Discover Noves: historic sites and cultural heritage

If you take historic buildings, religious traditions and landscapes into account when choosing a destination, Noves offers several specific points of interest. These include the pine-shaded Esplanade du Château, a surviving village gate, churches and a pilgrimage. The town’s history spans from the settlement of the Cavares around 600 BC to the former Chapelle des Pénitents, which has served as the Médiathèque Municipale Marc Mielly since 1995. A 12 km cycling route through Noves and the Comtat plain adds forests, orchards and scattered heritage sites to these historical themes.

Promenade and fortification history

Today, the Esplanade du Château is a promenade shaded by pine trees. It recalls a medieval fortress built between the 10th century and the beginning of the 12th century. From the esplanade, there are panoramic views over the rooftops of Noves and the surrounding countryside. Here, memories of a former fortress meet the promenade’s present-day character; the panorama broadens the view to take in the rooftops and the surrounding landscape.

The Porte Aurose is a surviving 14th-century gate and the best-preserved of Noves’ four village gates. Unlike the fortress recalled by the esplanade, the gate dates from a later period: the timeline moves from the 10th to the early 12th century to the 14th century. This makes it possible to distinguish two different periods in the history of the fortifications without treating the esplanade and the gate as part of a single structure.

Settlement history and religious tradition

Le Puech is considered one of Noves’ historic oppida; the Cavares settled there around 600 BC. This early settlement phase long predates the medieval fortress. The Church of Saint-Baudile offers another historical point of reference: the entire church was classified as a Monument Historique by decree on 8 September 1999. While Le Puech is associated with an early settlement, the classification explicitly applies to the whole church.

The Chapelle Notre-Dame-de-Pitié links settlement and religious history. It stands on the site where Noves’ first inhabitant settled and was initially a hermitage of the Observant monks. Its nave was built in 1630 and extended in 1722 following a vow made by the inhabitants during the great plague of 1720–1721. A pilgrimage associated with this historic vow still takes place every year on the first Saturday in September. If you would like to include the pilgrimage in your travel plans, check the event date in advance.

The former Chapelle des Pénitents also reflects a change of use: since 1995, it has been the Médiathèque Municipale Marc Mielly. Alongside the history of religious architecture, it offers an example of the later use of a former place of worship. Together with the Chapelle Notre-Dame-de-Pitié, it illustrates the different paths taken by the history of Noves’ religious buildings.

A cycling route through landscapes and heritage

For a different perspective, a 12 km cycling route passes through Noves and the Comtat plain. It runs through forests and orchards and takes in heritage sites scattered across the Provençal countryside. This makes the route different from a visit focused on a single dated building: here, the landscape and several dispersed heritage sites form part of the same tour. If you would like to consider both cultural history and cycling when choosing your stay, this distinction offers a practical guide.

Noves Infos Tourisme helps visitors discover the town and its heritage and offers a selection of local addresses to help plan a stay. This gives both the historical sites and wider travel planning a local point of reference.

Discover more destinations: Charleval, Carnoux, Aix-En-Provence, Tarascon, Coudoux, Miramas, Mollégès, Martigues

For the wider travel guide: Bouches Du Rhone.