Fontaine-de-Vaucluse

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Coordinates: 43°55′23″N 5°07′37″E / 43.92305, 5.127

Administration
Commune of Fontaine-de-Vaucluse Fontaine de Vaucluse: Source of the Sorgue, period of low water
Location

Country	France
Region	Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
Department	Vaucluse
Arrondissement	Avignon
Canton	Isle-sur-la-Sorgue
Intercommunality	Communauté de communes du Pays des Sorgues et des Monts de Vaucluse
Mayor	Christian Tallieux (2001-2008)
Statistics
Elevation	68 m–652 m (avg. 80 m)
Land area^¹	7.14 km²
Population^² (1999)	610
- Density	85/km² (1999)
Miscellaneous
INSEE/Postal code	84139/ 84800
¹ French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.
² Population sans doubles comptes: residents of multiple communes (e.g. students and military personnel) only counted once.

Fontaine-de-Vaucluse is a commune of the Vaucluse département in southern France.

1 Heraldry
2 Geography
- 2.1 Hydrography
3 History
4 Demographics
5 Places and Monuments
6 Personages associated with the town
7 External links

[edit] Heraldry

The coat of arms of the village of Fontaine-de-Vaucluse is:

"Blue, with a Trout and a silver shadow, poised horizontally." (Malte-Brun, in France Illustrated, book V, 1884)

[edit] Geography

Fontaine-de-Vaucluse ("spring of Vaucluse") is built around a spring, in a valley at the foot of the Vaucluse Mountains, between Saumane and Lagnes, not far from L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue.

[edit] Hydrography

The fountain, or spring, of Vaucluse, situated at the feet of a steep cliff 230 metres high, is the biggest spring in France. It is also the fifth largest in the world with an annual flow of 630 million cubic metres.

[edit] History

This village of 600 inhabitants was once called Vaucluse or the closed valley (Vallis Clausa in Latin) and it gave its name to the French department of Vaucluse. Several trails indicate human occupation in the area since the neolithic era. Its spring has been the object of a major cult since Antiquity. Following some major discoveries from two cave dives by the SSFV, two archaeological sites under the protection of the SRA PACA has allowed more than 1600 antique coins from the 1st century BC to the 5th century AD to be brought back up to the surface.

[edit] Demographics

Historical population:

1962 : 615

1968 : 698

1975 : 532

1982 : 604

1990 : 580

1999 : 610

[edit] Places and Monuments

The principal point of interest is the source of the Sorgue to the foot of a cliff 240 metres high: Its average flow is 22m³ / second, the highest in France, and can attain 110m³ after the snow melts. It wasn't until 1985 that the mystery of its origin was partially revealed: in effect, the lowest point is at -308m depth attained by a robot belonging to the Spelunking Society of Fontaine de Vaucluse. The spring is the only exit point of a subterranean basin of 1200km² that collects the water from Mount Ventoux, the Vaucluse mountains and from the Lure mountain.