull of St. Mary Magdalene.
In other parts of Provence, romanesque churches were made into gothic churches. In Aix-en-Provence, two new wings of the transept of
Aix Cathedral were built in the gothic style between 1285-1230 and the cathedral was turned bay by bay into gothic church. paralleled the growth of importance of Aix. In
Arles, a Gothic choir replaced the Romaneque abside of the
Church of St. Trophime between 1445 and 1465. .
The finest gothic building in Provence, and the largest gothic structure in Europe, was the
Palace of the Popes in
Avignon, constructed between 1334 and 1364, during the brief period from 1309 to 1377 when Avignon was the seat of the papal curia. It was one of the largest and most important buildings in Europe. Construction was begun by Pope
Benedict XIII, and continued by his successors. The construction of the eleven-acre, heavily-fortified palace consumed most of the income of the papacy during this period. It served as the residence of two
antipopes,
Clement VII and
Benedict XIII, before the
papacy finally returned permanently to Rome.
While the outside of the palace looked like a fortress, the inside was lavishly decorated with tapestries, sculptures, and decorated wooden ceilings.
The
pont d'Avignon, also known as the
Pont Saint-Bénézet,which crossed the
Rhone River between Avignon and
Villeneuve became one of the wonders of the
medieval world. The Romans had built a wooden bridge across the Rhone at the same point, which was replaced by a stone Romanesque bridge built between 1177 and 1185. That bridge, except for four arches, was swept away by a flood in 1226. A new bridge was constructed in the
gothic style between 1234 and 1237, which was 900 meters long, resting on 22 arches. A chapel to
Saint Nicholas, with two chapels, one romanesque and the other gothic, was located on the bridge fourth arch, where a toll was collected from voyagers, in the form of a donation to the Saint.
During the Middle Ages the Avignon bridge was the only bridge across the Rhone between
Lyon and the mouth of the Rhone. It was also located on one of the main pilgrimage routes, between Italy and
Saint-Jacques-Compostelle.
The bridge began to collapse in the 17th century; first one arch in 1603, then three more in 1605. These were repaired, but in 1669 a new flood carried away most of the bridge, leaving only four arches.
Hilltop Villages (2nd century to 17th century)
As Roman authority crumbled in Provence, the region was flooded with invaders:
Visigoths in the 5th century,
Franks in the 6th century and
Arabs in the 8th century, and raids by
Berber pirates and slavers. Rule eventually passed to the Counts of
Toulouse, and the Counts of
Barcelona (later Kings of
Aragon).
Because of the repeated invasions, Provencal architecture was designed to resist attack. Monasteries were surrounded by towers and walls, and even the bishop's residence in Frejus resembled a fortress. Castles on hilltops surrounded by walled towns became the characteristic architectural feature of Provence. Only in the 17th century, after the wars of religion had ended and the French king had etablished his authority, were the towns of Provence safe from outside attack.
The village of
Roussillon, Vaucluse, in the
Luberon area, has vestiges of a 10th century chateau and an 11th century church. It is famous for its pinkish and yellow stone; in the 18th century, mines around the town produced pigment to make the color
ochre.
Les
Baux-de-Provence, on a high rocky hilltop in the
Bouches-du-Rhône Department, was inhabited as early as 6000 BC. and had a
Celtic fort in the 2nd century A.D. In the
Middle Ages, the Lords of Les Baux, who claimed ancestry back to
Balthazar, one of the
Three Kings of the
Nativity, ruled over a domain of 79 towns and villages. The Counts were deposed in the 12th century, the last princess died in the 15th century, and the town became part of
France. In 1632, when the town became a
Protestant stronghold, Cardinal
Richelieu ordered castle and town walls destroyed.
Gordes, in the
Vaucluse, was originally a hilltop fort of the Celtic tribe of the Vordenses, then a Roman fort guarding the Roman road between
Carpentras and
Apt. A castle was built by Guillaume d'Agoult in the 9th century which dominated the valley. In the 13th century, the town joined
Savoye in a war against France. In the 14th century, during the
Hundred Years War, the whole town was encircled by strong walls. In 1481, after the death of
René I of Naples, Gordes was incorporated into France.
