Visit

The Maison de la Truffe is located in the heart of the village of Aups, in the 17th-century Ancien Hospice Saint-Jacques.

The site offers young and old, amateurs, experts and neophytes alike, a fun immersion in the mysterious underground atmosphere of the black diamond of Aups, with :
- A museum area.
- A delicatessen store.
- Information and events on truffles and local produce.

In the heart of a Mediterranean landscape, an open-air museum displays the Carrara marble sculptures of Maria de Faykod.

Some fifty white marble sculptures are harmoniously arranged in a vast natural space. The principle of free circulation in this "inhabited" space where art and the interplay of nature's elements are in perfect osmosis. The Faykod Museum is constantly expanding, its collection growing ever larger thanks to the artist's creativity.

The Musée de Faykod contributes to the cultural and tourist heritage of the Provence Alpes Côte d'Azur region.

The museum offers visitors "a veritable oasis of beauty".

Medieval gateway built in the Middle Ages. It is surmounted by a building known as the Tour Sarrasine. This is one of the square towers that once lined the rampart behind which the town was enclosed.

This name owes nothing to the Moors who occupied the Var in the 10th century. A metal portcullis, known as a "sarrasine", closed the gate every evening in the Middle Ages, hence its name.
This is the town's main gate, and is also known as the Porte des Alpes, as the route from it leads northwards.
It was extensively rebuilt in later centuries, particularly in the 17th century, a few decades after the Wars of Religion that affected the town in 1574. The walls were doubled, and the town and king's coat of arms were affixed. An elm tree was planted in the square in front of it.
Two wooden poles supported it. The grooves in the walls still bear witness to this, as do the hinges that remain in the building. To the left, a door, now walled in, provided access to the steps leading into the building.

A Cistercian convent dating from the 10th and 11th centuries, it was successively restored by the Augustinians, the Ursulines and the Trinitarians.

It was under the Ursulines that the building took on its present form, being enlarged as early as 1614 (donation to the order by Mr. Tadhey), first by one storey, then by four towards the end of the 17th century, when the nuns became more and more numerous.
nuns.
There was the convent itself with its cloister, the priory which served as a school for the region's young noblewomen (education and music), the farmhouse and the garden. Driven out by the Revolution in 1789 (the convent became a gendarmerie barracks), the Ursulines returned under the 1st
Empire, making way for the Trinitarian Sisters, who remained until 1905, when the Church and State separated.
Today, the farmhouse has become a magnificent private property, the prieuré, first bought by the city of Toulon to turn it into a children's home, then sold to a private individual. The garden houses the tomb of the Dukes of Blacas and the chapel (restored in the 19th century) the Simon Segal contemporary art museum.

This chapel was erected by public subscription as an ex-voto to the Virgin Mary, to thank her for sparing the village and its inhabitants after the violent fighting between supporters of Napoleon III's coup d'état and the Republicans in 1851.

Erected in 1853 on the foundations of the former 12th-century château of the Dukes of Blacas, it was sold in 1986 to an association dedicated to its preservation and restoration. Of all the monuments in Aups, it is surely the one to which the locals are most attached. Every year on the night of August 15th, the Virgin of Notre-Dame de la Délivrance is carried in procession through the streets of the village.

The collegiate church boasts a valuable museum of religious art, including Provence's oldest processional cross dating from the 14th century and hand-embroidered ornaments from the 17th century.

Built outside the walls by architect Broulhoni from 1489 to 1503 to replace the village church, which had become too small, in Provençal Gothic style with a Renaissance facade, it became a Collegiate Church in 1499 with the arrival of the chapter of canons from Valmoissine (former monasterium of the Alps), who remained there until the French Revolution.

Receiving the relics of St. Pancras, a young Roman Christian martyred in 302 under Diocletian, it has been known by this name ever since.

All that remains of the church's original construction is the door to the former sacristy, since the Wars of Religion destroyed all the furnishings and burnt the magnificent tympanum. In addition to the medallion of the canons' motto, the republican motto "Liberté, égalité et fraternité" was added to the pediment in 1905, following the separation of church and state.

Access to the interior is via 7 descending steps (the height of the present-day square corresponds to the alluvial deposits left by successive floods of the Grave). The building comprises a nave and three aisles, ending in a flat chevet.