Provençal Mas
Domestic architecture throughout the region is unmistakably Provençal. One-and two-story houses of pale local sandstone or limestone dot the rural landscape. Window shutters are painted pale aqua or periwinkle blue and roofs are almost invariably covered with terra cotta tile from Marseille. They pose against rows of cypress trees as if waiting to inspire a passing artist – which they often do. The classic, rustic mas is a building that once housed animals in a lower story with humans living above. Today mas often have large, vaulted lower rooms. A mas has no windows on its northern side, the direction from which the Mistral comes. Village houses follow the same boxy shape, although they often have a third story. Stonework is frequently concealed with rendering and then lime-washed or painted with pastels. Substantial village or rural houses are called bastides.
Civic architecture ranges from Roman and Gallo-Roman through Gothic to Baroque. Provence has some of the finest examples of classic Roman architecture outside of Italy. In fact, Roman buildings and monuments are so common in Provence that it is easier to list the towns and villages that don’t have any than those that do. The arena in Arles and theaters in Orange (pages 116 ff) and Vaison la Romaine (pages 118 ff) are still in use for open-air summer performances. Nîmes boasts a fine Roman temple, La Maison Carré. Several excavated Roman villas can be visited – most notably in Vaison la Romaine – and the Roman aqueduct, the Pont du Gard, stands nearly intact after more than 2,000 years.
The Roman Theater at Orange (© J.L. Seille, Collection CDT)
Examples of medieval and Gothic architecture remain in fortified churches and abbeys and in the region’s many perched villages. The Palais des Papes in Avignon is probably the best-preserved example of the Gothic style in the region.
The elegance of the 17th and 18th centuries, what the French call the Classical period, characterizes some of the larger towns. In Aix en Provence, large urban mansions called hôtels parade down beautifully proportioned, tree-lined avenues or cluster around fountains in small squares.
Did you know? Aix is often called the city of fountains. |
Baroque architecture, in all its wedding cake frippery, along with its more modern relative, Belle Époque, is much in evidence on the Côte d’Azur, especially along The Promenade des Anglais in Nice.
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