Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Place des Arcades de Valbonne is part of a project of repopulation initiated in the 16th century by the prior of Valbonne, Don Antoine Taxil, and the bishop of Grasse Augustin Grimaldi. In 1519, an act of housing gave up land to settlers in neighbouring hamlets (Clausonne, Sartoux, Tourreviste, Villebruc), on condition of settling in a new village. This project breaks with the dispersed traditional Provencal habitat, inspired by the bastides of the South-West with a tiled plan centered on a square.

Construction of the square and arcade houses took place in the 17th century, according to the plan designed by Augustin Grimaldi. The streets, perpendicular, frame a central square lined with vaulted galleries, reflecting rational and defensive urban planning. The colonists, subject to seigneurial rights (twelve, right to grind, pressing), must reside in the village, ensuring its sustainability. This model contrasts with traditional provencal villages, often organized around hamlets.

Ranked a historic monument in 1992, Place des Arcades today embodies the legacy of this unique urban experience in Provence. The inscription protects all the galleries, the facades and roofs of the houses, as well as the ground of the square. The site, a mixed property (common and private), reflects the transition between the Middle Ages and the modern era, marked by epidemics, disturbances, and the desire to structure rural habitat.

The Chalaisian abbey Sainte-Marie de Vallis Bonna, founded in 1190 on the banks of the Brague, plays a key role in this history. The priory, holder of the temporal jurisdiction, oversees the project until its attachment to the Kingdom of France in 1482. The archives, as the notarial act of 1519 received by Jean Sucque, royal notary of Vence, document this social and spatial transformation, linked to the post-crisis reconstruction of the 14th and 15th centuries.

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