Saint-Martin-de-Brômes

Overview

A commune of Alpes-de-Haute-Provence (04), arrondissement of Forcalquier, canton of Valensole, part of the Durance-Luberon-Verdon Agglomération (DLVA) and of the Verdon Regional Nature Park. Postcode 04800.

Hikes starting from Saint-Martin-de-Brômes

• GR4 — Traversée du Verdon

Where to stay in Saint-Martin-de-Brômes

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What to see, what to do

Clock tower (known as the Templars' tower)

A keep-cum-watchtower about 23.50 metres high, built of rusticated limestone blocks, crowned with machicolations on corbels and pierced with loopholes. Despite its nickname it has no connection with the Order of the Temple: it is a seigneurial tower built by the Castellane family, linked to Boniface de Castellane's exchange of lands around 1343 (14th century). Turned into a dovecote in the 19th century, it was then bought by the commune, which topped it with a wrought-iron campanile and a clock (the bell dates from 1866). Classified as a historic monument on 11 January 1921. Its ground floor has housed the Gallo-Roman museum since 1972. The building is the subject of a restoration campaign.

Gallo-Roman museum

Housed on the ground floor of the clock tower, this museum of about 10 m² (presented as one of the smallest in France) was created in 1972 on the initiative of local residents, following the discovery of two Gallo-Roman graves during resurfacing work on the departmental road. It holds in particular a limestone sarcophagus from the first half of the 4th century with its lead lid (more than 300 kg) and a well-preserved skeleton, as well as a milestone of the emperor Carus (AD 283) bearing the number XIV, a marker on the Roman road linking Riez to Aix-en-Provence. Open in summer (15 June - 15 September), and on request out of season. Closed while work on the tower is under way.

Parish church of Saint-Martin

A former priory of the Abbey of Saint-Victor in Marseille, dedicated to Saint Martin de Tours. The central nave is Provençal Romanesque of the 11th-12th centuries, with a pointed barrel vault and a choir with a half-dome vault; the 14th-century south side aisle has rib vaults; a 15th-century north chapel gives the building a Latin-cross plan; the pyramidal stone bell tower dates from the 15th-16th centuries. Registered as a historic monument in 1959. It holds a set of paintings by Esprit-Michel Gibelin (1890-1898) illustrating the life of Saint Martin (classified as historic objects), a polychrome wooden statue of Saint Antoine, patron of truffle growers, and an 18th-century Baroque tabernacle in gilded wood.

Oppidum of Buffe-Arnaud

A Celto-Ligurian oppidum at the confluence of the Colostre and the Verdon, occupied in the 6th-5th centuries BC and then reoccupied in the 3rd century BC until the Roman conquest; it was besieged by the Romans in 124 BC. Excavated in 1992, the site has since been covered over and can no longer be visited.

Merovingian cemetery of the Pinet ravine

A Merovingian necropolis uncovered at the locality of le ravin de Pinet, evidence that the site was occupied in the early Middle Ages.

Old houses and twin window

The old village still has medieval houses of the 15th-16th centuries and a remarkable 14th-century twin window, with capitals carved with foliage, on the main street.

Bridge, fountains and wash-house

A bridge with a single barrel-vaulted arch over a tributary of the Colostre (late 17th - 18th century). The village has several fountains, including a bulb fountain of 1845 (place Arsène-Burle) and a neighbourhood fountain of 1902, as well as a wash-house of 1910. Place de la Libération, shaded by plane trees, is a listed site.

History of Saint-Martin-de-Brômes

The name appears in 1042 ('ecclesiam de Brumeç') and then around 1064 ('Sancti Martini de Bromezes'): 'Brumeç' is a pre-Celtic place name, probably linked to a watercourse, and the qualifier refers to Saint Martin de Tours. The site was occupied from Protohistory onwards (the oppidum of Buffe-Arnaud) and then in the Gallo-Roman period: the Roman road from Riez to Aix-en-Provence crosses the commune, marked by the milestone of Carus, and 4th-century sarcophagi have been found here. In the Middle Ages the church and the land belonged to the Abbey of Saint-Victor in Marseille (a priory). An agreement of 1182 organised the sharing-out between the monks and the local knights. From 1227 the Castellane family held the lordship, and kept it until 1673, when Antoine Payan de Saint-Martin, treasurer general of France, bought the estate, which his family held until the Revolution. During the Revolution the commune was briefly renamed 'Brômes'. On 16 June 1944 fifteen young Resistance fighters were killed by a German unit at the vallon des Bayles, a tragedy the commune commemorates. The village was used as a location for Nicole Garcia's film 'Mal de pierres' (2016).

Events & highlights

Commemoration of 16 June 1944 — 16 June

A tribute to the fifteen young Resistance fighters killed at the vallon des Bayles.