Charming small Provencal village of Vaucluse, Cucuron takes place in the heart of the Luberon, about seventy kilometers from Avignon and its famous theater festival. It is located on the valley of Aigues, not far from Vaugines, Cadenet and Pertuis.
Populated since the protohistory, the territory of Cucuron remains popular today tourists for its 300 days of sunshine a year and for its rich architectural heritage that has attracted many times the world of cinema as for Le Hussard on the Roof in 1994 or A Great Year in 2005. The town has developed since the Gallo-Roman, but the current was founded in the eleventh century. It experienced a strong depopulation in the 19th century with a rural exodus of great importance. Since the 1960s, the city has attracted new inhabitants thanks to its high quality of life.
The town hall takes place in a former mansion of the fourteenth century revamped in the eighteenth. Owned by the Bérard du Roure family until the end of the 19th century, the building has a spiral staircase tower and decorated rooms with plasterwork. Difficult not to admire the façade framed by two pilasters and the wrought iron transom of the beautiful door.
Built in the middle of the 16th century on a door of the second walled enclosure, the belfry is surmounted by a campanile and a cross on the steeple.
Let yourself be seduced by one of the oldest houses in the old town, the House of Queen Jeanne. Property of Honoré de Bouliers in the sixteenth century, this noble residence was once surmounted by a crenellated floor today disappeared. Outside, you can still admire mullioned windows, a half-star turret with a spiral staircase, and a pretty fenestron hug on the second floor. It takes its name from Jeanne Iere, Queen of Naples and Countess of Provence in the fourteenth century.
Now listed as a Historic Monument, the Saint-Michel dungeon is a truncated tower that was once part of a larger building that fell into ruins in the middle of the 17th century. The building reveals the traces of many architectural reworkings and is accessible via a lintel door decorated with a hug. Access is via a spiral staircase to a room of temporary exhibitions. From the top, we enjoy a breathtaking view of the town and its surroundings such as the Luberon chain or the hills of Cadenet.
Not far, do not miss the old church of Trencat built in the early fifteenth century before admiring the portal of Ginoux, listed Historical Monument. This is one of the two gates that remain ramparts of the sixteenth century.
Housed in a 17th century mansion house, the Marc Deydier museum was created in 1970. There are collections of prehistoric and Gallo-Roman ethnographic objects found nearby.
Former hunting lodge of the eighteenth century, pavilion Galon reveals since 2004 contemporary gardens reinterpreting the classic French gardens. The site has been ranked Remarkable Garden.
While strolling in the town, do not miss to also discover the House of Below of the Lords with a Renaissance facade partly ruined, the House of Consuls of the XVIIe century with its statue of Virgin and Child in limestone or still the Notre-Dame-de-Beaulieu church. Built at the end of the 13th century, it is made up of several different architectural styles, like the broken barrel vaults on Provencal Romanesque sidewalks of the nave. The bell tower of the facade dates from the first half of the 17th century.
Formerly on the third enclosure of the ramparts, the tower of the Citadel still stands proudly. Not far, you can admire the remains of an old cooler before going to the gate of the Pond. Built in the middle of the 16th century, it is one of the vestiges of a gate of the ancient ramparts.
Originally a water reserve, the Bassin de l'Etang used to feed the flour mills. Since the nineteenth century and their removal, it is a place of approval very popular with locals and visitors. The entire site has been classified since the mid-1950s.
Several marked hiking trails allow you to appreciate the local natural and cultural heritage. You can take the trail Vigneron Cucuron 4 km, the Hermitage of 6 km, the Garrigue 6 km or the Mourre Negro 21 km from Cucuron.
