Before Cezanne
Saint Victoire, made entirely of sedimentary rocks is the result of several major tectonic phenomenons.
In the Jurassic era (203 - 135 million years ago), the sea covered Provence.
At the beginning of the Cretaceous era (135 - 70 million years ago), an upthrust forced some land to emerge and caused the sea to retreat.
In the Cretaceous Superior era (between 80 and 65 million years ago), in a tropical climate, was a vast river with its beaches and its marshy areas.
It was in this environment that the dinosaurs lived. We can find the big herbivor like Titanosaurus, which can grow to 20 meters long, the Rhabdodons, biped 3 meters tall, a fast herbivor.
We can also See Ankylosaurus, a small slow insectivor covered with a bony shell.
Besides these docile animals, lived the carnivorous dinosaurs like the Dromaeosaurus which were voracious little hunters and finally the Tarascosaurus which were big meat eaters close to the well-known Tyranosaurous.
From the end of the Cretaceous era to the Paleocene (-70 to 53 million years ago), Africa was moving towards Europe and as a result a large fold and fault appeared in the layers of chalk. Layers of clay were piling up in some marshy areas where the dinosaurs lived.
Masses of fallen earth consolidated to give birth to fissures, from which the Tholonet marble was produced.
In the Eocene era (53 - 34 million years ago) , with the effect of the movement pyreneo-Provençal, the fold broke and its northern part slid over its southern part overlapping some of the fissures and clays.
After an advancing 2,5 kilometers, folding the layers on which it slid, the superior block stopped.
Between 34 and 5 million years ago (Oligogene and Miocene eras), a considerable erosion flattened the relief and the return of the sea in low areas (10 - 8 million years ago), created a new limestone deposit from which came the Bibemus stone.
5 million years ago, the alpine upthrust caused a general rise of the massif of more than 400 meters and the fractures left by this last tectonic movement were hollowed out by the streams and gave birth to the gorges of the Cause and Infernet.
The massif beloved by the Provençaux reaches its peak at 1011 meters at the Pic des Mouches.
At the top of these barren crests, the wind reigns as master. Impressed by its strength, mankind has venerated it like a god.
The Celto-Ligure called the mountain the "Vintour" paying homage to the god of winds that the Mount Ventoux still honours.
Nearly a thousand years passed before the arrival of the Romans. The proud Ligure capital built at the end of a rocky peak, facing Vintour, came under the attacks from powerful enemies.
In 122 BC., the winner, Caïus Sextius Calvinus established his camp in the valley next to the hot springs.
"Les eaux de Sextius" attracted more and more people and the Roman town was born.
But danger threatened the young city.
It was only 20 years old when the Teutons and Ambrons, surged down from Spain and threatened the civilization.
Rome's reaction was to send legions commanded by Caïus Marius. The bloody battles that followed took place in the shadow of the mountain. The final victory was Roman.
To remember this terrible period, the people built a arch of triumph to its liberators and a temple of victory.
Finally, with time, the Barbarians ended up getting the better of the decadent Roman Empire. In the middle-ages, Christianity appeared. To hunt the demons of paganism, the mountain was sanctified.
In the XIII century, a chapel dedicated to "Sainte Venture" was built at its summit. Since then the Provençaux call the mountain Sainte-Venture, Sainte-Adventure or Mont Venture.
In the XVII century, to commemorate the victory of Marius or to translate the provençal name, or to compare the local saint with a Roman virgin martyr, Sainte-Venture became Sainte-Victoire.
Nevertheless, the ancient word exists today in the name "Venturiers" carried by pilgrims who always honour the Saint, on its saint's day, the 24th of April.
On that day the "Roumavagi dou Mont-Venturi" takes place, the pilgrimage regularly and faithfully undertaken for more than four centuries by the inhabitants of the town of Pertuis.
The whole population then started to walk and climb the mountain and to honour Sainte Victoire. The devotion of inhabitants of Pertuis to Saint Venture has been evident from 1546.
The book of the "Confrères de Sainte-Victoire", started in 1652, points out, in a detailed way, the development of the pilgrimage, organized by the brotherhood of Sainte-Victoire. After crossing the Durance, the pilgrims first stop to pray in the church at Meyrargues.
Then via a steep path, they arrive in Vauvenargues followed by a well established ceremony: music, a dawn serenade, dedications, distribution of bread and nuts. Once in Cabassols, they start to climb to the top of the north side of the mountain, where they arrive at nightfall..
A big bonfire lighted in front of the refuge informs the inhabitans of Pertuis who stayed at home, that the couragous pilgrims have arrived.
The next day, joined by the "Venturiers" from Aix and its surroundings, they attend the mass celebrated in the chapel by the parish priest of Vauvenargues, before walking the 36 kilometers back between the top of the mountain and Pertuis.
Information
The friends of Sainte-Victoire
Maison de la Vie Associative,
Lou Ligourès,
place Romée de Villeneuve,
13090 Aix-en-Provence
Tel: 04 42 17 97 03
