Country the Acute ones

The country the Acute ones is a formed original territory of the 23 communes of the cantons of Cadenet and Pertuis. It is naturally delimited by the Luberon in north and the Durance in the south.

The country the Acute ones has a rich person passed behind him, partly explored by a General Inventory initiated by the Ministère of the culture which was devoted to him in 1981, and from which are extracted the following lines:

The Prehistory, the Protohistoire and the Gallo-Roman Period are marked by the presence of some vestiges (workshops of flint size, Oppida aligned along the Durance, villas…)…

Starting from second half of Xe century, the insecurity and a deep political and social reorganization of the country eliminate a dispersed habitat gradually and gather the rural populations under the supervision of the lords. Agglomerations which are born thus between Xe and XIVe century, some remain, the different one, like Roubian (territory of Cabrières), Samson (edge of the Durance), Trésémines (close to Villelaure), or Limaye (close of the Country house of Jourdans), disappeared today.

XIIe and XIIIe centuries make demographic great strides and a prosperity which made it possible to develop agriculture, the trade and the craft industry, which involves the increase in the urban centres and a reappearance of a dispersed rural settlement.

The castle of Lourmarin

Second half XIVe century, on the other hand is marked by the wars, the armed robbery, the Peste, which involve a depopulation and a general recession. When, at the end of XVe century, the effects of returned peace are felt, the rural populations seek new grounds and the lords return, the deserted villages are rebuilt. The movement continues during first half of XVIe century, attracting on these grounds to reconquer foreigners, such as the Vaudois brought high alpine valleys by the barons of the Aigues Turn-. With these newcomers are introduced a new life, a new architecture (houses with hood) and especially a new spirit.

Initially considered to be inoffensive, the Of Vaud ones, by their rallying with the Calvinism, draw to them the attention, then the hatred of the members of Parliament inhabitant of Aix. Lawsuits in persecution, of provocation in rebellion, the parties exasperate until the tragedies days of April 1545 which see the setting with bag of more than one score of villages, the massacres of Mérindol and Aigues Cabrières-and mark one long period of disorder and violence.

The peace brought back by Henri IV is welcome. The test however was hard: it is necessary to await the end of the XVIIe century to find a normal rate/rhythm of expansion. The villages start to leave their walls, the campaigns cover country houses, everywhere one clears, one arranges, one rebuilds. The revocation of the Édit of Nantes involves neither clashes, nor resistance. One demolishes the temples of Cabrières and of the Mound, one renames the reformed populations, but the churches reopened for these " new catholiques" remain empty whereas is organized a clandestine worship.

The disordered waste lands, the increased needs for construction, the extension of the ovine and caprine breeding are mainly at the origin of the intensive deforestation of the solid mass of Luberon, formerly covered of thick forest of leafy trees, from which the Revolution, by selling by the auction the reserves seigneuriales, will make disappear the last scraps.

Put aside the plundering and the fire of the Castle of Turn-in Aigues, the Revolution did not cause remarkable violences or actions in the country.

First half of the XIXe century marks the cusp of the demographic curve of the Country the Acute ones. As of the middle of the century, the beginnings of industrialization start to empty the campaigns. The movement, which will touch all the communes, facilitated by the construction of the railroad and accelerated by the two wars of the beginning of our century, stopped only very recently. The reconversion of agriculture in the production of fruit and vegetables and of the table wines, the establishment very close to the atomic center of Cadarache and the development of tourism contribute today to again fix the populations in process of increase and to return to the country a certain economic dynamism.

Source: FEBRUARY (P. - has.) (Dir.): General inventory of the Monuments and the artistic richnesses of France, Provence-Alp-Coast-with Azur, Vaucluse, the Country the Acute ones, Paris, 1981, HMSO, 716 p.