Castles and Fortresses (15th-16th centuries)
After Marseille was annexed to France by
Francois I in 1481, the
Château d'if (1527-1529) was built on one of the islands of the
Frioul Archipelago in the Bay of Marseille to protect the city from attacks from the sea. It was soon turned into a prison; During the
Wars of Religion (1562-1598)it held some 3500 Huguenots, or French Protestant prisoners. It is best known as the prison of the fictional
Count of Monte Cristo of
Alexandre Dumas, père.
The Chateau of Tarascon, in the
Bouches-du-Rhône Department, was begun in 1400 by
Louis II of Anjou,and finished by his son,
Rene.
The
Citadel of
Sisteron, was built on a rocky spur overlooking the
Durance River on the strategic route through the
Alps to the
Mediterranean. A Roman fort and a feudal castle first occupied the site. Then, from 1590 to 1597,
Jean Erard,the military architect of king Henry IV, built a new kind of fortification designed to defeat armies with cannon and modern weapons. It featured walls laid out in a sawtooth pattern of recesses and salients,so all parts of the wall could be covered by gunfire; terraces and trenches to slow approaching armies; and interior walls and fortified gates to subdivide the fortress and prevent attackers from capturing it all in one attack. Many of these features were adapted and improved a century later by the military architect
Vauban.
The Age of Louis XIV in Provence (17th Century)
The age of
Louis XIV in Provence was marked by an increase in prosperity, after the destructive wars of religion in the previous century. The citizens of
Arles built a new Hotel de Ville, designed by the Arles architect Jacques Peytret, aided by
Jules Hardouin-Mansart, which has a large central court with a perfectly smooth vaulted ceiling, without a central column, supported entirely by the carefully joined stones resting on fine doric columns. The Hotel de Ville symbolized the rise of the power of the bourgeoise of the French cities. and showed that civil architecture could be as beautiful and powerful as religious architecture or royal palaces.
Second Empire Style (19th Century)
The
Toulon Opera, built in the flamboyant style of the
French Second Empire, was begun at the same time as the
Paris Opera of
Charles Garnier, and illustrated the importance of Toulon as the main base of the French Navy. The architect was Leon Feuchéres. Construction was begun in 1860, and it opened in 1862. It boasted exceptional acoustics and seats for 1800 spectators, making it, after Paris, the second-largest opera house in France.
The Neo-Byzantine Style (19th Century)
The
Basilica of
Notre-Dame de la Garde in Marseille was built between 1853 and 1864 on the highest point in the city in the
neo-byzantine style. It was finished ten years before its famous sister, the
Basilica of Sacré-Coeur in Paris, was begun. It was designed by the architect Jacques-Henri Esperandieu. The main feature of the church is a 197 foot (60 m) belfry with a statue of the Virgin and Child, visible miles out to sea.
Rural Architecture in Provence
The rural architecture of Provence features two distinctive types of farm houses, the
Mas (Provencal Farmhouse) and the
Bastide (Provencal Manor).
A mas a largely self-sufficient economic unit, which could produce fruits, vegetables, meat, milk, and even silk. The house was usually built of local stone with a sloping Roman tile roof, and was a long rectangle, two or three stories high, with the kitchen and space for animals on the ground floor, and bedrooms, storage space for food, and often a room for raising silkworms on the first floor. As the family grew larger, the mas would be extended to make new rooms. The mas nearly always faced the south, to provide protection from the
Mistral and it had few and very small windows, to keep out the summer heat and to keep in the heat in winter.
A bastide was the house of a wealthier farmer, and usually was in the shape of a square, with an interior courtyard. In the 19th and 20th centuries many bastides were occupied by wealthy city residents from Marseille.
Corbusier in Provence (20th Century)
The
Unité d'Habitation in Marseille, also known as the
Cité Radieuse, designed by the Swiss architect
Corbusier in 1946-1952, became one of the most influential buildings of the twentieth century. Built of unfinished concrete (steel wasn't available because of the war), it had nineteen stories with 330 apartments of twenty different designs, along with shops, a restaurant, a hotel, clinic, sports facilities, a roof terrace, an outdoor auditorium and a kindergarten. It was meant to be "a machine for living," with everything needed under a single roof. Corbusier built five versions of the Unite d'Habitation, and it inspired similar buildings in other parts of France, Germany and in Britain, and became a model for new apartment buildings and
public housing projects in the 1950s. It was praised and much criticized as the first example of
brutalist architecture.
