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Origin and history

The Notre-Dame de Beauvoir chapel, also known as Notre-Dame du Beausset-Vieux, is a religious building built in 1164 at the request of the bishops of Marseilles. Located on a rocky hill at 383 meters above sea level, it served as a parish church until 1506 when the inhabitants left the village perched to settle in the plain. Its medieval architecture, marked by an apse in cul-de-four and a vaulted nave, preserves traces of subsequent changes (XVI or XVII century).

The site, mentioned in 1141 as Bauceto's castrum, belonged to the bishops of Marseilles, who remained lords and priors until the Revolution. The chapel, surrounded by an ancient cemetery and remains of a castle, was a place of pilgrimage from the seventeenth century, with annual processions (Monday of Easter, Pentecost, Nativity of the Virgin). It has been listed as historical monuments since 1970.

The excavations revealed traces of Roman and medieval occupation (ceramics, coins, 14th century lead bubble), confirming its central role in local history. The gradual depopulation of the Old Beausset in the 16th century marked the end of its parish use, although its status as a place of devotion still persists today.

Architecturally, the chapel combines medieval elements (belloon walls, walled arcades) and posterior additions, such as a troglodyte gallery and an 18th-18th-century hermitage. The thick walls and the remains of the castle testify to its defensive past, linked to the Marseille episcopal seigneury.

The chapel is today communal property. Its inscription in the inventory of historical monuments (1970) protects a religious, military and vernacular heritage, emblematic of medieval Var and Christian Provence.

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