Le mur de la peste

In 1720, the ship "Grand Saint Antoine" transporting silk for the Beaucaire fair, brought the plague through Marseilles. Very quickly, the epidemic spread and struck Apt.
In 1721, to prevent it from reaching the Comtat Venaissin, the Pope’s vice-legate implemented a health plan. He mobilized the people. For about five months, more than 500 men built a 1.90 m high dry stone wall, along 27km, with 50 guard posts and enclosures, from Monieux to Taillades.
After the outbreaks in 1580, 1629 and 1649, the plague of Marseilles was the last great plague in Provence.
Hiking in the direction of Murs’s ridges, towards the “combe of Boulet” and along the wall, one can see the ruins of the wall, this symbolic rampart and witness of history.

See less