Venasque

The delightful village stands on a rocky spur overlooking the Carpentras plain. It was protected in the Middle Ages by a powerful enclosure wall of which three towers and a fortified gate notably remain: the site of Venasque had been occupied since time immemorial.

At the end of the sixth century, in the time of the barbarian invasions, the bishopric of Carpentras withdrew there and the village remained an episcopal seat for centuries. One of the bishops, Saint Siffrein, had built there, on the foundations of an early Christian building, the marvellous sanctuary known as the "baptistery" which stands next to the church of Notre-Dame dating from the thirteenth century (choir from the eleventh) and itself built on the site of a Merovingian church.

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