Monks' Trail

The town of Serres is located at the entrance of a clue Buëch coming from the south This ridge would have given its name to the city, since a "serre" is, in Provençal, an elongated ridge. The city has developed at the foot of a castle. This ensemble was at the same time a point of control of the passages, notably military ones, and a place of reception and trade on the road which connected a part of the Provence and the Comtat Venaissin to Italy by the Buëch.

On the rock of Pignolette, overlooking the city, stood a castle, from the tenth century. Around 1580, Lesdiguières transformed it into a citadel and made it the seat of a Protestant garrison. In 1633, it was destroyed by the monarchy to better control the region, against possible revolts. The walls are still clearly visible. In the center of the west rampart, the Auche door, gave access to gardens, vineyards and cultivated land.

The church of Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours, built in 1730, was partly dug into the rock. It was then located in the district of the High Coste, under the enclosure of the castle and to the side of a private cemetery. The chapel was formerly a place of "relevailles" for the women of Serres, which marked the first return to the church after childbirth.

This private cemetery, caulked in the back of the Bon-Secours Chapel, encircled by an enclosure and resting against the rock of the Pignolette shelters about fifteen dead. In the middle of the vegetation that occupies the place, a tomb built at the end of the 19th century in large cut stones stands out: this is the Itier-Dubois family. The cemetery belongs nowadays to the municipality but retains an intimate and reserved atmosphere because of its antiquity and its small size.

On the upstream edge of the path is a 14th century Jewish tomb, imposing limestone block of dimensions of 2 meters by 1 meter, roughly squared but flat surface. On its upper side is engraved a Hebrew inscription whose most widespread interpretation is: "Rabbi Joseph son of R (abbi) Nathan May his memory be blessed in the year ..." This stone, listed as a historical monument, testifies to the existence of a Jewish community, settled in Serres in the 13th and 14th century.

The Arambre mountain is an eastern part of the syncline of Montmorin. She impressed the spirits so strongly that she was deified by the Romans. A votil altar to the goddess Alambrima, found in La Piarre, is now preserved in the departmental museum in Gap. In the nineteenth century, people exploited the wood for coal but since the forest to regained its territory.

From the ridge of Fontarache as the trail goes up, the point of view towards the south makes it possible to embrace the whole extent of the Buëch valley. Marked on the west by the Beaumont mountain and on the east by those of Arambre and Saint-Genis, the point of view on the valley also leaves the rectilinear silhouette of the Chabre Mountain to the south. In the same axis we also distinguish the dam of Saint-Sauveur and the promontoir Marneux de Montrond, giving its name to the adjoining village.

Shortly before the Col de Saumane, from the ridge of Fontarache, a point of view is released to the northeast on the Torrent d'Aiguebelle valley. To the north, this tributary of the Buëch has pierced the barrier of the Agnielle Rocks at the place where the village of Sigottier stands today. The cliffs located to the east of this clue are equipped for climbing and present large scales of limestone particularly popular with climbers for their compactness and the mineral atmosphere they bring.

The Saumane Chapel or Notre-Dame des Anges, existed already in the Middle Ages. It was rebuilt several times, in 1602 after the wars of religion but also in 1741. Around 1500, it seems to be the place of a hermitage where several priests resided and would have served as a clandestine place of worship for Protestants, very numerous in Serres, during the period of the revocation (1685-1787). It was also maintained by a brotherhood of penitents and was a place of processions.

In the Rue du Portal, in front of the current Town Hall, a magnificent carved wooden door marks the entrance to the building. The door and piers date from the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century, at a time when the house is owned by Gaspard Perinnet, a lieutenants of Lesdiguières. The walnut doors of this door in Renaissance style are similar to those of the old church Saint-Sauveur de Crest, dated 1598.