village

Village...

A bit of history and the origins of the village:
Leaving the perched site of the Fort Freinet where several habitations seem to have gathered at the end of the 12th century, the people now descend and settle progressively on the gentler slopes of the pass of La Garde-Freinet from the end of the 13th century.

This “deperching” phenomenon is well known in Provence ; we no longer find a mention of the “castle of La Garde-Freinet” but of the new small town of “La Garde-Freinet” which grows from the quarter of St Joseph and carries on the first phase of growth up to the present Place du Marché.

In the 19th century, the village knew a new rapid progress; a quick, important, growth that went with the boom of the cork industry. In 1872, the registers mark nearly 660 cork workers out of a population of 2687 inhabitants (1000 more than today!).

As a sign of La Garde-Freinet’s golden age, the new quarters of ‘Les Aires” and the “Place Neuve” are added to the winding alleys of the old village to give it the appearance it still has today.