Peyresq (from ''le pays des pierres'', or ''the land of stones'') is a French village in the

commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to: Administrative-territorial entities * Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township ** Communes of ...

Thorame-Haute Thorame-Haute (; oc, Torama Auta) is a commune in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department in southeastern France. Geography Thorame-Haute is a village in Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, fixed on the foot of the Massif of Chamatte at an altitude of , in ...

in France, perched on a rocky outcrop of the

Alpes-de-Haute-Provence Alpes-de-Haute-Provence or sometimes abbreviated as AHP (; oc, Aups d'Auta Provença; ) is a department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of France, bordering Alpes-Maritimes and Italy to the east, Var to the south, Vaucluse to the west ...

at 1,528 metres above sea level.

History

The village first appears in charters of 1042 as ''Petriscum'', referring to its rocky surroundings. Peyresq (in its occitan spelling Peiresc) gave its name to the famous humanist

Nicolas Claude Fabri de Peiresc Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc (1 December 1580 – 24 June 1637), often known simply as Peiresc, or by the Latin form of his name, Peirescius, was a French astronomer, antiquary and savant, who maintained a wide correspondence with scientis ...

- he was its lord, but never set foot there. After the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...

, the village came to be spelled as Peyresq, and in November 1964 it was merged with the village of La Colle-Saint-Michel to create a new commune called Saint-Michel-Peyresq. That commune was in turn absorbed by the municipality of

in March 1974.

Reconstruction and renaissance

In 1952, Georges Lambeau, director of the Académie des Beaux-Arts at

Namur Namur (; ; nl, Namen ; wa, Nameur) is a city and municipality in Wallonia, Belgium. It is both the capital of the province of Namur and of Wallonia, hosting the Parliament of Wallonia, the Government of Wallonia and its administration. Namu ...

, was searching the region for a site for a holiday camp for his students and found Peyresq almost completely abandoned and almost all its houses in ruins. Falling in love with the village's charm, he decided to reconstruct it in his own image. His friend Toine Smets, an entrepreneur from Brussels, decided to finance the project. According to the historian Louise Sgaravizzi, in 1953 of 53 houses 24% were habitable, 40% needed restoration and 16% were in ruins (the majority on what is now called the cour des Métiers). The access route to the village was paved in 1953. In 1954, the last farmer stopped farming in the fields at the foot of the village. In 1954, the young architect Pierre Lamby joined the project. At the same time, Toine Smets revealed Peyresq to Lucien and Jane Jacquet, who founded the association Pro Peyresq, soon joined by Jacques Waefelaer and his wife Jacqueline, respectively treasurer and "responsable de l'intendance" (économat).

Sites and monuments

* The old Church * Valley of the river Vaïre * Valley of the river

Verdon Verdon may refer to: People * Verdon (surname) Places France * Verdon, Dordogne, in the Dordogne ''département'' * Verdon, Marne, in the Marne ''département'' * Vinon-sur-Verdon, an old French town in the département of Var, Provence-Alpes- ...

* the mountains

Reception

Peyresq is an important action place of a novel published in Germany Wolfgang Schoor, The hour in Peyresq (German orig. ''Die Stunde in Peyresq''), Union-Verlag, Berlin, 1966

References

External links

Pro Peyresq ASBL

Bibliography

* Paulette Borrely-Goujon et Lucie Imbert : "Peyresq, un destin" * Paulette Borrely-Goujon et Lucie Imbert : "Peyresq, un village de Haute-Provence à la recherche des temps perdus", préface de Pierre Borrély, dans la collection Deux ou trois mots pour le dire ; Mallemoisson, éditions de Haute-Provence, 1994. * Mady Smets "L'Architecte et le Berger" * Louise Navello-Sgaravizzi "Découverte d'une seigneurie : Peyresq" * Louise Navello-Sgaravizzi "Peyresq, l'extraordinaire destin d'un village des Alpes Provençales" {{Authority control Former communes of Alpes-de-Haute-Provence Populated places disestablished in 1974