Gordes, emblematic village

One of its best-known secrets is the presence of many personalities in the heart of the village.

Gordes, artists' village

Seduced by the beauty of the site and its special light, a whole host of artists will elect Gordes to live or work there.

It was the painter André Lhote, who first discovered Gordes in 1938. He owned a beautiful house and returned to it until his death, many other artists took the lead, starting with Marc Chagall who hid in Fontaine Basse and painted there from 1940 to 1941 before leaving for New York.

After the war, a multitude of young talents, who found in the ruins of Gordes, in addition to the blue sky, workshops adapted to their lack of financial resources came to the village between the sky and the stone.

Among them are: Jean Deyrolle, Serge Poliakoff, Willy Ronis, his famous photograph “Le nu provençal” was taken in his house in Gordes, as well as photographers Isis and Hans Silvester...

André Lhote - © Max Boissonnet / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)

Marc Chagall - © Carl Van Vechten / Public domain

Willy Ronis - © 24images / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)

Victor Vasarely 1906-1997

Since that time, many more have come and the reputation of Gordes, artists' village, has been built. It is to Victor Vasarely that we owe this image in particular and to the museum which bore his name which he installed in the castle of Gordes for almost 30 years and which was inaugurated in 1970, by Madame Pompidou, wife of the President. of the Republic, which we know loved modern art.

All these artists, painters, sculptors, poets, writers... who have become Gordian for a moment or forever have radiated the village far beyond our borders, and if today Gordes has become an unmissable jewel of Provence, known all over the world, it is thanks to them.

While Gordes has been home to well-known artistic personalities, it has also welcomed other personalities linked to the history of France.

The De Pluvinel family

Pluvinel's family, originally from the Drôme, had given birth in 1552 to Antoine de Pluvinel, who was the main squire of Henry III and Henry IV and who would become deputy governor of the Dauphin Louis, future Louis XIII, advisor to the king in his councils and director of a riding school. He describes his experience and teaching of equestrian art in a famous treatise, “the instruction of a king in the exercise of riding a horse,” which is highly sought after by collectors and equestrian enthusiasts.

L'instruction du roi en l'exercice de monter à cheval (ed.1625) Livre d'Antoine de Pluvinel, gravures de Crispin de Pas / Public domain

Plaque au n°192 rue de Rivoli (Paris) © Wikimedia Commons / Mu / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)

Hotel de Pluvinel - Gordes

Madame De Pluvinel, who lived in this former mansion in Gordes, was the daughter of François Clary, a wealthy silk merchant in Marseille. She had two sisters who would enter history; the first, Julie Clary, who would become Queen of Naples and Spain, she was the wife of Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon's older brother. The second was Désirée Clary who was Napoleon Bonaparte's first fiancée on April 21, 1795; but in October of that same year General Bonaparte would meet Mrs. Tallien's future Josephine and the engagement would be broken.

M. de Pluvinel her husband was a gentleman from Provence, who had remained in the old monarchical fashions, he was styled with the royal bird and powdered white; it was an excellent household. His wife had beautiful dresses, gifts from her royal sisters, which she almost apologized for putting in her house in Gordes.

But who do we really owe this fame of the village? This was not done in a day... it is necessary to go back in time and to the time of the Middle Ages when a well-known family of the region built a castle.

The Family of Simiane (Baron de Gordes and Caseneuve)

This family, according to the old authors, has served the King and the Fatherland very well on every occasion and was appreciated both for its courage and for its wisdom, as shown by a 'sobriquet' found among the books of King René: 'Wisdom of the Rambaulds of Simiane'
It is one of the oldest and most illustrious Provencal families. At the beginning of the 12th century, it was Guirand d'Agoult who first took Simiane's name and weapons. His descendants were lords of Apt until the 15th century. For them, the fiefs of Caseneuve and Gordes were erected as barony and marquisate.

The most illustrious members of this family were Bertrand-Rambault de Simiane, second of the name. Master of Requests of the King's Hotel in 1548, President of the Grand Council in 1551. Appointed by Henry II Ambassador of France to the Court of Rome in 1556. As for Bertrand-Rambauld de Simiane, third of the name, he was the first to call himself permanently “Baron de Gordes” and it was under this name that he became famous in history. He acquired his most famous title of glory in August 1572, then governor of the Dauphiné, he refused to execute the orders of Charles IX against the Protestants at Saint Bartholomew. He replied that he was “a lieutenant of the king, not his executioner.”

Bertrand-Rambaud de Simiane, baron de Gordes et de Caseneuve © Unknown century 16th / Public domain

Blason des Simiane, peinture, chapelle des Simiane à Gordes © Jean-Marc Rosier from http://www.rosier.pro / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)

The Gordes branch died in 1738 with James II of Simiane, who died without children. This family includes two lieutenant-general of the king and four bishops. She also gave two knights to the Order of Malta between 1526 and 1786.
The motto of Simiane's family was “sustentant Lilia turres” which translates either as “The lily supports the towers” or as “The towers support the lily”

What if Gordes's hidden secrets were also outside the village? Everyone knows the Abbey of Sénanque and the village of Les Bories, two jewels located 4 km away; but do you know the mills of Veroncle?

The economic activity of Gordes in the past.

Gordian industry, both in the countryside and in the village, was important until the beginning of the 20th century.

Spun wool and “cadis”, kinds of coarse fabrics suitable for making panties for soldiers and sailors, came out of his “carderie” in the 18th century. The whole family fed cocoons of silkworms, and the old walls of the attic still retain the hanging holes of the caves where mulberry leaves were spread, the only food of the “magnans”. Mills, the last of which burned in 1887, occupied a considerable number of workers. After a fire, they became accustomed to go to L'Isle sur la Sorgue and Fontaine de Vaucluse by a path that kept the memory of it, the “path of spinners”.

Fonctionnement du moulin de type 'à roue horizontale' © http://randojp.free.fr/

Moulin à eau Cabrier

The mills were one of the great activities of Gordes. Wheat, using the energy of water or wind. To olives, called “to blood” because using animal or human strength. A remarkable hydraulic network, in place since the 15th century, exists in the gorges of Veroncle. La Veroncle, a torrent between Murs and Gordes, provided water to the 10 cereal mills downstream. A canal dug into the rock carried water from the stream to the wheels, which, when turning, set the running wheel into motion, producing flour which was transported through the mule path winding at the bottom of the combe. Grindstones are still visible in many mills. The rural exodus, the rise of industrialization and various earthquakes, especially in 1886 and especially the so-called Lambesc on 11 June 1909, put a brutal end to the activity of mills and millers in Veruncle's combe at the beginning of the 20th century.

Cascades - Gorges de la Véroncle  © OT LCDP