Photo : User:Nepomuk (also on fr:Utilisateur:Nepomuk) / Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)
Moustiers-Sainte-Marie
Moustiers-Sainte-Marie is a village in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, at the entrance to the Verdon gorges and near Lake Sainte-Croix, at about 630 metres' altitude. It is listed among Les Plus Beaux Villages de France. According to the original record, it was founded in 434 by monks of the abbey of Lérins, and its name comes from the Latin monasterium, meaning monastery.
The village is set against cliffs, on either side of a torrent. A star hanging on a chain stretched between two sections of cliff makes it recognisable: according to local tradition, it was the offering of a knight returned from the crusades, although several legends circulate about it. The Romanesque chapel of Notre-Dame-de-Beauvoir overlooks the village, and the church of Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption bears witness to its religious past.
Moustiers knew prosperity in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries thanks to its faïence glazed white and decorated notably in blue. Production declined in the nineteenth century, then the craftsman Marcel Provence revived it in 1925; several workshops still perpetuate this art and a museum is devoted to it. In summer, visitor numbers are high.
