Arcades Square

Square is rectangular and delimited in its volumetry by a frame of two or even three floors in places. In the length of the square are semicircular arches or ogive, suggesting a covered walkway. It provides access to shops on the ground floor or housing on the upper floors. Some doors date from the 16th century.

In the 14th century, Provence was hit by a serious demographic crisis. A general famine and then the black plague caused the disappearance of about half of the population. Whole regions were depopulated and some villages, like Biot, were deserted. From 1460, lords organized the repopulation of these places by acts of habitations, conventions passed with often foreign populations, which guaranteed their rights. Biot was repopulated in 1470 by inhabitants of the Val d'Oneille in Liguria (Italy).

In the 13th and 14th century, Place des Arcades was located in the center of the first castrum of Biot. It is lined with two galleries with arcades of original forms. The floor of the gallery is pebbled and its ceiling reveals the beams of the first floor.