La Muse / centre for evocation of the history of the Waldensians

The exhibition room can accommodate visitors. A set of outdoor panels is accessible when the small museum is closed. The Waldensian fact in the Luberon, the Monts de Vaucluse, Europe (Germany, Italy...), South Africa and America is presented and the access to the Waldensian Memorial (ruins of the old village) is marked out.

Sanitary conditions do not currently allow the exhibition room to be opened. The outdoor information panels remain permanently accessible, as does access to the Memorial.

The Vaudois followed the doctrines of Valdès (or Pierre Valdo), creator in 1170 of a religious movement called Les Poor de Lyon. Excommunicated by the Church at the end of the 13th century, their movement nevertheless continued to spread towards Italy and Austria in particular. Important communities are forming in Piedmont. It is there that the Provencal lords will seek inhabitants to repopulate their lands and villages that have been abandoned following difficult periods (looting, famine, plague). In 1532, the Vaudois adhered to the ideas of the Reformation.

The massacre of Mérindol in 1545 was ordered by the Parliament of Aix against the Vaudois of Luberon allied to the Protestant religion.

This massacre of 3,000 people in five days devastated 24 villages in the Luberon, including those of Mérindol, Cabrières d'Avignon, Lourmarin, Puyvert and Lauris.

La Muse is also the headquarters of the Association d'Etudes Vaudoises et Historiques du Luberon.