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Fontaine-de-Vaucluse Fontaine-de-Vaucluse - 1525
Fontaine-de-Vaucluse Fontaine-de-Vaucluse - 1527
Fontaine-de-Vaucluse Fontaine-de-Vaucluse - 1528

Fontaine-de-Vaucluse, Luberon

30 kilometers from Avignon, this village was built around its very impressive source. It is a very picturesque natural site in a deep valley with a landscape of caves and valleys which has inspired many artists. Fontaine-de-Vaucluse is also a place steeped in history. All these assets make it the most visited village in Vaucluse!

What makes this town special?

If Fontaine-de-Vaucluse is very busy in summer, it is thanks to the most beautiful river in the department, the Sorgue. Fascinating emerald green, it springs from the foot of a 230 meter high limestone cliff. It is the largest resurgence in Europe. You have to walk along the river from the village to go up to the fountain, crossing a narrow gorge. We arrive at the place where the cliff closes the valley, the Vallis Clausa, the "closed Valley", which ended up giving the name "Vaucluse". But the Fontaine de Vaucluse is also an abyss more than 300 meters deep.

This spring, with its powerful waters, has attracted many artists including Petrarch, Boccaccio, Stendhal, Lamartine, Georges Sand and Chateaubriand and was a place of literary and romantic pilgrimage in the 19th century.

A walk through the village allows you to admire the many traces of its past: the remains of the castle of the Bishops of Cavaillon, from the 13th century, the Saint-Véran-Sainte-Marie church, built on the ruins of a temple pagan, dedicated to the saint who freed the region of Couloubre, a formidable monster. In the center of the village, a column, erected in 1804, to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Petrarch's birth.

The village also attracts for its craftsmen and their know-how in many fields: spun glass and crystal, paper, wood, pottery, cutlery, leather and stained glass.

Location

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