The Path of the Wise Men is a creation of the Council of Wise Men of the Bormes les Mimosas town hall. A route through the town, dotted with quotes from Wise Men, where you will learn more about forgotten monuments and some famous women and men known worldwide. You can also follow this route on the Baludik application.
The Saint-François chapel and its cemetery
Let those who are hungry have bread! Let those who have bread hunger for Justice and Love.
This Chapel is dedicated to Saint Francis of Paola, Italian hermit called in 1483 au king's bedside of France Louis XI in his royal castle of Plessis-lez-Tours. Refused in Marseille and Toulon, ravaged by the plague, Saint Francis asks for theHospitality of the Borméens. In exchange from this unexpected welcome, he brings its protection to the villagers, preventing that theepidemic does not cross the city walls.
A cistern, an underground cathedral
There is no happiness without Liberty, and no Liberty without courage.
For centuries, the village is supplied with drinking water by well and fountains. Following thepopulation growth and drought years, the municipality decides to to constitute a reserve still available. In 1875, this tank, true stone cathedral, East commissioning. Under the village, it allows storage 1500m3 of water mainly fed by source of the Landon Hills. She's still in operation.
The old village post office
The main scourge of humanity is not ignorance, but the refusal to know.
Until Eighteenth century, the rare ones letters sent are directly settled by the postman then called "pedestrian". In November 1769, a deliberation of the municipal council acts on the creation of a post office. Simple box where the letters are kept pending the weekly passage of the “pedestrian”. The post office will evolve over the decades at the pace of the population. It's the Minister of Posts and telecommunications, Norbert Segard, which will inaugurate the Bazaar district office in 1978.
The bandstand
Make your life a dream, and a dream a reality.
En 1909, musical group “la Renaissance” is created in village. As early as 1920, more than thirty musicians make up this set. In 1948, members of the Renaissance ask the city council to set up a space dedicated to musical performances. This request accepted, it is on the roof terrace from the small office of PLM line bus (Paris – Lyon – Marseille), ideally located on themain artery of the village, that the city installs this rotunda.
Gambetta Square, heart of the village
Victory over oneself is the greatest victory.
Like heart of the village where everything converges, the Gambetta Square, carved into the schist of the hill, it is drawn towards 1760. At the beginning of the 20th century, the bar of the Progress is a high place of local life where they stand political assemblies, debates, discussions and disputes. For its part, theHotel Bellevue, already known to be the arrival point famous “Bormes Hill Climb”, race cars initiated in 1908, is still gaining in notoriety when the novelist Luc Durtain describes it in his novel, “My Kimbell” in 1925. In the back rooms From these establishments will germinate big ideas like that of the flower festival , here will become the illustrious Corso Fleuri from Bormes les Mimosas, one of the oldest on the Côte d'Azur.
The Amoun louse and the Bredouilles draille
You can also build something beautiful with the stones that block the path.
The existence of the empty-handed trail is already reported in the Napoleonic land register of 1826. Ce small path, To theshelter from view, was used by the hunters returned on empty game bag, to avoid suffering the mockery of the villagers en crossing the square. At the end of the road, the “love lice” - upstream well which has its counterpart at the bottom of the village, the “Avau lice” – would have been dug at the beginning of the Eighteenth century. In period of great drought, it was kept and water distribution rationed.
The castle of the lords of Fos and its chapel
There should be no regrets for the past, no remorse for the present and unwavering confidence for the future.
The site of castle and the little one adjoining chapel left traces ofoccupation From 1257, with the installation of a first lord, Roger de Fos. Twenty-six lords de three different houses (Fos, Grasse and Marignane), follow one another until the French Revolution. En 1654, the castle becomes a convent until his auctioned in 1791. It is bought 100 francs by Donat Crest, un revolutionary “sans culotte”, then by different private owners. The writings mention a Saint-Trophyme chapel this within the castle grounds from the end of the 12th century. After more than five centuries of service, the little chapel, practically in ruins, is too much cramped to welcome more and more faithful numerousThe municipal council decides the construction of a new church.
The Grand Hotel
The Earth is my Homeland, and Humanity, my family.
Originally the Pavilion property is located in below de current “Grand Hotel”. She will become “the pavilion hotel” whose owner, Armand Murat, perceives the potential in this period of development of luxury tourism, following the passage of the Queen Victoria of England in Hyères. Around 1903 am - 1906 pm he will build “the Grand Hotel du Pavillon” - name shortcut to Grand Hotel – of which the Pavillon hotel is now a AnnexEntitled “Orangery Pavilion”. In 1913, Bormes is one of first municipalities in France to be classified “Climate station”.
The remains of the ramparts
Mistakes are not regretted, they are assumed, fear is not run away from, it is overcome.
