Fountains, wash houses and statues
Salon-de-Provence, with its rich heritage, continues to surprise!
As you walk around you will discover many fountains and statues, each one finer than the next.
Fountains:
Moussue | Adam de Craponne | Lamanon | Revolution | Puits du Mouton | Louis Blanc | Trez Castel fountain and wash house |
Statues:
Adam de Craponne | Eugène Piron War Memorial | Place Gambetta | Jean-Moulin Memorial | Statue of Antoine Blaise Crousillat | Statue of Camille Pelletan | Statues of Nostradamus |
More information on the Salon Heritage = Municipal Archives Department
FONTAINE MOUSSUE (MOSSY FOUNTAIN)
A real mascot of the town, the Fontaine Moussue (Mossy Fountain) already existed in the 16th century and was a prominent place for walks and a meeting place for the people of Salon, who came to enjoy its coolness. Place des Arbres (Tree Square), now Place Crousillat, already boasted a fountain in the 16th century. 
On the decision of the town council in 1765, the current Grande Fontaine was built by the sculptor Maurice Bernus in 1775.
Hidden in the moss from which it took its name, this fountain, also used as a drinking trough during the Transhumance, is surmounted by two basins. Limestone concretions developed on it, welding the two basins together, as did the moss and the other plant life that now gives it this very unusual shape.
The square takes its name from the famous 19th-century poet, Antoine Blaise Crousillat. The larger Fontaine Moussue is decorated with four masks from which water spouts, framed by four lions' heads.
The smaller Fontaine Moussue, located on Place Louis Blanc, has a crown decorated with mouldings.
This construction was built of "good quality" stone from the Eyguières quarry, to bring water from Font de Maïre.
This spring, located north of Salon in Les Canourgues, had fed all the town's fountains since the Middle Ages
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"ADAM DE CRAPONNE" FOUNTAIN AND STATUE
Place de l'Hôtel de Ville 
This Craponne fountain replaced a fountain built in 1760. It was commissioned by the town and inaugurated on 22 October 1854 during an agricultural competition.
It is in honour of Adam de Craponne (1526-1576), the engineer and designer of the canal bearing his name, which irrigated the land.
The 22 towns whose names are inscribed on the monument contributed financially to its creation out of gratitude.
Four sprites frame two texts. One of them, in Provençal, means "Burnt and overcome by thirst, alas, Salon saw its poor land wilt. Its child Craponne acted like a father, giving it more than enough water"; it was written by Palamède Tronc de Codolet. 
The Latin quatrain can be translated "Craponne had pity on the thirst of Salon which he loved And gave water and gaiety to its dismal land".
This group by the Aix sculptor Marius Ramus is adorned with a statue of the great man, who overlooks the precious water coming from the Aubes water plant.
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LAMANON FOUNTAIN
Cours Gimon (opposite the Tourist Office)
This milestone fountain was built, if we are to believe the inscription on the pediment, on 15 August 1859. 
The mayor at that time, Fidèle Reynaud, ordered its construction to honour Robert de Lamanon, 1752-1787, a skilled naturalist and geologist who took part in the La Pérouse expedition and was killed at the age of 35 on the island of Maouna.
This small four-sided construction is decorated on three sides with cartouches representing plants (wheat, vine, flowers, and fruit), while the fourth side is decorated with a female mask spouting water from the Aubes water plant.
It is surmounted by a decorative metal vase. The construction was restored for the first time in 1988. The lower half was worked on again in 2006, during the restoration of the avenues of the town centre.
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PLACE DE LA REVOLUTION FOUNTAIN
Place de la Révolution
In 1889 this square was named Place de la Révolution. 
The fountain that decorates it was built in 1903 in response to a petition by the district's residents who demanded access to drinking water in the vicinity.
This fountain is comprised of a basin with an obelisk decorated with a palm and surmounted by a bust of Marianne made by Garnier. The anti-clerical population of the period said that "Saint Michel (the church on the square) turns his back on the Republic so as not to see the bust of Marianne".
The water, which supplied the district, comes from the Aubes water plant, used from the 19th century, and spouts from the mouth of four small lions.
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PUITS DU MOUTON (SHEEP WELL) FOUNTAIN
There was already a well on this site in 1704.
During the paving of the street, the town council decided to take advantage of the worksite and transform the well into a fountain. This was done in 1761.
It was enlarged in 1895, to meet the increasing needs of the district's residents.
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This fountain is probably very old, as it already existed in 1770.
Its shape is the same as that of Fontaine Moussue (Mossy Fountain), with two basins superimposed, before the moss covered them.
On 21 April 1883, by decree, the Minister of the Interior requested that the towns of France give the name of Louis Blanc, 1812-1830, to one of their squares. Blanc was a historian and politician, and was the founder of "Le Progrès" (Progress) magazine in 1839.
He was also a member of the National Assembly where he held a seat among the extreme left-wing. Together with Gambetta, he defended the Republic against those who hoped for a restoration of the Monarchy.
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TREZ CASTEL FOUNTAIN
The Trez-Castel fountain was built in 1882 to provide drinking water for the residents of the district who had been asking for it for 30 years. The municipal council chose the architect Teissier to do this work.
