Allons

Overview

Commune.

Where to stay in Allons

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What to see, what to do

Parish church of Saint-Martin

The village's parish church, dedicated to Saint Martin, whose origins go back at least to the late 11th century: in 1072 the estate was given by Pons Sylvain to the Abbey of Saint-Victor in Marseille, which founded a priory of Saint-Martin here (abandoned in the 13th century). The village grew up around this church. It preserves a rich collection of furnishings registered as monuments historiques.

Reliquary bust of Saint Domnin

A reliquary bust in carved and gilded wood depicting Saint Domnin (held to be the first bishop of Digne), mounted on procession litters. In 1745, the villagers opposed the bishop of Senez, who had come to remove the bust deemed too archaic: they hid the relic and continued their devotions. The object is registered as a monument historique and kept in the church of Saint-Martin.

Paintings by Fidèle Patritti

A series of mid-19th-century paintings attributed to Fidèle Patritti, registered as monuments historiques: a Resurrection (1851), an Annunciation (before 1858) and the Donation of the Rosary (1851), kept in the parish church, together with other pieces of goldsmith's work (a monstrance, chalices) and statues (Saint Joseph, 1856; Virgin and Child, 1881).

Chapel of Saint-Domnin (La Moûtière)

A chapel in the hamlet of La Moûtière, on the torrent de l'Ivoire, built on a site that may once have been home to an early-medieval community.

Chapel of Saint-Martin and the so-called Templar tower

A former chapel of Saint-Martin accompanied by a tower locally said to be 'Templar'; the attribution to the Templars is more a matter of legend than of established historical fact. It is the subject of preservation projects.

Vauclause site (the Sarrazine tower)

A rocky spur commanding the entrance to the valley of the Ivoire, bearing the ruins of a medieval castle (a tower said to be 'Sarrazine'). Vauclause was once a distinct fortified community, with 12 hearths in 1315, besieged by Raymond de Turenne in 1390, depopulated by the plague and the Hundred Years' War, and later attached to Allons.

Oppidum of the Castellas (Chastellas)

A height bearing an oppidum occupied from the Iron Age onwards; a protohistoric millstone was unearthed here, attesting to an early occupation of the site before the Roman conquest of the Verdon valley.

Communal oven, fountain-washhouses and vernacular heritage

A communal bread oven restored and reopened in 2009, two fountain-washhouses (one dated 1927, the other at La Moûtière), a war memorial, wayside oratories and crosses, and a former 18th-century presbytery — a set typical of the mountain villages of the upper Verdon.

History of Allons

The village first appears in written records in 1113 as Alonz; the name is thought to derive from a Germanic personal name or from a pre-Gaulish root evoking the Alpine relief. The Castellas site was occupied by an oppidum as early as the Iron Age, and the territory was incorporated into the Roman Empire after Augustus's conquest of the Verdon valley. In 1072, Pons Sylvain gave his lands to the Abbey of Saint-Victor in Marseille, which established a priory of Saint-Martin around which the village took shape; the priory was abandoned in the 13th century. The fief belonged first to the bishops of Senez, then passed through the hands of several co-lords — the de Requiston, de Richery, de Villeneuve and Disdier families, and finally the d'Autane, the last lords from 1757 until the Revolution. The neighbouring fortified community of Vauclause declined after the plague and the Hundred Years' War and was absorbed into Allons. In 1745, the inhabitants stood up to the bishop who had come to remove the bust of Saint Domnin, an episode that has remained emblematic of the village's attachment to its traditions. The population peaked in the mid-19th century (378 inhabitants in 1851); the economy, long based on subsistence mixed farming and livestock, then turned to lavender, with the establishment of three distilleries that have since disappeared. The arrival of the Saint-André–Nice railway (a line inaugurated in August 1911, later known as the 'train des Pignes') partly opened up the valley. Like many mountain villages, Allons experienced a strong rural exodus in the 20th century and today has just over a hundred inhabitants.