Senez

Overview

Commune (a former episcopal city).

Where to stay in Senez

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What to see, what to do

Former cathedral of Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption

The former cathedral of the diocese of Senez, in the Provençal Romanesque style, built over earlier structures. Construction of the present building began in May 1176, most likely with the apse; the nave dates from the first half of the 13th century and the sacristy from the late Middle Ages. The portal was applied to the Romanesque wall in the 14th century. The building was consecrated on 22 October 1246 by Bishop Guillaume III. Listed as a Monument historique (Mérimée PA00080481): listed in the 1840s, delisted by decree of 28 October 1886, then listed again on 26 October 1910. It preserves a rich body of furnishings: choir stalls (16th century), altarpieces and a lectern (17th century), an antiphonary (18th century), and a set of Flemish and Aubusson tapestries (16th–18th centuries) with biblical subjects (Esther, Judith, Tobias, Elijah...) as well as verdure tapestries.

The cathedral sundial

A sundial painted on the cathedral's façade, dated 1673 or 1674 (repainted in 1784, restored in 1999). It is said to have originally depicted a bear, in allusion to the name of the first bishop. Sources give diverging dates.

Former episcopal palace

An episcopal palace built between 1751 and 1756 by Bishop Louis de Vocance: a rectangular, two-storey plan with a return wing intended for the service quarters. A witness to the life of the bishopric before its suppression.

The Lampie fountain

A fountain predating 1642, protected as a Monument historique. Its central pillar is adorned with carved masks in an archaic style.

Former seminary

A seminary built in 1644, of which the chapel survives.

Bridge over the Asse

An arched bridge completed between 1767 and 1770, the only crossing of the Asse de Blieux giving access to the village.

Rural chapels and oratories

The chapel of Notre-Dame-des-Clots (chemin des Clots), the chapel of Saint-Pierre (Riou d'Ourgéas), the chapel of la Maurelière, the chapel of Lioux (in ruins) and the church of Saint-Laurent in the hamlet of Le Poil. Numerous wayside oratories and crosses.

Prehistoric caves of Le Poil

Neolithic occupation is attested at the Chastelar cave and near the Pas d'Escale bridge, within the territory of the former commune of Le Poil.

History of Senez

Senez is the ancient Sanitium, probably the capital of a Gaulish people, which in the 2nd century became a Roman civitas within the province of the Alpes-Maritimes, marked out by the road from Vence to Sisteron. A hoard of 600 to 700 Roman bronze coins was discovered here in 1657, and a milestone bearing an inscription of the emperor Caracalla was found in 1991 in the clue de Taulanne. The city owes its renown to its bishopric: it was the seat of a diocese from the 5th century — its first known bishop, Marcel, is attested in 506 — and at the end of the 5th century it absorbed the dioceses of Thorame and Castellane. Attached to the viguerie of Castellane in 1342, the local communities went through a turbulent history: a population decimated by the Black Death and the Hundred Years' War, and destruction during the Wars of Religion (the cathedral's ornaments ransacked by the Huguenots of the Mauvans brothers in 1562, the town sacked and the cloister destroyed in 1569). The Jansenist bishop Jean Soanen was condemned here in 1727 by the Council of Embrun. The diocese, first suppressed during the Revolution (1790, the last bishop, Ruffo de Bonneval, refusing the constitutional oath), was definitively attached to that of Digne by the Concordat of 1801. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the commune lived from agriculture (cereals, sheep and goat farming), mills (plaster, walnut oil) and lavender — a distillery operated from 1927 to 1972. In 1973, the small commune of Le Poil, although not contiguous, was merged into Senez.