For centuries, thousands of Provencals are removed and resold as a simple commodity. Too much exposed to risks, inhabitants from the Borméan coast settled in high ground around the 9th century. Between 1167 and 1196, a protective enclosure, high of six to eight meters and 1m30 thick is built from the surrounding shale quarries. There are still a few left remains of this enclosure, to different places in the village, mainly to northern approaches to rue Carnot. Devant St-Trophyme church, six-meter high section of wall still keeps the stones which constituted a annex entrance door.
Saint-Trophyme Church
Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted are the greatest poverty.
La Chapel du castle of the lords of Fos become too small facing thepopulation growth, the municipality decides, in 1771 to build a new church, can hold up to 1600 faithful. La foundation stone is blessed on July 10, 1775, at 7 a.m., by the priest Baude. After ten years of work, punctuated of construction site shutdowns due to poor workmanship, le first office is celebrated on January 12, 1783. Over the years, different consolidation works or preservation are made. In 1998 workers discover that a cover coating to original frescoes of the choir, dating from the construction of the church in Eighteenth century and representative “God the Father blessing”, dove as a keystone and draperies on either side of the altar.
Lou Portaou and the alleys of the Middle Ages
He who travels without meeting the other, does not travel! He moves.
In Provencal, “Lou Portaou” means the main entrance. Enough large to let a team or a man on horseback pass, it allowed access to the village by a ramp, just like today. In the time of the lords, it was kept during the epidemic periods like the plague. From the entrance, the visitor accessed the alleys narrow streets of the village whoseprimary objective was from “break” the mistral, the prevailing wind, but also slow down the race of a possible invader.
The well and the mill of La Verne
In life, there is nothing to fear, everything is to be understood.
Le Well of the Escape, also called wells of the Verne, is located at the foot of the remains of the wall from the 12th century which protected the village of invasions and epidemics various. This well dates from the beginning of the Eighteenth century and benefited from a ideal location. Un direct access on the first plots of olive trees cultivated under the village, organized in terraces – bancaous in Provençal and a small oil mill can to optimize production of oil.
The museum and its past lives
The more enlightened men are, the freer they will be.
Le museum took place in one of the most old Bormesan residences built in the middle of the Seventeenth century in the street “des fours”, the first street to exist outside the ramparts. In turn dwelling house, boys' school, prison, town hall or courthouse... The building will fulfill its functions until 1892, date ofinauguration from new town hall – school. Given the dilapidated state of the building, a demolition project is considered. bought over the years by different private owners, will follow one another in this way farmer, grocer, entomologist, antique dealer… This is 1978 that city, under the impetus of his Mayor Henri Delon, buys the building to install his museum created in 1926.
The Korrigane Inn and Rue des Fours
The best way to achieve happiness is to spread it around you.
Alternately guesthouse, restaurant, hotel or youth hostel, this place, at atypical name, represented a important part of the local economy. On ignore why the establishment is called “The Korrigane” (feminine of Korrigan, little evil elf Breton legends). Its entrance door with serpentine surround (stone from the nearby quarry of La Môle) indicates its year of construction: 1577. It is part of the lower part of the village, developed from the sixteenth century, outside the protective walls.
The clock tower
The friends of the Truth are those who seek it, not those who boast of having found it.
La clock tower has been built in the rampart even from the village, in 1789. At that date, the ramparts were already in very bad condition and entire sections eliminated, their stones being used in the construction of other works. This is certainly the case for the clock tower. It is the the only ringing clock in the village, the hours are announced by a bell whose sound can be heard several kilometers away, thus punctuating the lives of the inhabitants and workers in the fields.
The Cubert of Place Chapon
Being happy doesn't mean that everything is perfect, but that you have decided to look beyond the imperfections.
Un cubert is a breezeway between two buildings. Haven of freshness in the evening it is a place of conviviality and meetings. That of the Corsair Mourdeille Street, brings on the Adolphe Chapon Square, built on the site of a old oil mill. After a dry and difficult summer, the municipality decided, in 1757 to build a fontaine which will be supplied by the “Gioffré source”. A real central element of the district, This fountain will organize the life of everyone very lively neighborhood by presence of many families until the late 1970s.
From the olive tree to the oil
The greater the obstacle, the greater the glory in overcoming it.
En 1825, facing thepopulation growth, olive oil needs se multiply forfood, the filling of the “calen” (Provençal oil lamps), Or soap factory. THEoil is then essential for everyday life villagers. This mill, ideally built near the first terraces planted with olive trees, allows to the miller of save precious time. There are two remaining from the mill “chapels”these upper parts of the system still visible. We must imagine the rest of the device consisting of a grooved slab collecting the oil, located one meter lower than the current level. Near this press, a donkey was operating a stone mill crushing olives freshly harvested. This is the First World War who will sign theshutdown of a large part of the oil mills, arm fault to cultivate and run buildings.
The former Saint-André hospital
Heal sometimes, relieve often, listen always.
