De Ducelia à Castellane la Vaillante...

Castellane’s varied history, often plagued by terrible events (Saracen invasions and religious wars) dates back hundreds of years.

The town changed its name many times (oppidum of Ducelia, the roman town of Salinae, the medieval town of Petra Castellana) and location before permanently establishing itself at the foot of a rock on the north side of the Verdon.

The origin of the name “Salinae” can be explained by the fact that there used to be two salt water wells (from Latin). One can still be seen on the route des Gorges du Verdon near the “Moulin de la Salaou”.

The other one doesn’t exist anymore, it used to be on the foot of the hill “le Bouquet” at 800m distance from the first. Even if it gave less water, it was still enough for the two fountains and the inhabitants off the village. Then it was possible to withdraw the necessary salt by evaporation. Nowadays is difficult to imagine how important salt was, now that there’s enough salt and that everyone can afford to pay. The fact that Castellane got the rights (from the Lords of the Provence and later the kings of France) to use the salt water wells for free was considered as a big privilege all through the centuries. Both fountains don’t exist anymore; they were destroyed in the 17th century.

The city of the “Saliniens” was situated in the neighbourhood of “Notre Dame” at a spot called “Signal”. The Moors had already destroyed both cities of Nice and Vence and in this year of 812 they turned their rage and fury towards the city of the Saliniens, which was completely putted to pieces. After this big disaster, the few people that survived put their hope on the enormous rock westwards from Castellane. This rock is 180m high, with a plateau on the top from about 641m².

This platform became an unconquerable fortress. It was fortified by four fences from which one can still perceive the traces nowadays, once the construction of the city walls and the castle finished, it was called “Petra Castellana” (From Latin: Castellana, Castrum = fortress, and Petre = Stone , built on stone, solid).

Even if Petra Castellana offered a lot of advantages to its inhabitants, it’s clear that the arid ground, divided in terraces, needed a lot of force and courage to be cultivated. The difficult access presented a lot of disadvantages for business and industry.

So it’s easy to understand that the population turned their eyes with envy towards the fertile plain. The agriculture here would be a source of wealth, and also there would be a lot of advantages for the commerce and industry which would accelerate the development. Besides all this, the difficult access made it hard for the old and handicapped people to accomplish their religious obligations in this century of profound religious belief.

All these circumstances contribute to the construction of the first chapel in the village the St.Victor’s church (end 11th, beginning 12th century).

The exodus from Petra Castellana to the village started around the year 1000 and took a very long time: several centuries.

An heroine... the beautiful Judith

1586……… the religious wars had brought terror to France, the Baron of Germany and the Duke of Lesdiguières had their eye on the little site, but that was without reckoning on the courage of one local villager, Judith Andrau. She poured boiling tar from the top of this Gate onto the Captain who was leading the operation. Castellane was once again freed from the clutches of those who threatened her and the joy of this victory did not take long to spill out onto the streets of the village. Since then the people of Castellane celebrate the courage of their heroine every 31st January.