The forgotten wall that was to save Provence

On the path of the spinners, bouquets of thyme, juniper and terebinths pistachiors hover the garrigue. Faced with a dream landscape, I try to imagine the fright of the Provençaux in the spring of 1721, while the plague is mowing 40 % of them. “The aromatic herbs were then used in fumigations, in decoctions and were slipped into the masks of doctors who thus premned to miasmas,” comments Cathy Mifsud, conservation guide.

With Clément Chapillon, the photographer, we seek to reconstruct the journey of invisible evil which decimated the region in two years. Here we are at a place called Bourbourin, located in the town of Cabrières-d’Avignon. The wall is there. Softing as far as the eye can see through vegetation, it is made up of dry stones so heavy that they “would have a donkey with fig blows” (which they would knock a donkey) according to Cathy. Along its 27 km, the wall includes dozens of recovery and enclosures which once housed the soldiers and their food reserves. “Bread, sausage, skewers of pies, grives and even hedgehogs: they were well fed by the farmers of the surroundings,” said Antonio Cimmino, our other guide-topographer. Along this wall, spiritual foods also came to support the soldiers: an oratory and several planted crosses testify to this.

A wall raised in three months by 500 Provencals

But why did the authorities of the time decided to build such a wall? “To prevent the plague from contaminating the venaissin Comtat, a papal enclave located west of the current Vaucluse and under the authority of the Pope until its attachment to France in 1791”, explains Cathy. Because, since its appearance in Marseille on June 20, 1720, the plague inexorably dates back to the north of Provence, traveling 35 km per month, all over the place. In the spring of 1721, the representatives of the King of France and those of the Comtat therefore decided to form a militarized common line, 100 km long. That of the last chance. On this line, this dry stone wall is built in an emergency. Its route is entrusted to Antoine d’An German, architect in Carpentras.

At the end of July, a thousand Comtadin soldiers watched all of the “plague wall”, 1.95 m high and 65 cm wide. We follow this story to join the pretty village of Cabrières-d’Avignon, whose residences with closed shutters are preserved from the already overwhelming heat this morning in June. “In this stone house was the health office where, during the epidemic, each newcomer had a medical visit to obtain a health ticket that women wore on their chest and men in the hat. From the slightest sign of illness, the arrival was quarantined outside the city and its effects were burned, ”she adds. Here, as everywhere in Provence, the plague of 1720 was the most cruel of all, causing 50,000 deaths in the Marseille city and 70,000 dead in the infected territories.

On the road leading to the fortified city of Pernes-les-Fontaines, I wonder: this wall raised in three months by 500 Provencals have been effective? Nothing is less certain since neither the first sanitary cords around Marseille and Lower Provence, nor the guards near the various rivers (Rhône, Durance, Verdon) were, until then, managed to contain the epidemic. “The wall could not stop the advance of the plague which quickly won the papal enclave, then the lower Rhône valley, the Cévennes and the Gévaudan,” replied Gilles Gurbiel in Pernes-les-Fontaines, in the old enclave. Passionate about local history, the octogenarian opens the doors of Notre-Dame des Absès and Saint-Roch. Built in the 15th and 16th centuries, these chapels welcomed the faithful requesting the intercession of the saints during epidemics. “Claudine, my beloved wife, had them with great care. Each August 17 for three hundred years, the Catholics of Pernes go to procession in Saint-Roch, protector of plague, and say a Mass in Provençal, ”he teaches us.

A miracle after a procession organized in honor of Sainte Tulle

Faith, like an invisible wall, was the other wall erected against the epidemic. “The May tree of Cucuron is a fine example! We are told in Pernes. Intrigued, we go to the high perched village where the plague decimated a third of the population. Here, the scourge would have stopped ravages by miracle on May 21, 1721, after a procession organized in honor of Sainte Tulle, patron saint of the village. The Cucuronnais made the wish to give it thanks each year. In front of the church, we discover the famous May tree. This piboule variety poplar, 24 m high, has been erected on the facade for two weeks. “As always, he was chosen, cut and brought in procession by around thirty men from the village,” says Sabine, at the local museum. This year, it was my husband who had the honor of fixing the blessed tree at the bell tower. In Provencal costumes, children participate in this votive party never interrupted. The young girls perpetuate the dancing of the cords, revolving around a mast to which ribbons are attached, signs of the link between the earth and the sky. “Look how beautiful is!” “Exclaims Sabine, in front of some photos.

