La Garde

Overview

commune

Where to stay in La Garde

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What to see, what to do

Church of Notre-Dame-des-Ormeaux

A parish church in the Romanesque tradition, an enlargement of a 13th-century building. It holds two bells, one perhaps from 1605, the other from 1887.

Chapel of Saint-Sébastien

A 16th-17th-century chapel, on the road to Castellane, with a protective purpose (invoked against the plague).

Chapel of Saint-Martin

The former parish church, less than a kilometre east of the village.

Chapel of Sainte-Anne

A chapel at the western entrance to the village.

Col de Luens (Route Napoléon)

A col at 1,054 m on the RD 4085 (Route Napoléon), east of the commune. A historic crossing point on the route followed by Napoleon in March 1815 between Golfe-Juan and Grenoble.

Mission cross and vernacular heritage

A mission cross of 1897, oratories and wayside crosses. Small rural heritage: fountains, wash-houses, wells, a bread oven, troglodyte dwellings, a bridge over the ravin des Gravières.

History of La Garde

When the Romans arrived, the area was inhabited by the Suetrii people. In the Middle Ages the lordship belonged to the Castellane family (13th century); in 1385, during the succession crisis of Queen Joanna, Guillaume du Puget, lord of La Garde, paid homage on 30 November. The fief then passed to the Gassendi family (17th century) and afterwards to the Périer family (18th century). In December 1746, during the War of the Austrian Succession, the commune was occupied by Austro-Sardinian troops, driven back on 21 and 22 January 1747 by the Franco-Spanish offensive. The Napoleonic land register was completed in 1824. Gypsum quarries were worked here in the past. After a long demographic decline (rural exodus from the middle of the 19th century to the 1960s), the population has stabilised, sustained by the Route Napoléon and by tourism (the hotel trade, a campsite). Farming (livestock) survives on a small scale.