Montjustin

Montjustin is a common French, located in the department of the Alp-of-High-Provence and the area Provence-Alp-Coast of Azure.

Its inhabitants is called Montjustiniens.

Geography

The site of the village of Montjustin lets think of an ancient origin: it is located on Crete of a hill, with in north a good visibility on the plain, and in the south the Luberon, which constitutes a natural protection.

Access : by the RN 100 between Apt and Forcalquier, then a small road.

History

The village knew its apogee at the time medieval, whose castle as well as the wall, renovated in the Années 1990, are the witnesses today.

In 1589, the duke of Valette, with which them inhabitants had refused a halt in the city, removed the place; the population was then decimated and the shaven village.

In process of extinction after the Second world war, it was redécouvert by Lucien Jacques, Poète, which passed by this village during the marriage of the shepherd Justin Nègre that it had known at the time of the Rencontres of Contadour in which also Jean Giono took part. The installation of Lucien Jacques was followed of that of the cousins of Giono, Fiorio, who were at the origin of the agricultural rebirth of the village. The friends of Giono and Lucien Jacques which settled in Montjustin in the Années 1950 made of this small village lost in the Luberon a place exceptionally rich in intellectuals and artists.

Henri Cartier-Bresson lived there at the end of its life.

Administration

Demography

Economy

Places and monuments

the Priory of Carluc, to 5 km in a wild small valley, between Montjustin and the commune of Céreste.
ramparts of Romance origin, restored in 1995.
ruins of the Notre-Dame church of Snows, rebuilt between 1596 and 1606.
Houses of XVIe and XVIIe centuries
communal Furnace
Seen on all the chain of the Luberon and the valley of Aiguebelle, the plain of Reillanne, the mountain of Lure, the the Alps of the south.

Personalities related to the commune

Jean Giono which lived not far from there with Manosque was at the origin of the installation of Fiorio with Montjustin.
the photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson finished his days there, in its house located below the village.

local Personalities

Lucien Jacques (1891 - 1961), poet.
the poetess Lucienne Desnoues, the literary critic Lemon-yellow Pierre and his wife, the historian Suzanne Citron settled in Montjustin in the years 1950
the painter Luc Gerbier currently lives there in the old castle restored in modern villa.

The day of the weddings of Negro Justin with Montjustin, small village of Luberon, then almost in ruins, Lucien Jacques had the love at first sight for a house which it acquired immediately. One year later, Justin Nègre died. Luc Gerbier knew Lucien Jacques by his grandfather, Charles Vildrac (writer), and followed it, child and teenager, during his races in the hills of Montjustin, for the pleasure of listening to it and of looking at it painting. Lucienne Desnoues also made her knowledge via Charles Vildrac in 1946. Its foreword teaches us how large “the doors of the beautiful dry country opened”, thanks to the generous affection from the painter-poet.

Lucienne Desnoues remained in Montjustin until her death in 2004. Luc Gerbier always saw there. Both chose this village, like Lucien Jacques, for his light and its horizons extraordinary, for its loneliness, its silence and this impalpable atmosphere of poetry which reigns there, far from the modes and of the sterile speculations. A place at the same time withdrawn of the world and opened with all the passers by sensitive to its beauty. This rooting in the highlands of Provence their is necessary to open out their art: poetry or painting, it is initially celebration of the natural world, interrogation on the destiny of the man, “giddiness in front of star”. This is why the watercolours of Luc Gerbier represent neither sheep neither shepherds nor lavenders.

Events

Local fair about on August 10th. Employers' festival about on April 10th.

See too

Common of Alp-of-High-Provence

External bonds

Montjustin on the site of the national geographical Institute
Montjustin on the site of INSEE
Montjustin on the site of Quid
Localization of Montjustin on a chart of France and communes bordering
Plane on Montjustin on Mapquest
the book of Lemon-yellow Pierre, entitled " Rebirth of the village of Montjustin, 1945 at the end of the years soixante" (Small Capital, 2003) the recent history of the village reports.

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