The abandoned village of Oppede-le-Vieux

The abandoned village of Oppede-le-Vieux lies right in the middle of the Luberon National Park, next to the slope of the mountain range. It is not completely abandoned, some houses are inhabited.


Residents began to leave it and move to the plain in the XVIII-XIX centuries. The fact is that the village was built on a mountain and had narrow streets. With the development of technology, it became extremely inconvenient to live in such a place. In 1909 the resettlement was completed and the village emptied.


The place is interesting since everything here is original. Restoration (in the XVI century) happened only in the church of Notre Dame D'Alidon, but everything else is authentic.


Stone paths, houses, a ruined castle, all this remained from the XII-XIII centuries! When you go up, pay attention to strange semicircular caves, paved with bricks.


These are rooms, right in the rocks, which people used to live. And here they remained untouched. There are practically no tourists, at least in October. Therefore, walking along these empty paths was even a bit scary.




During the Second World War, artists and sculptors, known as Le Groupe dOppede, hid here.

Photos of the populated part












Getting there: parking is located at these coordinates N 43 49.866 E 5 09.552, from there you walk to the village along the beautiful park. It is impossible to reach by public transport. Bus number 15 (information) from Avignon passes through the town of Maubec, stop Coustellet Place du Marché. Next, you need to change to another bus number 18 (information), which passes through Maubec Center and goes to Oppede Mairie. Just inform the driver of the first bus, that you want to change to 18. From the Oppede Mairie stop to Oppede-le-Vieux is 2 about kilometers. No way to come closer by public transport.