Les Baux-de-Provence

Les Baux-de-Provence, village, Bouches-du-Rhône département, Provence–Alpes–Côte d’Azur région, southeastern France, on a spur of the Alpilles Hills rising abruptly from the valley floor, northeast of Arles. On this rocky hill, about 1,000 yards (900 metres) long and 220 yards (200 metres) wide, is a ruined château and streets of abandoned houses, plus a church, a museum, and small modern tourist installations. In the Middle Ages this was the seat of the mighty lords of Baux, who in the 11th century held 72 towns and domains in Provence and the Dauphiné including the principality of Orange. In the 13th century their cours d’amour drew highborn ladies and troubadours. Over the centuries, their struggles against the pope, the rulers of Provence, and the kings of France reduced the power of the house. In 1632 Louis XIII destroyed the château and city walls. Although the city later became a marquisate under the Grimaldis, its prominence was ended. On Christmas Eve at the church of Saint-Vincent (12th century), shepherds still come with their animals to the midnight mass. The windmill (now a museum) that inspired Alphonse Daudet’s Lettres de mon moulin is at nearby Fontvieille. Bauxite, the mineral that is the raw material for the refining of aluminum, was named after Les Baux, near which it was discovered in 1821. However, local deposits are no longer worked. The village, now partly restored and increasingly inhabited, attracts large numbers of visitors. Pop. (1999) 430; (2014 est.) 420.