The "Vieux Quinson" occupies the barred spur which dominates the village and overlooks the lower Gorges du Verdon. It consists of a thick wall more than 25 m thick at the base which can still be seen, preceded by a 15 m wide forewall.
Description
It is called Castrum de Quintio, or Castrum de St Michel, which is quite significant of the early days of Christianization when people tried to give Christian names to places dedicated to pagan gods: thus, Saint Michel, archangel of the heights, supplants Mercury, divinity of the heavens, throughout France, and St Apollinaire, near Riez, will try to make people forget the springs dedicated to Apollo.
The oppidum is presented in the classic configuration of the barred spur:
It seems to have been inhabited from the Iron Age until the early days of the Pax Romana, before being reoccupied during the plague epidemic of 1348, or after the fire of the current village at the end of the XNUMXth century.
Depending on the era, it housed around 200 people living in mud and wattle huts built on a dry stone foundation, sometimes semi-buried to retain soil moisture (necessary for weaving activities). It had a few cisterns, potteries for grain reserves, a few weaving looms, and a chapel. Later, it housed cattle pens on 2 hectares of particularly arid land.
Author: Jean Mouly “Quinson stories”