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Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The parish bell tower of Falcon-de-Barcelonnette, also called the Tower of the Clock, is a late reconstruction, probably dated from the sixteenth century, according to the hypotheses of historians. It adopts the style of the square tower towers with an openwork upper floor, typical of the Ubaye valley. This tower was joined to an ancient church around the year one thousand, whose excavations in 1989 revealed the foundations in the shape of a Latin cross on the town hall square. This research also revealed an underlying Roman necropolis, suggesting an ancient occupation of the site.

The archaeological discovery led historians to hypothesize that Falcon-de-Barcelonnette could correspond to Rigomagus, a Gallo-Roman city mentioned as the capital of the valley and the seat of an ephemeral bishopric in the early fifth century. Although this identification remains uncertain, it illustrates the strategic importance of the place from ancient times, then as a medieval religious center.

Ranked as historical monuments in 1913, the bell tower bears witness to the superposition of the eras: Roman vestige, Paleo-Christian building, and Renaissance reconstruction. Its current location, on the town of Faucon-de-Barcelonnette (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence), makes it a key heritage marker of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, linking ancient memory and religious architecture.

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