Nestled in the heart of exceptional scenery, the citadel of Les Baux de Provence dominates natural sites of extraordinary beauty.
22 historic monuments
The prestigious Cité des Baux-de-Provence, perched on a rocky outcrop overlooking sumptuous thousand-year-old landscapes planted with vines and olive trees as far as the eye can see, belongs to the restricted circle of the Most Beautiful Villages in France. The village itself is well worth a stop during your stay in the sun. It is a typical Provençal village, which can only be visited on foot. You will therefore have to leave the car in the car park and continue the visit on foot. It is a delight to stroll through these medieval streets that we imagine were once overflowing with life. The old houses still have so much charm, restored with great taste and decorated with flowers. It offers pretty cobbled streets lined with Renaissance mansions that run to the esplanade of the Castle. The town has 22 architectural elements classified as Historic Monuments. Among them, the fortress, unique testimony to the rich and tumultuous history of the City in the Middle Ages.
A breathtaking panorama
From the castle, the panorama is breathtaking, 360° over the whole valley. As a bonus, there are reconstructions of siege machines of the time on display. Two medieval machines are thus reproduced identically according to the techniques used by the engineers of the Middle Ages. Thus you will be able to discover a magnificent trebuchet, a formidable destroyer of walls. Powerful and precise, it could knock down walls with a range of over 200 meters. The pendulum system could propel rocks weighing 50 to 100 kg. With a weight of more than seven tons, the handling of the machine required the work and the presence of 60 troops.
The lighthouse of Provence
This place being one of the most touristic in the area, whatever the season, expect not to be alone ! Remember to take your tickets at the ticket office to avoid long queues ! Its strong cultural and heritage identity, known throughout the world, makes Baux-de-Provence “the lighthouse of Provence“. Each year, the Carrières de Lumières project an immersive show in art and music. The site is an old limestone quarry where the works of the Great Masters of painting (Dali, Gaudi, van Gogh…) are found in turn for digital exhibitions. The Carrières de Lumières benefit from a state-of-the-art process: the largest fixed multimedia installation in France projecting images over more than 6000m2 of surface area. The spectator finds himself totally immersed in images projected on all the surfaces of the stone, the ground also becomes an immense carpet of images.
