Peyresq

French hamlet
name = Peyresq


region =
department = Alpes-de-Haute-Provence
commune = Thorame-Haute
canton =
intercomm =
mayor =
mandat =
longitude = 6.55611111111
latitude = 44.0977777778
alt moy = 1528 m
alt mini =
alt maxi =
km² =
population = 3
date-population = 2007
dens =
insee =
cp =

Peyresq (from "le pays des pierres", or "the land of stones") [fr iconPaulette Goujon-Borrély and Lucie Imbert, "Peyresq : un village de Haute-Provence à la recherche des temps perdus", p 59] is a French village in the commune of Thorame-Haute in France, perched on a rocky outcrop of the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence at 1,528 metres above sea level.

Geography

Demography

History

Histoire

The village first appears in charters of 1042 ["Thorame-Haute" article in Michel de La Torre, "Alpes-de-Haute-Provence : le guide complet des 200 communes", Deslogis-Lacoste, "Villes et villages de France" collection, Paris, 1989, Relié, 72 (non-paginated) p. (ISBN 2-7399-5004-7).] as "Petriscum", referring to its rocky surroundings. [Ernest Nègre, "Toponymie globale de la France : étymologie de 35 000 noms de lieux", Geneva : Librairie Droz, 1990. Volume III : Formations non-romanes ; formations dialectales. Notice 23947, p 1289] .

Peyresq (then spelled Peiresc) gave its name to the famous humanist Nicolas Claude Fabri de Peiresc - he was its lord, but never set foot there. After the French Revolution, the village came to be spelled as Peyresq, and in November 1964 it was merged with the village of La Colle-Saint-Michel to create a new commune called Saint-Michel-Peyresq. That commune was in turn absrobed by the municipality of Thorame-Haute in March 1974.

Reconstruction and renaissance

In 1952, Georges Lambeau, director of the Académie des Beaux-Arts at Namur, was searching the region for a site for a holiday camp for his students [Paulette Goujon-Borrély and Lucie Imbert, "op. cit.", p 164-165] and found Peyresq almost completely abandoned and almost all its houses in ruins. Falling in love with the village's charm, he decided to reconstruct it in his own image. His friend Toine Smets, an entrepreneur from Brussels, decided to finance the project. According to the historian Louise Sgaravizzi [Louise Navello-Sgaravizzi "Peyresq, l'extraordinaire destin d'un village des Alpes Provençales", p.211] , in 1953 of 53 houses 24% were habitable, 40 % needed restoration and 16 % were in ruins (the majority on what is now called the cour des Métiers). The access route to the village was paved in 1953 [Paulette Goujon-Borrély and Lucie Imbert, "op. cit." p 61] . In 1954, the last farmer stopped farming in the fields at the foot of the village [Paulette Goujon-Borrély et Lucie Imbert, "op. cit." p 65] .

In 1954, the young architect Pierre Lamby joined the project. At the same time, Toine Smets revealed Peyresq to Lucien and Jane Jacquet, who founded the association Pro Peyresq, soon joined by Jacques Waefelaer and his wife Jacqueline, respectively treasurer and "responsable de l'intendance" (économat).

ites and monuments

Reconstructed houses

Activities

Notes

ee also

*La Colle-Saint-Michel
*Vaïre

External links

Bibliography

* Paulette Borrely-Goujon et Lucie Imbert : "Peyresq, un destin"
* Paulette Borrely-Goujon et Lucie Imbert : "Peyresq, un village de Haute-Provence à la recherche des temps perdus", préface de Pierre Borrély, dans la collection Deux ou trois mots pour le dire ; Mallemoisson, éditions de Haute-Provence, 1994. ISBN 2-909800-97-0
* Mady Smets "L'Architecte et le Berger"
* Louise Navello-Sgaravizzi "Découverte d'une seigneurie : Peyresq"
* Louise Navello-Sgaravizzi "Peyresq, L'extraordinaire destin d'un village des Alpes provençales"
* Louise Navello-Sgaravizzi "Peyresq, l'extraordinaire destin d'un village des Alpes Provençales"