- Lourmarin
French commune
nomcommune=Lourmarin
région=Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
département=Vaucluse
arrondissement=Apt
canton=Cadenet
insee=84068
cp=84160
maire=Blaise Diagne
mandat=2001-2008
intercomm=Communauté de communes des Portes du Luberon
longitude=5.363045
latitude=43.769606
alt moy=200 m
alt mini=169 m
alt maxi=818 m
hectares=2,018
km²=20.18
sans=1,119
date-sans=1999
dens=55
date-dens=1999Lourmarin is a town and commune of the
Vaucluse "département", in southernFrance .Geography
Lourmarin is located at the foot of the
Luberon Massif where a southern passdebouches over the Luberon from Apt on the northern side of the Luberon. The pass divides the Grand Luberon from the Petit Luberon range, an area rich inNeolithic remains and noted for its dramatic massifs and rockscapes. The Aigue Brun brook comes out of the pass and runs just to the west of the village ("Aigue" is a Provençal word for "water", coming from Latin "aqua").History
Lourmarin has been settled for at least a thousand years, and was probably a Neolithic campsite before that.
A fortress was first built at the site in the 12th century, and was rebuilt by Foulques d'Agoult in the 15th century on the foundations of the earlier castle. It was restored in 1920.
In 1545 the town was burned down because its population was predominantly
Waldensian protestant .ights
Extremely picturesque, the village is a magnet for tourists. Prominent sites are the village itself, the pretty Renaissance castle, the Catholic and Protestant churches and the view from the village of the Proches Bastides, a large fortified farmhouse dating to the Middle Ages. From the village itself it is 20 minute drive down to the
Durance River and then about 40 minutes on toAix-en-Provence .Miscellaneous
Lourmarin was the birthplace of
Philippe de Girard (1775-1845), an engineer and inventor of thelinen spinning mill , as well as the name-sake for the town ofŻyrardów inPoland (a toponym derived from the polonised spelling of Girard's name).The writers
Henri Bosco (1888-1976) andAlbert Camus (1913-1960) both lived there and are buried in the local cemetery.Another famous writer, British
expatriate Peter Mayle today lives in Lourmarin. One of his books, "A Year in Provence", giving the chronicle of a Britishexpatriate who settled in the village ofMénerbes , was made into a TV series and a film. Another of his books was also made into the film "A Good Year " (2006) directed byRidley Scott and starringRussell Crowe , which was filmed nearby in the same region. As a result, in recent decades Luberon and its towns and villages like Lourmarin and Ménerbes, which probably were the lesser known parts of Provence, even in France, became better known in the English-speaking world.Lourmarin's Sister City is
Żyrardów , inPoland .External links
* [http://www.chateau-de-lourmarin.com/ Château de Lourmarin]
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