Tourtour

Tourtour is a commune in the Var department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region in southeastern France.

It is a member of “The most beautiful villages of France” association.

Called “the village in the sky of Provence” (le village dans le ciel de Provence), Tourtour overlooks a large part of Provence from the town of Fréjus along the Mediterranean coast in the east to the Montagne Sainte-Victoire, a favorite subject of the painter Paul Cézanne, in the west.

Tourism and main attractions

The commune has several remarkable places and objects: a place listed on the supplementary inventory of historical monuments (the Treilles Estate), three bells classified as movable objects protected as historic monuments, as well as three places and monuments listed on the general inventory of cultural heritage.

Religious heritage

The abbey of Florièyes, the birth of which is supported by the donation of land in 1136, at the origin of the creation of the abbey of Thoronet.
The Saint-Denis church. The Romanesque church of Saint-Domnin, known as Saint-Denis de Tourtour, has an original position in the village. Isolated near the cemetery on a perched site, it is not integrated into the urban fabric.

It replaces the first church mentioned from the Middle Ages; the date of its construction has not been established.

Saint-Joseph Chapel.
Petit Saint-Denis or “chapel of the poor” (near the stadium).
Sainte-Madelaine Chapel.
Notre-Dame-du-Portalet Chapel.

Sainte-Catherine Chapel.
Notre-Dame de Florielle Chapel.
Chapel of the Holy Trinity, built in 1670 (thanks to a donation from Father Serres) and completed by the community of Tourtour, was originally entrusted to the Brotherhood of white penitents.

Castles

The old castle of Raphélis: 16th century that, today, houses the Post Office and the town hall. The municipal school was also located there until the 1970s.

The Castle (bastide) of La Baume: to the north-east of the village, with chapel and dovecote and a waterfall. It is the final resting place of Bernard Buffet and his wife, Annabel.

Other

Clock tower and its bell from 1665.
The Tour de Grimaud (also called -wrongly- Tour Grimaldi), located 800 m on the road to Aups.
The so-called Roman bridge: spanning the Florieye with its single arch, this actually medieval bridge is a trace of the Via Julia Augusta on the road to Saint-Pierre de Tourtour.
The archaeological site of Arquinaud.

The bronze sculptures of Bernard Buffet, in front of the post office and the town hall.
The Victor-Zaneboni Municipal Fossil Museum (in homage to its creator), created by Victor Zaneboni who donated his collection to the municipality upon his death, presents ammonites (Ammonoidea), belemnites (super-order Belemnoidea), nautiluses (Mollusks), echinoderms (Echinodermata), dinosaur eggs and bones…