If the plague suddenly disappeared in Cucuron, it was far from being the case elsewhere. Commissioners and captains constantly patrol to fight against the scourge. Bastides, masures and ruined chapels, capable of sheltering plague, are closed to key after being passed “lime and sand”, that is to say disinfected. Braving the prohibitions, some Marseillais go back to the Lower Provence to hide in the countryside. In “Les Pestiféré”, a chapter of Time of love, Marcel Pagnol narrates the survival of a group thus finding refuge in a cave of the Garlaban massif, under the leadership of Maître Pancrace, respected doctor.

Is it possible to go to this “balm”? “Not marked out, the cave cave is little frequented. And under this sun, the step will seem very difficult to you … But come, we will take you with pleasure!”, We answer us to the town hall of Al-Lauch. Upon our arrival, Marc and Patrick, volunteers at the Communal Forest Fair Committee, lead us. Their 4 x 4 climbs the rugged paths, vibrating with heat on large burning limestone plates. On the rock side, we discover the vast cave offering a magnificent view of the Taoumé peak, the Chemin des Bellons and the Red Head Hill, so dear to Pagnol. “We advise walkers to go rather to the Grosibou and Manon caves which also welcomed refugees from the plague”, specify Marc and Patrick who know by heart the 4000 ha of the massif.

Marseille, struck the first

To go back to the source of the contagion, we still have to join Marseille, where the plague has arrived. The Marseille city carries the toponymic and architectural traces of the epidemic which haunts collective memory. Impossible to ignore two of his heroes: the first is Archbishop Belsunce. His statue is on the forecourt of La Major cathedral, where he is represented with open hands. A posture that gave birth to the well -known expression of the Marseillais: “arrive like Belsunce” (coming your hands empty).

From the appearance of the scourge, this bishop has continued to distribute food and alms to the most disadvantaged, sacrificing his personal fortune there. His other concern: administer the last sacraments to the thousands of dying. Marseille then had around twenty mass graves… overlooking the Major and Fort Saint-Jean, the Saint-Laurent church dominates the sea. It was on this esplanade that the painter Michel Serre represented The Knight Roze in La Tourette . This large -format canvas shows this character ordering the galériens to remove the bodies decaying to clean up the city. Discreet, a bust of the knight is installed near this church where a certain Jean-Baptiste Chataud, captain of the captain was also baptized Grand-Saint-Antoine …

Arrived on May 25, 1720, this boat coming from the Levant bears in its wedge a cargo of high -value fabrics. He wet in the handle of the island of Pomègues, a compulsory quarantine place for ships. The regulatory ventilation of the bulbots of fabrics is partly respected, but travelers exit too quickly from the Lazaret, their infested effects of flea -bearing the bacillus of the plague. The following days, the first patients succumb.

Kingdom

With Clément the intrepid, we decide to go to photograph the place where the wreck lies. We jump in a shuttle from Old Port to reach the island of Pomègues. It is 7 p.m. Seeking to see the famous handle of the forties, we are attacked by dozens of gabians (cousins of the Goélands) in fury. We dared to enter the territory where they protect their newborns, we will learn later. We take refuge in a creek, where suddenly my gaze arises on a ceramic plate fixed on a rock: we are in the right place. However, no trace of Grand-Saint-Antoine …

“It’s quite normal!” The ship is not in Pomègues! The next day will reveal Michel Goury who searched him for five years. “He was burnt down at the end of September 1720 off the coast of Jarre Island, only accessible by private boat. Nothing is visible from the island. The sea knows how to keep its secrets, ”adds the diver.

From July 31, 1720 and for almost three years, Marseille and its territory will remain isolated from the rest of the Kingdom of France by a judgment of the Parliament of Provence. Maritime exchanges will be suspended. Health passports will become compulsory to enter or leave the city surrounded by the army, the inhabitants having prohibited to exceed the blockade lines under penalty of death. Cito, Fugeas Longe and Tarde Redeas (“Fuis quickly, far and come back late”): Inspired by this Hippocrates council, number of Marseillais will flee to the north, bringing the invisible and contagious evil with them. An evil that no wall managed to stop. Today, its main stigma offers hikers a breathtaking point of view on the Vaucluse massif.