Page 54 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Provence & The Côte d'Azur

52  INTRODUCING PROVENCE

Classical Provence

Provence in the 17th and 18th centuries saw a decrease in
regional allegiance and growth of national awareness. Towns
grew and majestic monuments, town houses (hôtels) and
châteaux proliferated. But despite economic development in Pavillon de Vendôme
the textile industry and the growth of the ports of Toulon and Jean-Claude Rambot made the
Marseille, the period was bleak for many, culminating in the Atlantes for this building (1667)
in Aix (see pp152–3).
devastating plague of 1720. The storming of the Bastille in
Paris in 1789 sparked popular uprisings and revolutionary
marches on Paris.
The death toll
was over 100,000
in the last plague
in Europe.

Boat-building in Toulon
Toulon, a strategic port, was famous
for its boat-building. Galley slaves,
chained to their oars, were a great
tourist attraction in the 17th century.

Corpses were
hauled in carts
to mass graves.
The Great Plague
Vue du Cours pendant la Peste by Michel
Serre depicts the 1720 plague in Marseille,
Santon Crib Scene brought by a cargo boat from Syria. Over
The santon (“little saints” in Provençal) cribs half of Marseille’s population died. All contact
were first made after the Revolution, when the with the city was banned and huge walls
churches were shut. They soon became a very were built to halt the epidemic, but it still
popular local craft. spread as far as Aix, Arles and Toulon.

1660 Louis XIV, the “Sun King”, Sun King 1707 English siege of
enters Marseille emblem Toulon fails
1622 Louis XIII visits 1696 France returns
Arles, Aix and Marseille Nice to Savoy
1600 1625 1650 1675 1700
1679 Vauban
starts work on 1707 Provence
1646 Jews confined 1666 Work begins new port invaded by
to ghettos, notably on the Canal du Midi at Toulon Eugène of Savoy
Louis XIII in Carpentras
1691 Nice occupied by the French