It is generally from places of worship that we are able to determine the oldest information on medieval settlements. In Tourrettes, ancient documents and field studies have revealed the existence of several medieval churches. There were probably four - the one at Tourrettes, the one at Pelote, the one at Courmettes and the one at Les Valettes, of which the first two are still in existence. Despite the disparity of information that we have on these different churches, and until further architectural study of the subject, we can still make several important remarks:

St Gregory’s Church was first mentioned perhaps in 1312 by its priest, and certainly in 1351 it was actually named as a church. The church of St Martin de Pelote only appears in 1496. However, both buildings show evidence by the construction method and architectural detail that they were built at least in the first half of the 12th century, or maybe even in the 11th century. It’s not unusual that we cannot exactly ascertain whom these eleventh century places of worship actually served, as they are only documented a lot later on. Certainly, ancient documents are rare in the Bishopric of Vence, on which Tourrettes depends, and even so, this scarcity of source information still does not explain to us fully. We believe that private monasteries existed, which had escaped the gregorian reforms and papal authority, remaining in the hands of the lay aristocracy who used them to serve their own parishes.

These establishments are very difficult to find out about, and we can only guess that this was the case in areas where the parish was not served by monks of the known benedictine communities. It would appear that the churches of St Gregory and St Martin did depend on one of these communities - though which one remains to be identified. It also seems that St Gregory’s, and probably St Martin’s, already existed to serve the first parish network, even before feudalisation.

For St Gregory’s, a mention in a text of 1042 tells us that a district called Tourrettes already existed. It is cited as a limit to the church of Notre Dame des Crottons, now Notre Dame des Fleurs, which now belongs to the district of Vence, and which at one time was ruled over by the Malvans.

So we know the eastern border of the ancient district of Tourrettes was the Vallon of Clarel because this was the border of the Malvan’s land, and even today this geographical feature forms the border between Vence and Tourrettes.

The site of the two churches of St Gregory and St Martin de Pelote, on either side of the Vallon des Bouirades, indicates to us that it was this valley that separated the two ancient districts in 11th century. Moreover, as it would seem that their northern border was the peak of the mountain and their southern border was the Loup river, we are lucky enough to know precisely the extent of the pre-Feudal distrct of Tourrettes. This is quite rare - partly due to the difficulty presented by this type of research, and also due to the lack of it !

We know less about the district of St Martin de Pelote. Its southern and eastern limits certainly follow the river Loup, but it’s more difficult to say where its northern limit was. Two elements lead us to be careful as to its previous localisation. We know that Achard, who published his dictionary of Provence just before the Revolution, speaks of the Hermitage of St Arnoux - not with regard to Tourrettes, but to Courmes - but we cannot say with what the significance. In fact, we don’t know the exact origin of this chapel; apparently it was built around 1650 by an inhabitant of Bar sur Loup, but was this a new construction or a renovation? In any case, it’s situated very near the border of Courmes, and an error in its localisation by Achard is quite possible. Another remark in the same vein is much clearer. The medieval habitat of Courmettes (which we shall refer to later) is linked undoubtedly to the name of Courmes, but today finds itself undeniably within the boundaries of Tourrettes. So it would seem that in the Middle Ages, and even perhaps at the end of the 18th century, the boundary between the fiefdoms of Tourrettes and Courmes was situated more to the south, but we cannot be sure that it was always like that before the feudal era.

THE BIRTH OF THE CASTLES

Tourrettes et Les Valettes

It wouldn’t appear that, despite its name linking it to a tower (or more exactly to towers, as it is generally used in the plural sense), a castle existed in Tourrettes in the 11th century. In fact, there were plenty of places in Provence with the same name at the beginning of the Middle Ages, and which did not have castles - texts refer to them more as ‘villas’. There is one near Forcalquier, and another near Apt, and yet another district of Tourrettes (near Fayence in the Var) which were mentioned before 1032. These original names probably originated from a type of ancient construction. It seems that that this was also the case for Tourrettes sur Loup, as traces of ancient remains have been found in and around St Gregory’s church.

The first known member of a noble family with the name of Tourrettes was Guillaume Amic. He is mentioned in 1144, in a charter of donation witnessed on one side by Guillaume de Reilanne and Raimbaud de St Laurent, representing the lords of Vence, and on the other side by Geoffroi and Foulque de Mougins and Pierre de Sartoux, representing the lords of Grasse. Elsewhere, Guillaume is a first name which appears frequently amongst the nobles of Grasse, and the name ‘Amic’ appears frequently within the Reilanne branch of the Vence nobility. So it is probable that the first ‘Tourrettes’ were younger members or liege lords of the nobility of Grasse or Vence. The land of Tourrettes would have been granted to them during the first half of the 12th century, when they would have founded a castle and taken its name.

Amongst the members of the Tourrettes family, one - or maybe several - of them, with the first name of Sicard, gained enough notoriety during the the third quarter of the 12th century (at the latest in 1196), that their fisrt name became their family name, but then they changed sides. In fact, in 1152 and several times afterwards, we find them no longer within the ranks of the Grasse nobility, but within the ranks of their opponents, the Bishop of Antibes and the Consuls of Grasse. We know that the consulate of Grasse was put in place by the Bishop of Antibes and the Count of Provence, to diminish the power of the grand aristocracies. Around 1216, however, the aristocrats took control of the consulate, a decisive revolt taking place between 1224 and 1227. On this occasion, one of the Tourrettes family, Hugues Sicard, aligned himself with the Counts and ended up winning. In 1224, in return for his help, the Count promised Hugues Sicard the land belonging to his ancestors around Tourrettes, which until then had been shared between the lords of La Garde and the lords of the Malvans, who were probably part of his family. (Today, the castle of La Garde is situated in the district of Villeneuve-Loubet, in a place known as Tour de la Madone. The castle of the Malvans can be found in the Vence district, near the chapel of St Raphael.)

However, this kind of promise did not mean that the Count gained possession of the castle. Certainly, Hugues had to conquer it first, and it was probably to this end that he set up a castle in Les Valettes, to enable him to control the route between Tourrettes and Grasse. We don’t find any earlier mention of this castle than in 1232, so we don’t believe that the original name of ‘Les Valettes’ existed much before the classic Middle Ages. When peace returned, around 1235, Hugues Sicard had not succeeded in taking the entire territory of Tourrettes. Indivision existed until 1261, when Tourrettes and Les Valettes became the centres of two distinct lordships - the Sicards being the lords of Les Valettes.