Sisteron

Sisteron, nicknamed the gateway to Provence, is a town of the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence of about 7,850 inhabitants, at 485 metres' altitude near the confluence of the Buëch and the Durance. The river crosses a narrow gorge there between the Rocher de la Baume and the citadel, which made the town a strategic passage since Antiquity, on the Via Domitia. Capital of the Sogiontici under the name Segustero, it hosted a bishopric from the fifth century.

The citadel, built between 1589 and 1612 under the direction of Jehan Sarrazin, overlooks the town and the Durance. It served as a political prison from 1638 and now houses the chapel of Notre-Dame du Château and two museums. Badly damaged by the bombings of August 1944, the town kept the twelfth-century cathedral of Notre-Dame-des-Pommiers, as well as several chapels and towers. The citadel's open-air theatre hosts the Nuits de la Citadelle festival each summer.

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