Rognes : virtual tour of the old village

Rognes is a commune of the Bouches-du-Rhône department, located in the district of Aix-en-Provence. The village of Rognes is located 45 km from Marseille, 21 km from Aix-en-Provence, 23 km from Salon-de-Provence and 11 km from Cadenet along the Durance.

Rognes is famous for its stone, which is used since the Roman Empire, and which adorns the facades of many cities in the region, and its truffles (a big market "Truffles and Gastronomy" is traditionally held on the Sunday before Christmas Day). The municipality also maintains a winemaking activity with the AOC Coteaux d’Aix-en-Provence.

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History of Rognes

If traces of settlement exist since the Iron Age, the buildings appear only during the Gallo-Roman era, along the hill of the Foussa. Part of them is of troglodyte type. The exploitation of the stone of Rognes begins at that time.

In the sixteenth century, Rognes belongs to the lords of Agoult. In 1597, Julie of Agoult, last member of the family, marries Henry Raphelis. She preserves her manors and is very rigid about her rights and privileges. She attempts to prohibit residents affixing their armorial on houses and walls. The consuls of Rognes refused energetically and obtained due from the seneschal of Aix-en-Provence. They then created the city arms, Azure with a silver lock, with the motto “Close properly, who can close everything, don’t close anything”.

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Nowadays, only a few houses and alleys of the old Rognes remain as the largest part of the village, situated on the slopes of Foussa was destroyed in 1909 by an earthquake of magnitude 6.2 on the Richter scale.

Strolling through the village of Rognes, we can see the ruins of the old village on the hill of the Foussa, the ruins of the castle dismantled in 1595 and several castles of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

The village of Rognes has various religious monuments. The Roman chapel of Saint-Marcellin is from the thirteenth century. The Church of Our Lady of the Assumption was built in the early seventeenth century. The chapel of Saint-Denis was built in 1720, following an outbreak of plague, thanking Saint Denis, patron of the town.

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