This commune in the department of Alpes de Haute Provence, located at the Col de Toutes Aures at an altitude of 1024 meters and dominated by the Chamatte peak at 1879 meters, stretches along the road to Digne with its small houses with white and ochre facades basking in the sun. Two chapels bear witness to the vibrant faith of past times.
The first is found in the middle of a meadow with its small cemetery. Notre Dame de Valvert, a 12th-century Romanesque-style building with three apses, served as the parish church until the 16th century, subsequently abandoned in favor of Notre Dame de l’Assomption or Saint Ferréol from the same period.
Saint Ferréol was rebuilt in 1897 in the neo-Gothic style. The latter is perched on its rock, and travelers coming from the Lake of Castillon see it first when turning one of the many bends on this road.
Vergons, the name may derive from an initial thesis from Occitan Vergoun, in the plural Vergons, meaning willow rod. The woods of the Chamatte mountain explain this name. A second thesis is more satisfactory, even though it is less poetic.
Between 23 and 13 BC, the Roman legions conquered the territory of this village where the Vergunni tribe lived, whose name is inscribed on the Trophy of Augustus at La Turbie.
In 814, the Villa Virgonis is mentioned in a charter, with the Saint Victor Abbey holding farms there.
In 1174, the Lérins Abbey built a priory in Vergons, of which Notre Dame de Valvert is the final vestige. This priory was merged with that of Angles in 1454. In the meantime, the Bishop of Senez abandoned his tithes to the Abbey of Lérins in 1245 (1).
Saint Ferréol, as noted, became the village’s parish church in the 16th century, destroyed during the religious wars, and rebuilt in the 17th century. The fief experienced several lords during the feudal period and the Ancien Régime. The last were the Glandèves. The village depended on the Viguerie of Castellane.
One may notice the complexity of the administrative division before the revolution. Today, the village is a stopping point where tourists rarely linger, perhaps its fortune, as it has not succumbed to the artificial glitter that has so degraded the coastal villages.
Stop by Notre Dame de Valvert, even if it was just a small priory, its old walls still hold the memory of the laudes and psalms sung by the monks.
Thierry Jan
(1) The tithe was the tax owed to the church, one-tenth of one’s income.
