Gordes “Village des Bories” Vaucluse department of France agricultural outhouses “Les Savournins” listed as a historic monument
Under the touristic name of “Village des Bories” there exists, km West of the Provençal village of Gordes, in the Vaucluse department of France, an outlying hamlet consisting of 20 or so dry stone (mortarless) huts that have been the exhibits of an open air museum for over three decades. These huts,which were once agricultural outhouses used on a seasonal basis, stand on a hill at an average altitude of 270–275 metres, between the Sénancole stream – its border to the West – and the Gamache vale – its border to the East, in what the Gordes villagers call the “garrigue” (scrubland) or “montagne” (the hills). The emergence of the outlying hamlet of “Les Savournins” dates back to a wide scale campaign of land clearing and cultivation that took place in 18th-century Provence, following a 1766 royal edict. The rush to the hills resulted in masses of stones being extracted from the ground to make way for new fields complete with dry stone walls and potsherds found in the huts and fields during the restoration work of the 1970s are characteristic of the earthenware manufactured in the Apt, Vaucluse, region in the 18th-19th to Provençal agricultural history Based on an analysis of the buildings’ functions, the evidence provided by both land registers, the testimonies of Gordes villagers, and vestigial tree stumps, cereals (wheat, rye) were grown in the area in the 19th century, along with olive, almond and mulberry trees (the latter for silkworm rearing) and vines. There was also a cottage industry of leather sole , some of the stone huts may have belonged to people living in a nearby village other than Gordes, a pattern that was not uncommon in the Provence of site was listed as a historic monument in 1976 and has been open to visitors for a fee ever since. Its current owner and manager is the Gordes municipality.
Size: 4928px × 3264px
Photo credit: © Manfred Glueck / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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