En 1439, the “good king René”, Count of Provence and Duke of Anjou, orders thehospital installation in Bormes. To be built with the villagers' money, it is finally necessary wait two centuries so that he opens its doors thanks to Mr. Pouverin. Run by a religious order of a social nature, the White Penitents, we cares for the needy and the destitute. But it also serves as ahospice, Sick people who are not from the village are welcomed there, as are sailors, foreign fishermen, passing soldiers or workers for one or more nights. This chapel-hospital also houses a school room in 1846 and religious services are celebrated there.
One of the five oil mills
Be the change you want to see in the world.
Commissioned in August 1808, this mill has the particularity of being a “chapel” press. It is composed of three wooden screw presses, housed in three chapels whose names evoke the design similar to a religious building with a nave, a transept and a rounded apse. Installed at network de l 'main access at the time, It also benefits from its own interior well. On front door, a illustration quality, taking up the design of the interior chapels, probably had a advertising vocation in order to signal its presence and confer a quality image. Its exploitation stopped in the early 1900s, most certainly with the arrival of the First World War.
The Casino of Liberty and the Cinema
Doubt is the beginning of wisdom.
At the beginning of Twentieth century, France is emerging from a deadly war. She is now under the yoke of a global epidemic, the Spanish flu. In this period, the Borméens have needs from to find, to cultivate the taste for celebration and thus reconnect with happiness. A Gym allows to'welcome the festivities : the Freedom Casino. This spacious room, 10 meters by 15, at wooden slatted floor, welcomes the balls and concerts. She becomes the unmissable place Sundays, the only weekly day of rest. In 1928, Ballroom becomes cinema under the impetus of the Carmagnole couple. The film “Maurin of the Moors”, filmed in 1934 in the neighboring hills, there will be projected.
Marin cork factory
I learned that courage is not the absence of fear but the ability to overcome it.
In the middle of Nineteenth century, activities related to viticulture and sea fishing take a considerable growth in the Bormese economic life. You have to find a way to plug all these bottles and make quantity of floats for fishing nets. Nothing better than a material available in quantity in our forests : the bark of the cork oak. It perfectly meets the needs men. At the beginning of the Twentieth century we still count three cork factories in Bormes whose activity was much less than in the previous century. On March 25, 1937, the Marin cork factory saw its last three machines go to the highest bidder. and last bidder, under the hammer blows of the bailiff Blanc.
The Chapel of Saint Sebastian
And if by dint of loving, we triggered love for example.
Si the year of its foundation is unknown, these are positioning, outside the protective walls, is not not trivial. In Provence, a Saint Sebastian Chapel is often installed at the entrance to the village as last stopping point for a visitor who may be carrying illness or disorder. En 1575 a brotherhood of White penitents in fact its main seat before settling in 1653 at the new St. Francis of Paule Chapel. Deserted, it gradually deteriorated. During the great plague epidemic of 1720, guards placed a wooden barricade against its wall. It is thesouthern entrance to the village, the one that leads to the plain of donkeys, the small square where the mules are parked, near the well. In 1722, a few masses were still celebrated there. The rounded part of the apse is still visible nowadays. Long used by a blacksmith, farrier, The place now houses a private residential house.
The Jacob House and Park
This beginning of fraternity which is called tolerance.
The history of Cigalou Park is linked to its successive owners. Among the most notable: Alfred Courmes, renowned painter, born in Bormes Mrs. Goulin, Parisian lyric artist, Mrs. Germaine Delafon-Jacob and Madeleine Saupique, daughter and granddaughter of Jules Emile Eugène Jacob, illustrious founder of the world-famous earthenware company. Germaine will never stop planting quantity of exotic trees many of which are still present in the park. After the Second World War, the property is transformed into a hotel, “the Cigalou hotel”. She will bought in 1979 by the municipality with the commitment of the dedicate to the public.
Republican buildings
Men are born free and equal in rights.
Inaugurated in 1892, in honor of the hundredth anniversary of the French Revolution, the group of buildings “town hall, school and war memorial” meets the needs of a growing population. Facing the village and its inhabitants, this complex is located at the entrance to the village, near the new access road created in 1863. The war memorial is one of the rare buildings dedicated to the glory of the French Revolution. Designed by the architect Charles Maurel, he is decorated with works by Hippolyte Moreau, an internationally renowned sculptor. After the First World War, small building is transformed into a war memorial.
The flour mill
He who is guided by a star never looks back.
Organized into a lordship, Bormes was a rural village living in quasi-sufficiency with the growing early vegetables, beans, cabbages or chickpeas and harvesting fruit from trees planted among the vines. Some plots were sown with wheat or barley, bread occupying a central place on the table of the agricultural population. The St-François square mill, one of last witnesses of the village's industrial heritage, will have served almost two centuries. He is practically abandoned since the beginning of the 19th century and the last miller in his service, Mr. Trophime Celeron Reymonencq, is buried in the old cemetery of the St. Francis Chapel, just a few dozen meters away. On March 19, 1913, the last owner, Mrs. Marie Théophile Michel, the will sell to the municipality as is for the sum of 400 francs.