Other buildings by Corbusier in Provence:
- Cabananon at Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, 1952. Corbusier stayed several times in the Villa E 1027 in Roquebrune-Cap-Marin, and was commissioned in 1952 by Thomas Rebutato, the owner of a local restaurant, to build a beachside cabin, or Cabanon. It was limited to 16 square meters, was made of wooden logs and plywood, and was to be furnished with only a couch, a table, and a sink. It was part of Corbusier's effort to standarize every genre of architecture. Later he added a tiny office next to the cabin.
Modern Architecture in Provence (20th Century)
Notable 20th century buildings in Provence include:
The Archives d'Outre Mer (Aix-en-Provence, 1996), architects Thierry Lacoste, Antoinette Robain
Villa Bloc (Antibes, 1961), architect André Bloc and Claude Parent
Musee d'Arles Antique (Arles, 1995), architect Henri Ciriani
Rotonde des locomotives, (Avignon, 1946), architects Paul Peirani, Bernard Lafaille
Eglise Saint-Joseph-Travailleur (Chamfleury, 1967-69) architect Guillaume Gillet, Charles André
La Citadelle (Bagnols-sur-Ceze, 1956-1961), architects Georges Candilis, Alexis Josic, Sadrach Woods,Guy Brunache, Paul Dony
Villa Kerylos, Beaulieu-sur-Mer, (1903-1908), architect Emmanuel Pontrémoli
Hotel Carlton, Cannes, (1909-1913), architect Charles Dalmas, Marcellin Mayére
Villa Vent d'aval, Grimaud, Var, 1928-1950, architect Pierre Chareau
Centre de recherche IBM, La Gaude, (1960-1962)- architect Marcel Breuer
Villa Seynave, Grimaud, Var (1961) architect Jean Prouvé
Port-Grimaud, Grimaud, Var, (1963-1972, Fracois Spoerry
Villa de Noailles, Hyères, (1923) Robert Mallet-Stevens
La Tourette, Marseille, (1948-1953) architects Fernand Pouillon, Renė Egger
Immeuble-facade du Vieux-Port, Marseille (1949-1954), architect Fernand Pouillon, Andre Devin, Andre LeConte, Auguste Perret
La Brasilia, Marseille, (1957-1967) architect Fernand Boukobza
École Nationale de Danse, Marseille (1992) architect Roland Simounet
Hotel du département, Marseille, (1993) architects William Alsop,John Lyall
Théâtre des Salins, Martigues, (1995), architects Vincent Speller, Xavier Fabre, Marino Narpozzi
Le Negresco, Nice, (1911-1913), architects Edouard and Jean Niermans
Eglise Sainte-Jeanne-d'Arc, Nice, (1922-1933), architect Jacques Droz
Musée des Arts asiatiques, Nice ((1998), architect Kenzo Tange
Espace Clodius, Orange, (1997), architects Michel Seban and Elisabeth Douillet
Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild, also known as the Villa Ile-de-France, in Saint-Jean-cap-Ferrat,(1911-1912)architect Aaron Messiah
Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul-de-Vence, (1960-1964), architect José Luis Sert
Villa E 1027, Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, (1926-1929), architects Eileen Gray and Jean Badovici
Latitude 41, Saint-Tropez (1932-33), architect Georges-Henri Pingusson
Villa Dollander, Saint-Clair, (1949-1951, architects Henri Prouvé and Jean Prouvé
The Stadium of Vitrolles (1994), architect Rudy Ricciotti
Eglise-mairie, Valbonne, 1988-1989,architects Pierre Faroux, Bruno Keller
Port-la-Galère, Théoule-sur-Mer, (1968-1979)
The 21st Century
The Avignon TGV Station is a new passenger train station, built on the LGV Méditerranée high-speed train line in South-eastern France, innaugurated in 2001. It was designed by the cabinet of architecture of the SNCF under the direction of Jean-Marie Duthilleul and Jean-François Blassel. Its gothic arches echo the most famous landmark in Avignon, the Palais des Papes (see above.)
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