Stories from the French Revolution leave a physical mark even in the southern French countryside. Here are two episodes that reflect the violence of the counter-revolution and explain the reasons that the peasantry revolted in the first place.
The last three images show an aristocratic mansion and fortress in the small mountainside village of Banne. It is clear that whoever approached the town would know immediately who held power — the castle of Banne by the late 18th century commanded the wealth of many peasants’ labor in the surrounding fields, was sumptuously maintained with a large staff and enormous kitchens and fine rooms, and showed off its military might with its stone walls and elevated physical position. It was overcome by revolutionaries and destroyed — only ruins remain now.
The first three photos tell a more grizzly story of counter-revolutionary bloodshed that occurred in 1792, during the heyday of Maxmillian Robespierre. The anti-Catholic sentiments of Jacobins leading the way in Paris generally were not shared by the northern French peasantry. In the south, however, Protestant leanings had been stronger, and meshed with hostile feelings against the French crown. So it was that the villagers of this bucolic and very small village of Naves attacked and beheaded three priests who refused to recant their beliefs — the three men tried to take refuge in the cave you see in the third picture, but were found out. The legend is that the villagers kicked their heads for kilometers to display their anger. Later, the bodies of the priests were recovered by those sympathetic to the priests, who were given a funeral. It is sobering to think about such a small-scale community turning against itself with such violence.
