The guide · by Metro Mode
Valbonne
A village laid out on a grid in 1519 round its arcaded square, beside Sophia Antipolis
Valbonne – the good valley – lies halfway along the Brague. In 1199 monks of the order of Chalais founded an abbey here, which passed to Lérins in the fourteenth century; after war, drought and plague emptied the valley, the village was founded in 1519 to bring the land back into use.
Its plan departs from the Provençal hill village: a grid inspired by Roman camps and the bastides of the south-west, with five streets running north–south and ten east–west, about four metres wide, crossing at right angles round the Place des Arcades, built in the seventeenth century. The tall, narrow houses were all alike at first.
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The commune has two halves: the old village in the far north-west, and in the east, round Haut-Sartoux and Garbejaïre, most of the Sophia Antipolis technology park, created in the 1970s largely on the forest of Valbonne.
Highlights
- Place of worshipÉglise Saint-BlaiseThe abbey church of the Chalais monks, begun in 1199, now Valbonne's parish church
- Listed buildingDomaine des Trois Moulins de la ValmasqueA mill estate on a Roman aqueduct, with a garden of ancient and Eastern references
- Listed buildingPlace des ArcadesThe arcaded square at the heart of Valbonne's 1519 grid, built in the 17th century
Lists & itineraries
Everything, by kind
Sources
- Wikipédia (fr) : Valbonne
- Wikipedia (en): Valbonne
- Wikipédia (fr) : Place des Arcades (Valbonne)
- OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL)
- Wikidata
- INSEE IRIS / IGN (Licence Ouverte 2.0)