Santons and Cribs Fair History
(extract)
The first ever « foire aux santons » took place on the
4th of december 1803 near the Vieux port, on the Cours
St Louis, Marseilles. In 1808, le Cours St Louis was
renamed le Cours Belzunce, but is trees kept the
privildege of protecting this typically provencal event
until 1853, when the “foire aux santons” moved to le Muy
blvd. In 1882, it took place on the Capucines blvd near
the Archeveché.
It finally settled for good in 1883 on the Meilhan ways,
up the Canebiere, at the request of Elzeard Rougier.
According to Marcel Provence, the first ever shelf was
settled on front of the little house where the café
Riche was, at the corner of the Canebiere and le Cours
St Louis. You can easily imagine the feeling of this
era, colourful houses, nougat, sweets and biscottes
sellers, the crowd at the same time joyful and calm,
speaking loud, but correctly.
The debuts of this foire were difficult. Even if sales
were reaching 150 000 santons in 1855 and 180 000 in
1856. Number of shelves was really variable depending on
years : 41 in 1863, 72 in 1869, 30 in 1871, 55 in 1873,
37 in 1875, 11 in 1914 and 1915, 14 in 1916. Elzeard
Rougier was right to name one of his books “Colossal war
and small santons” ! But other elements were
interfering, the Etiennes, for instance, were selling
more santons on their own than all the other
participants of this foire. It’s true that the number of
santonniers was also very variable, 36 in 1862, 28 in
1906, 11 in 1914, between 16 and 22 from 1916 to 1926.
in : "Santoun, traditions et histoire du santon
provençal", André
François
Books
Selective bibliography
- La Pastoral Maurel, création en 1844,
éditions Tacussel
- Noël en Provence, G. Arnaud d’Agnel et Léopold
Dor, édition de Paris, 1927, réimpression éditions J.
Laffitte 1994
- Santoun, traditions et histoire du santon provençal
- André François, édition SERG, 1972
- Le Monde des Santons - Marie Mauron,
Librairie académique Perrin, 1976
- Crèches et Santons de Provence - Régis
Bertrand, édition A.Barthélemy, 1992
