Vérignon

Overview

commune

Landscape and nature

A territory dominated by an exceptional downy oak wood, one of the finest in Provence. The subsoil holds the Vérignon syncline, an Eocene collapse structure filled with marls and red clays. A modified Mediterranean climate, with annual rainfall of the order of 900 mm; a zone of moderate seismic activity. The commune belongs to the Verdon Regional Nature Park.

Where to stay in Vérignon

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What to see, what to do

Château des Blacas (18th century)

A rectangular château of two storeys, with an attic storey and corner turrets, a courtyard and a private chapel, set in a park of centuries-old oaks. It was built by the Blacas family after the abandonment of the medieval fortress; it remained Blacas property until 1947 and then passed to the Rémusat family.

Ruins of the medieval castle

The remains of the Blacas fortress (13th century) on a rocky spur: round towers, a rectangular main range and an entrance defended by a barbican. The castle was abandoned in the early 18th century for want of water and comfort.

Church of the Assumption

A parish church going back to the 13th century (the former chapel of the feudal castle). It preserves 19th-century furnishings protected as historic monuments (a pulpit, panels, a processional banner); the vault of the Blacas family lies beneath the Marian altar.

Chapel of Notre-Dame-de-Liesse

A votive chapel at about 991 m above sea level, on the path from Aups to Vérignon, linked to a legend of a Blacas returning from crusade.

Chapel of Saint-Priest

A chapel established around 1098 at about 1,066 m above sea level, built on the remains of an oppidum of the Verucini and of an 11th-century fortified settlement.

Dolmen of Le Défens

A dolmen of the Chalcolithic period, evidence of prehistoric occupation of the area.

Downy oak wood of Vérignon

A forest of downy oaks among the finest in Provence, with old, gnarled trees, celebrated in the work of the writer Jacques de Bourbon Busset.

History of Vérignon

The name is thought to derive from the Verucini, a Gaulish tribe of Gallia Narbonensis; the Roman road from Fréjus to Riez crossed the territory (four milestones have been identified along the RD 49). Around the year 1000 the Blacas family, lords of Aups, settled here and built a medieval fortress on a rocky pinnacle. For want of water and comfort, that castle was abandoned in the early 18th century in favour of a new one in the park. The Blacas kept the estate until 1947. The commune has undergone a sharp fall in population: about 130 inhabitants in the 19th century, 76 in 1793, 17 in 1975, and only a handful of inhabitants today, which makes it the Var's least populated commune.