This village can boast about being amongst one of the most beautiful villages in France. It has narrow cobbled streets which thread their way through tall houses; built against the rock, clinging onto its flanks and whispering the tales of a thousand legends.
Gordes is also proud of its castle firmly planted in its very core and which reminds the passer-by of a past rich with conquests but also marked with the sufferings of its inhabitants. Today, the castle acts as both a Town Hall and a Museum sheltering the works of art of the painter Pol Mara.
Gordes also extends its territory to include the Bories village, those curious igloo-shaped structures made of stones - no mortar; the Sénanque Abbey set in its green valley, the Bouillons oil press and the cellars of St Firmin's s Palace.
As for the soul, Gordes has sheltered many a famous artist such as André Lhote, Marc Chagall, Jean Deyrolle, Victor Vasarely and Pol Mara, who amongst others have found here some inspiration.
Such a cultural tradition is kept alive to this day, during the summer time when many exhibits do take place in buildings marked by History, such as the St James almonry, the White Penitents chapel.

The castle and the church, which dominate the village, impress their stature upon the visitor, as if to protect Gordes'inhabitants and extend upon them their respective influences, as was the case in the past.
The castle, rebuilt in 1525 already, existed in 1031. Well preserved, and carefully restored, it brings together the architecture of the troubled medieval period with the new ways of the Renaissance.

The Senanque Abbey, A community of Cistercian monks still lives there. The entire XIIth century building is opened to visitors; this includes the abbatial church, the cloister, the dormitory, the chapter room and the calefactory.

The Village des Bories
Curious constructions with dry stones only piled without mortar!
Used in the past by the herds men and their families.
A tradition which would go back up to the old time Ligures.

The St Firmin's palace cellars

Historic monument
Troglodytic rooms, cisterns, subterranean stairways, oil presses, etc. all carved and/or built from century to century within the basement of a large house so-called "Palais St Firmin".

The picturesque alleys the village…should be visited.
The Vaudois villages, religion wars, Ménerbes, Oppède…