Flânerie dans le vieil Orgon

Duration of the visit: 1 h 30. Easy pedestrian route.The gaze of visitors today will be seduced by the testimonies of the medieval past and renaissance of Orgon during this stroll in its old centre.Opposite the Municipal Tourist Office, is the parish church of the 14th century, majestically located at the top of the Horseshoe staircase, which is described in the itinerary of places of worship.Back to right the rue Jules Robert, towards the porte Sainte-Anne. It was until the nineteenth century, between Alpilles and Durance, the only passage to Marseille and Avignon.At N ° 20, rue Jules Robert stands former hotel Collin in rubble and Ashlar, decorated with a balcony. It remains of its Renaissance façade that traces of sealed openings which reveal the successive Redistributions. This illustrious family orgonnaise, now extinct, gave the village its Royal notaries. A few steps away is the door Sainte-Anne, West of the second circle of walls dating from 1591. She is ogival shape stone with a guard room, the location of the coat of arms of the city is visible from the outside. Famous people crossed this passage as Nostradamus, François Ier or even Napoleon led in exile in Elba on 26 April 1814. He was saved from the royalist scuffle that awaited the Imperial car, last of the convoy, that thanks to a subterfuge: an Austrian general took his place, while only him, coated with a foreign uniform, was already far in the car of the head of the convoy. Orgon was also a stage for military and convicts city. After a few steps along the street Jean Aubert. Left the residences in secret gardens, right the ramparts of 1591, one meter wide on six of top, intact, including the rubble of siding derived in large part from the destruction of the castle of the Duke of Guise. Their walls protected the villagers of civil instability of the wars of religion. The army confined in the fort of Beauregard built the same year.The course, which continues on the left, the oratories road, to the top of the village, past des tilleuls secular presbytery, the Oratory of the Annunciation to the right. Hortet, the oldest gate fortified door dates from the 11th century. It belongs to the walls of the first village which stood at the foot of the Castle. Warhead, it has retained its room of the corps de garde, battlements alternating with serrated merlons, embrasures, a bull's eye cut in the rampart. The first ramparts of Orgon lined West high village of Savoy. They connected the Hortet door to the oven's city and occupied the current location of the Town Hall and the Church. A remnant of wall is still visible on the left of the common house, the whereabouts of stately prisons.After the door of the Hortet comes the Savoie district, unventilated terraced. The Duke of Savoy captured in 1590. He had to give way in 1592 to the Duke of Guise, Lord of Orgon since 1490 date on which Louis XI donated to the family of Lorraine. On this site where takes place the first week of July a medieval festival was the high, lively village with winding and steep streets to 110 houses bending under the weight of centuries, gradually deserted in favour of the sub village. Only remain the imposing ruins of the fort medieval where you have to admire the views high above the Valley of the Durance.Strategic location, the "Castrum druentioe" still called Castle of the Duke of Guise, ancient celto-Ligurian oppidum, fortified at the end of the Roman empire, is a strategic point to monitor the Durance Valley. At the bottom of the fortress lived a population of men of arms and shepherds. The stronghold was destroyed in the 6th by the Visigoths who besiege Arles. Rebuilt in the 11th century, it became the fief of the counts of Provence. It is in the 12th century a military fortress deemed, to monitor the Durance Valley. It is a place of justice and a feared prison. Louis XI fit again defeated in 1483. Relieved in the 16th by the family De Guise during the League, she was dismantled a fourth and final time under Louis XIII by Richelieu in 1630 to the great relief of the villagers. This remarkable site testifies to the upheavals of history Orgon and Provence.Descend the Savoie up the stairs under the bridge connecting the two buildings of the Town Hall, site of the former gate fortified city oven. Take the rue Georges Coste right. At no. 4 is the Renaissance of an old consular House from the 16th century façade. On the first floor, laid on a cornice with modillions, two mullioned windows have retained their ties and their fluted amounts adorned with Ionic volutes. They are surmounted by a cornice which houses a frieze and an architrave. There is a beautiful device of stones under the plaster cement between the two windows. On the right, rue de la Fontaine leads to the door of the Durance. In this street there is an another restored renaissance façade recently. Twin door Sainte-Anne, ogival shape with a round path this door, called also gate of the Angel, has retained its machicolations. A staircase allowed at night and in time of war, of the room of the body guard, lowered a Portcullis or Saracen. It is in a natural cave nearby that was levied a duty on travelers who crossed the river and those who ran along the left bank. Join the street Jean Moutte instead of the lime kiln, to admire the remarkable perspective towards the rocky outcrop of the castle of the Duke of Guise and the troglodytes of the end cliffs is the chain of the Alpilles.Turn back to street Edmond Coste. At no. 15, the Berne hotel housed in 1657 Queen Christine of Sweden and then, on February 6, 1814, Pope Pius VII spoke to the people at the top of the curved wrought iron balcony. The beautiful volumes of this mansion, his overtures and its stone facings recovered recently their nobility.The facade of the N ° 2 cans of the renaissance elements: Corinthian capital, Bole in bas-relief fluted, architrave, cornice, modillon.This circuit ends. Orgon did of other routes of full nature, history, memory, geology or archaeology for you to discover.