Moustiers-Sainte-Marie

Interesting facts

The chain that carries the star across the gap between the two cliffs is roughly 135 metres long and weighs around 150 kilograms.

The star has come down at least eleven times over the centuries; it last fell into the ravine in 1995 and had to be hung up again.

Tradition places the knight's vow in his captivity after the fall of Damietta in 1249, during the Seventh Crusade.

A stone stairway of 262 steps climbs to the chapel of Notre-Dame-de-Beauvoir, though the path once counted 365.

In 1860 the seven old oratories on the chapel path gave way to fourteen Stations of the Cross, later faced with faience tiles by Simone Garnier.

The chapel rises on the site of a 5th-century Marian sanctuary, received Gothic additions in 1536 and was listed as a historic monument in 1921.

Pierre Clérissy is recorded as a master faience maker in 1679, founding the dynasty that first made Moustiers ware famous.

Around 1737 Joseph Olérys brought polychrome painting and fanciful grotesque figures to Moustiers, breaking with the earlier blue-only decoration.

The Clérissy workshops copied hunting scenes from Antonio Tempesta's engravings and lace-like ornament in the manner of Jean Bérain, designer to Louis XIV.

By the late 18th century twelve faience workshops were at work, and in 1765 the village counted about 1,955 inhabitants, nearly three times today's number.

Why it is worth it

Moustiers-Sainte-Marie clings to terraces at the foot of two limestone cliffs, where a stream drops through a cleft in the rock straight through the middle of the village. High above the roofs, a gilded star hangs on a long chain stretched across the gap between the two walls of rock, and higher still, on a ledge in the cliff, sits the chapel of Notre-Dame-de-Beauvoir. The village stands at about 630 metres at the western entrance to the Verdon Gorge, with Lac de Sainte-Croix a short distance downstream.

The star has its own legend, popularised by the Provençal poet Frédéric Mistral: a knight of the Blacas family, held captive during the Crusades, is said to have vowed to hang a star over the village if he ever came home. Some seventeen different versions of the story circulate. The present five-pointed star, about 115 cm across, dates from 1957. The settlement itself grew from a community of monks in the 5th century and was linked to the abbey of Lérins by 1097. Its parish church of Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption, built under Cardinal Pierre de Pratis between 1336 and 1361, has a Romanesque nave of five bays and a bell tower in the Lombard manner with arcaded openings. The chapel above was built with a Romanesque nave in the 12th century and later Gothic additions, and is reached by a path lined with small oratories decorated with enamelled plaques.

For centuries Moustiers was a centre of fine pottery, especially faience. Water from the spring-fed waterfall powered the workshops, and from the late 17th century masters such as Clérissy, Olérys and Ferrat made its blue-painted wares famous. The last kiln went cold in 1873, until Marcel Provence revived the craft in the 1920s, and a faience museum opened in the village in 1929. Today the village has fewer than 700 inhabitants and is a member of the association Les Plus Beaux Villages de France.

Getting there

Moustiers-Sainte-Marie lies in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department, about 27 km from Digne-les-Bains. The D952 road runs through the area along the Verdon between Castellane and Gréoux-les-Bains. The nearest airport is Toulon-Hyères Airport (TLN), about 84 km away.

Moustiers-Sainte-Marie

Interesting facts

Why it is worth it

Getting there

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