> The village/Perched village

Why perched?

• Villages perched on a hill: A set of houses built on a hill and gathered around a castle; also called "bourg castral". In south-east of France, one village out of two is of that type and all the perched villages found in the Drôme valley are good samples of this huge ensemble.
  In the ancient roman world, the rural habitat in the country was scattered. During the 11th and the 12th century, the settlements started to gather up the hills. During a long period, the historiens thought that this perching was due to the necessity of defending themselves against the "Sarrasins". In fact history shows that the local lords tried to gather, by force if necessary, the rural population in order to better take their levy on the growing agricultural wealth and to establish certain monopolies: the oven, the mill...

The site

It is a hill which stands forward, slightly isolated, from the rest of the group of mountains, and which formed the basis of the castle mound. The perched village - le "lieu" - was on the south-facing slope and went half-way down the hill.

The wall

The wall is still visible in the sub-foundation of the houses in the "rue des Remparts".

The castle

Nothing is left from the old castle built of earth and wood during the years 900-1000 AD. The stone castle which came later occupied the southern part of the summit (The Châstelas Cross). It is known that the castle was turned into a manor house during the 16th century, before being abandonned a century later in favour of a new castle, built in the lower part of the village in 1650.

The "lieu"

The land register survey of 1634 shows that no fewer than 60 houses and buildings were squashed inside the wall, half of which were actually leaning against the town walls. Today the plots are becoming visible again under the vegetation which had covered them. There is a well hidden among the trees showing that there was water inside the perched village.

The bourg

In the same year (1634), the town already consisted of 35 houses, and that part of the village will start growing. There were already two inns, compared with just one in the upper part. The church was also moved from the upper part to the lower part, together with the lord's residence. The shops were to follow the same movement (shops visible in the "rue des Redis").

The church - the temple

• Puy Saint Martin has had several churches at different periods, originally the parish church was inside the wall of the feudal castle and was dedicated to Saint Martin. In 1680 the parish of Saint martin was transferred to the chapel of the new castle, called the Assomption-Notre-Dame. The present temple, built in 1854 and extended around 1905 is the only known protestant building.