Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

Reillanne Presbytery is an emblematic building located in the heart of the village, close to Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption Church. Although its origins date back to the early 13th and mid 16th centuries, its current construction dates mainly from the late 17th or early 18th centuries (after 1702 and before 1756). It is distinguished by an atypical architecture, with three vaulted cot halls superimposed on two levels, and a facade decorated with a cartridge reminiscent of its past use as a common house. Inside, three mantelle chimneys decorated with gypsums and a series of twelve paintings depicting the apostles, acquired by the vicar François Brémond, add to its historical character. These paintings, inscribed in the title object since 1959, were intended to adorn the central common room, place of life and meeting for priests housed in the building.

Designed to house the vicar François Brémond, secondary priests, a cleric and a valet, the presbytery organized its spaces around a central common room serving five individual units. The area reserved for the vicar included a large room, two bedrooms, a kitchen, as well as a stable, a hay attic and a terraced garden divided into five lots. This garden, like the interior spaces, reflected a collective organization, where each occupant had a cultivable lot. The building, registered as historical monuments since January 21, 2019, is now owned by the municipality of Reillanne. Its architectural plan, unchanged since its construction, makes it a rare testimony of the clear and hierarchical organization of the Provencal presbyteries in modern times.

The history of the presbytery is inseparable from that of the Church of Our Lady of the Assumption, with which it forms a central religious ensemble in the village. Vicar François Brémond, a key figure in his construction, marked the building by his decorative and functional choices, as the acquisition of apostolic paintings. These works, still preserved on site, illustrate the symbolic and pedagogical importance of sacred art in rural presbyteries. The building, by its size and design, also reveals the social role of priests in the eighteenth century: not only housed collectively, but also gathered in spaces dedicated to community life and pastoral activities. Today, the presbytery remains a major heritage site of the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, open to the discovery of its history and preserved architecture.

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