Fortress
given up at the beginning of the 20th century,
Oppède the Old man sees little by little
his ruined houses, restored and re-occupied since
about thirty years.
Its situation is completely original.
Oppède is leaned in Luberon which takes
a chaotic form and turns to North, single fact
in the area where one rather sought to protect
oneself from the mistral. This orientation confers
a splendid light with back-light to him.
History:
The name of Oppède comes from Latin Oppidum
who means citadel.
Like all the villages of the comtat, Oppède
became papal property en1274.
The village will be damaged by Raymond de Turenne
during his war against sovereign pontiff.
Feeling given up by Avignon, Oppède will
join Taillades during a rising against the Pope.
Nevertheless the village will accomodate the
pope inhabitant of Avignon Benoît XIII
at the time of the Avignon-Rome schism.
It will flee by a window of the castle to escape
its adversaries. His/her brother, Rodrigue de
Luna, will decide to make village a fortified
town. It will install there in 1409 a garrison
of Catalan mercenaries.
The village will be taken again by the legitimists
and Oppidum will be found attached to legal
papacy.
Being given the cost of maintains a fortified
town, the pope Alexandre VI will yield the village
to Accurse de Meynier, first president of the
Parliament of Aix which thus becomes Seigneur
of Oppède. His/her Jean son, called the
butcher, will illustrate himself sadly like
the person in charge for the bloody massacres
of Of Vaud in 1545.
At the 17th century, the castle is given up
little by little and the old village is emptied
unrelentingly as from the 19th century, the
peasants preferring to approach their grounds
in the plain.
The trade move towards the hamlet of Poulivets
which will become thereafter the new village
of Oppède.
Since the Sixties, the old village is restored
little by little but it is still today partially
in ruin. To walk in these caladées lanes
or architectural examples of all the times meet
is a true enchantment.
Oppède is one of the places more moving
by Luberon.
Its visit is impossible to circumvent.
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