It was the moving of a fountain on Place de la Grippe (now Place Camille Pelletan) and the relocation of the canal supplying it in 1863, which facilitated the supply of Trez-Castel fountain with water from the Aubes water plant.
TREZ-CASTEL WASH HOUSE
This is the last public wash house still in existence in Salon.
Following a report in 1937 mentioning the problem of the lack of water, space and drainage, it was transformed into a standing wash house.
However, it remained unsheltered and exposed to the wind, which bothered the district's women, who used it not only for washing but as a place to meet.
It was restored in 2006-2007.
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"The Sublime Awakening". On 9 August 1919, Salon's municipal council launched a fund for the building of a war memorial. The site selected was the cliff of the Saint Roch cemetery.
A competition was organised in 1923, and the sculptor Eugène Piron won all the votes. The monument was cut completely from the rock, representing an opening which appears to lead to the vault where the deceased are laid. At the entrance to this opening, a bugle sounds the “Sublime Awakening which summons the massed image of those who sleep there."
The bugle is the modern version of the angel sounding the Last Judgement and the Resurrection. The monument was solemnly inaugurated on 11 November 1925 and is recognised by everyone as unique in its kind. Eugène Piron committed suicide on 17 November 1928.
He was buried in the St-Roch cemetery, alongside the sons of Salon who died for France, at the foot of the work which immortalised him.
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On the death of Gambetta in 1882, the Municipal Council of Salon decided to change the name of this square as a tribute to the man who defended France against the Prussians in the 1870-1871 war.
Place de la Croix (Cross Square) therefore became Place Gambetta (Gambetta Square) in 1883.
The town decided to build a monumental fountain at its centre (replacing the cross which was moved a few metres).
The Société Fraternelle des Combattants (Fraternal Society of Combatants) from 1870-1871 donated a commemorative monument to the town. It was built by the architect Gautier in Paris and the statuary Paul Moreau Vauthier. The bronze monument was inaugurated on 28 June 1903 by Camille Pelletan, Minister of the Navy.
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JEAN MOULIN MEMORIAL
Located on the RN 538
The work of sculptor Pierre Courbier, this is the most impressive memorial dedicated to the memory of Jean Moulin in the Bouches-du-Rhône.
It was set up near the supposed site of his parachute landing on 1 January 1942, on his return from England where he met General de Gaulle in order to unify the three main resistance movements, and organise and structure the future secret army.
The memorial represents a stylised parachutist. It was inaugurated on 28 September 1969 by Jacques Chaban-Delmas, a French Resistance fighter and the then Prime Minister.
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ANTOINE BLAISE CROUSILLAT STATUE
Antoine Blaise Crousillat [1814-1899]. 
Another contemplative poet, who loved his town to such a point that he focussed on it exclusively, Crousillat is one of the great names of the Provençal literary renaissance in the 19th century.
Modest and unassuming, he remained on the fringe of the "Félibrean" movement, content to sing praises of his land.
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CAMILLE PELLETAN STATUE
Place Eugène Pelletan (Place de la Grippe)
The former Place de la Grippe (Influenza Square) is more a crossroads than a square.
It was developed and enlarged in 1836, and owed its name to its location at the junction of roads exposed to the Mistral wind. Enlarged and enhanced with trees, it changed its name in 1970, as a tribute to the politician Eugène Pelletan. 
In 1922 a committee was set up to erect a statue in honour of Camille Pelletan, Eugène's son. The sculptor Auguste Carli made it from Cassis stone. It was inaugurated on 2 September 1923 by Edouard Herriot. In 1964 the radical party judged the statue to be poorly sited and requested that it be placed elsewhere. It was therefore transferred to Place de la Ferrage where it is today. 
Camille Pelletan [1846- 1915]: A law graduate and former student of the Ecole Nationale des Chartes (National School of Palaeography and Archival Studies). At twenty years of age he became a journalist and was deeply implicated in the criticism of the regime of the Emperor Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte.
After the Franco-German war of 1870, he was one of the main radical leaders and rebelled against the Republican "opportunists" who perpetuated the politics of Leon Gambetta. From 1880 onwards he worked successfully for the review of the sentences of Republicans who had been part of the Commune de Paris government.
He was Member of Parliament for the Bouches-du-Rhône from 1881 to 1912, and then Senator of the Bouches-du-Rhône from 1912 to 1915. He became a member of the radical Socialist party at its inception and personifies its most progressive wing.
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TWO STATUES OF NOSTRADAMUS
Nostradamus statue, Place Général de Gaulle
This structure was donated to the town in 1867 by a sculpture student, Joseph Ré, who was born in Salon.
At the beginning of the century it surmounted a fountain that has now disappeared.
The convent of the same name in which Nostradamus was earlier buried in the past is in the Rue de Cordeliers behind the statue.
Nostradamus statue, Place des Anciennes Halles:
This work by François Bouché dates from 1966, and is cast in bronze. 14 workers worked on its design in Italy. It was restored in 1999.
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Municipal Archives Department of Salon-de-Provence
Salon-de-Provence's archives comprise all the documents produced or received by the town since it has had constituted power, that is to say since the 13th century to the present day!
Municipal Archives
Hôtel de Ville, BP 120. 13657 Salon-de-Provence
Tél : 04-90-44-89-00 / Fax : 04-90-56-08-12
For more information - click here or here
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