Ubaye Valley - History

History

• The Ubaye valley has been populated since the end of Prehistory
• A Gaulish tribe, named the Esubiens, lived in the valley during Antiquity
• It was incorporated into the Roman Empire by Augustus. A Roman road crossed the valley and the Romans occupied the Faucon-de-Barcelonnette's area.
• Christianized since the end of Roman Empire, Ubaye Valley belonged to the diocese of Embrun
• The valley was in the county of Provence during the Middle Ages.
• Barcelonnette was founded in 1231 by Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Provence
• François Ier crossed the pass of Larche to attack Italy in the 16th century.
• Until the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht the valley from its head to the confluence of the rivers Ubaye and Durance was part of the Duchy of Savoy and was the site of two Savoyard invasions of France in 1690 and 1692.
• The French Army of the Alps was based in Ubaye during the French Revolution.
• In the 1830s, the first real road to the valley was opened.
• During the 19th century and the start of the 20th, many of Ubaye's people emigrated to Mexico.
• Ubaye Valley was occupied by Italians in 1942, then by Germans in 1943 and 1944