Saint Christol Hotels

Saint-Christol is the name or part of the name of several communes in France. From Prehistory to the Romans and the Middle Ages Nothing leads us to believe that the St Christol area was lived in during the Neolithic ages. Flint shards have been dug out and attributed to sheperds rather than to a sedentary population. The only traces found in the Saint-Christol area and dating from the iron age (approximately 1000 years BC) include fragments of an Etruscan amphora found at Vaquefolle and of a Greek amphora from the Marseilles colony. We have to wait till the beginning of the early Roman Empire (IIIRD century BC) and till the high Empire (two centuries later) to find three small farms : One is located at the east of the present village, in the Camau area. Remnants show a small Gallo-Roman villa (yellow bricks, amphora fragments, goblets and a stone with epitath). These would indicate a family of low-rank notables. The other is on the west side, close to the Lauriole farmhouse and extends towards the present La Bruyère woods where an agricultural settlement has been discovered. The number of remains is larger than in Camau. The pattern of the settlement is similar though: large, with bricks and remnants of pottery; secondary buildings enclose La Bruyère. Later on, the property became an annex to the “Hospitaliers” domain.