FONTAINE-DE-VAUCLUSE

'Fontaine-de-Vaucluse' is a commune of the Vaucluse ''département'' in southern France.

Contents

Heraldry

Geography

Hydrography

History

Demographics

Places and Monuments

Personnalités liées à la commune

External links

Heraldry

The coat of arms of the village of Fontaine-de-Vaucluse is:

"Blue, with a Trout and a silver shadow, poised horizontally." (Malte-Brun, in ''France Illustrated'', book V, 1884)

Geography

Fontaine-de-Vaucluse is built around its spring, in a valley at the foot of the Vaucluse Mountains, between Saumane and Lagnes, not far from L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue.

Hydrography

La Fontaine de Vaucluse, situated at the feet of a steep cliff 230 metres high, is the biggest spring in France which is called a fountain here. It is also fifth largest in the world with an annual flow of 630 million cubic metres.

History

This village of 600 inhabitants was once called ''Vaucluse'' or ''The closed valley'' (''Vallis Clausa'' in Latin) and it gave its name to the French department of ''Vaucluse''. Several trails indicate human occupation in the area since the neolithic era. Its spring has been the object of a major cult since Antiquity. Following some fantastic discoveries from two cave dives by the SSFV, two arheoligical sites under the protection of the SRA PACA has allowed more than 1600 antique coins from the 1st century BC to the 5th century AD to be brought back up to the surface.

Demographics

Historical population:
:1962 : 615
:1968 : 698
:1975 : 532
:1982 : 604
:1990 : 580
:1999 : 610

Places and Monuments

★ The pinciple curiosity is the source of the Sorgue to the foot of a cliff 240 metres high: Its average flow is 22m³ / second, the highest in France, and can attain 110m³ after the snow melts. It wasn't until 1985 that the mystery of its origin was partially revealed: in effect, the lowest point is at -308m depth attained by a robot belonging to the Spelunking Society of Fontaine de Vaucluse. The spring is the only exit point of a subterrainean basin of 1200km² that collects the water from Mount Ventoux, the Vaucluse mountains and from the Lure mountain.

★ The leftovers of the castle

★ Ancient paper mill

★ Museum of the resistance

★ Torture museum

Personnalités liées à la commune

★ Petrarch

External links

★ Photos de Fontaine de Vaucluse Gratuites

★ www.laSorgue.com

★ Fontaine-de-Vaucluse sur le site de l'Institut Géographique National

★ Fontaine-de-Vaucluse on the INSEE website

★ Fontaine-de-Vaucluse on the Quid website

★ Localisation of Fontaine-de-Vaucluse on a map of France and other bordering communes

★ Plan of Fontaine-de-Vaucluse on Mapquest

★ Spelunking society of Fontaine de Vaucluse

★ Office of Tourism