History of the village | Saint-Antonin-du-Var

Site officiel du village
de Saint Antonin du Var
Provence-Alpes-Côte d'azur

Le village

L'histoire du village

Les associations

La restauration

Les hébergements

Les domaines viticoles
La municipalité

Conseil municipal

PV des conseils municipaux
Les services

les services communaux

Les services extérieurs

Our story

For many of us still, the year 1954 remains very present in our minds because it was marked among other things by events such as the fall of Dien Bien Phu on May 7, and a few months later the beginning of the Algerian insurrection, theaters of upheaval.

But for our microcosm, far from media events, 1954 marked a more peaceful independence, that of our village from the municipality of Entrecasteaux.

Indeed, it was in this year that Saint Antonin took flight to the satisfaction of its residents who, for nearly a century, had already expressed their desire for separation. For we must go back to 1856 to find some traces of a first attempt by our ancestors requesting their municipal independence. There were 2 others in 1914 and 1941, resulting in as many failures. It was only on July 3, 1953, that a deliberation, adopted unanimously, granted the hamlet of Saint-Antonin the status of a municipality. The prefectural order was signed on July 6, 1954, by Mr. Prefect Ottaviani.

The elected officials of the time were Messrs. Elie HERAUD, Jean FUSTIER, Raymond GIRAUD, and Marcel BOYER.

A legitimate aspiration considering the means of transportation of the time did not facilitate relations between the hamlet and its village of tutelage located 7 kilometers away. Not to mention a relief that even today limits exchanges between the two municipalities, and would even tend to push St-Antonin into the arms of Lorgues, its current postal distribution office.

But everyone knows that the fight for small plots, in this case, the loss of a portion of power for Entrecasteaux, generally involves a long and laborious process carried out by a few stubborn individuals.

And then, for its mother, the municipality of Entrecasteaux, to consider its daughter sufficiently mature to entrust her destiny, St-Antonin had to patiently build its own amenities and attributes that make the soul of a village.

As early as the 10th century, our village in the making with its chapel, one of the oldest in the country, had the unifying instrument of any community at the time. This chapel, listed in the cartulary of Saint-Victor of Marseille in 1038, was erected much later, in 1911, as a parish church. A few achievements, events, and notable personalities deserve to be mentioned in this regard.

In 1891

St-Antonin equipped itself with a wine cellar and established its primary school at Mr. HERAUD's. On land purchased from Mr. Louis GIRAUD, it created its own cemetery in 1909.

In 1910

An annex town hall or civil registry office was established at Mr. Fernand MINGAUD's and then at Mr. Marius BOYER's the following year. Supported by three elected officials, Mr. Augustin HERAUD was the first special deputy. But perhaps to ward off fate, his constituents already called him Mr. Mayor.

From 1919 to 1922

Then having also paid its tribute to the First World War, our future municipality had to honor its children who fell for the Fatherland. This it did by erecting a war memorial in 1919, inaugurated by Lieutenant-Colonel Paul de GASQUET in 1922.

In 1930

The school was finally built in front of the Church. Joined by the Town Hall the same year, it ceded its premises to it in 1962 to settle in its current infrastructure.

In 1954

The act was made possible by Mr. Jean FUSTIER, supported in his action by the very influential president of the General Council of the time, Mr. Edouard SOLDANI, to whom the village owes it.