Moustiers-Sainte-Marie

Moustiers-Sainte-Marie Village of art and ceramics

Everyone loves Moustiers-Sainte-Marie, a village situated at the intersection of the spectacular Gorges du Verdon and the Route de la Lavande (Lavender Trail) which crosses the Plateau de Valensole, at the edge of the Grand Canyon and the vast Lac de Sainte-Croix. Moustiers-Sainte-Marie, perched on the side of a cliff, is often said to resemble a nativity scene.  Classified as one of the ‘Loveliest Villages in France’ and a ‘Cité de Caractère’, the village has a long history dating back to 30 000 B.C., shown by hunting mementos carved in the rock on the Plateau de Ségriès.

From the 5th century onwards, local tufa stone caves provided shelter for monks from the Abbey de Lérins who later built the monastery from which Moustiers takes its name. An important pilgrimage centre in the 13th century, the village specialised in pottery during the 17th century and had its heyday in the 19th century when the population reached 5,000 :  17 mills downstream from the source of the River Adou bear witness to major industrial activity during this period.

Nowadays, pottery still plays a leading role in Moustiers in the wake of Pierre Clerissy, founder of the pottery and custodian of its secrets. During the course of his reign, Louis XIV ordered three sumptuary edicts to replenish the state coffers and finance his wars. He had all the gold, silver and bronze tableware in the kingdom melted down and replaced with Moustiers china. The « finest china produced in the kingdom » continued to develop until the beginning of the 19th century before gradually declining. But production was revived in 1927 thanks to the efforts of Marcel Provence and the tradition lives on today in around twenty local workshops.

from Manosque (railway station)."