Les Arcs sur Argens - history

The city of Les Arcs has a long and interesting history where parts date back to the medieval period. Excavations carried out recently shows that the area has been populated at least 2500 years back.
The skyline of Les Arcs is dominated by the 19 meter high clock tower at the top of the city. This tower dates back to 17:th century and is the centre of the old town. In this parts of the city its possible to stroll around the narrow streets and the buildings looks like it did hundreds of years ago. Fortunately the area has yet not been destroyed by commercialisation. Small streets of cobblestone give the area quite a picturesque impression.
 
Les Arcs is mentioned for the first time in official documents 909 AD in an inventory list of one of Avignon’s biggest land owners, Knight Fouquier. In this list the area is referred to as the landowners property and this document is called The birth certificate of Les Arcs. However, the area has been populated much longer. During excavations of Les Arcs there has been findings proving  for instance a Gallo-Roman living quarter.


The name of the city refers to the bridge (Arc) that runs over the river Argens. This bridge was completed in the year 1030 AD. During the century´s the area of the village has been referred to as for example ´”Castrum des Arcs” and “Chateau des Arcs”.
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