L'ermitage Saint-Jean du Puy

The Hermitage of St. Jean du puy is located at the top of a hill at an altitude of 658 m. This hermitage is an observatory that overlooks the entire Arc Valley, including the town of Trets while facing the Sainte Victoire Mountain. On the other side, to the south, is the village of St Zacharie.

The site has become a tourist attraction

The site, which has become one of the privileged places for hikers, is composed of a refuge, a chapel whose Romanesque apse is entirely restored;rement restaurée, consacrée St John the Baptist, but also a shelter with gardens, a watchtower (1828) which is an observatory overlooking the valley.

Since 1987, an orientation table has been erected next to the bell tower. The place has become over the years a great place of pilgrimage where hundreds of people come every May 1st, to spend a day in the country and friendly to celebrate the mass, picnic, dance and listen to music. The site has been maintained since the middle of the XXth century by the association of the friends of St Jean du Puy, who also take care of the restorations.

A little history
This hermitage was founded in the Vth century by Saint Cassian. It was occupied by Cassianite monks until the 15th century and belonged to the diocese of Marseille. It was successively served by several hermits until the Revolution. After the Révolution it will be sold as national property; thus, the inhabitants of Trets become the owners of a place that is dear to them.

Division of the church

Dès 1793, the feast of St. John is solemnly célébr&e; the Hermitage. The hermits would return and visit the site until 1891, after which the place would be abandoned and fall into ruin, before being repeatedly restored and renovated. During the Second World War, it will serve as a maquis for the resistance.

The successive transformations of the hermitage, no longer allow to imagine in a precise way what the hermitage was originally.