Rochefort-Samson

Rochefort-Samson is located near one of the most beautiful gullies in the Monts du Matin, the Combe d'Oyans, which opens onto a landscape of valleys and hills.

Between the villages of Beauregeard-Baret to the north and Barbières to the south, the Rochefort-Samson district is located near one of the most beautiful gulleys in the Monts du Matin mountains, the Combe d'Oyans, which opens out onto a landscape of small valleys and hills. Aside from the actual administrative centre, the district includes various hamlets, of which Saint-Mamans, an independent parish, is the largest.

In the 19th century, in the hamlet of Saint-Genis, an ancient altar was discovered dedicated to Mars Rudianus, a warlike god who may have given his name to Royans.

In the Middle Ages, the narrow gorge of Combe d'Oyans was overlooked by a castle that controlled access to it. The site of Rochefort Castle, perched on a rocky spur, was twinned with that of Samson below, where records show that a church stood in 1046. Rochefort Castle was destroyed during the Wars of Religion. All that remains are a few ruins.

These days, the first slopes of the Monts du Matin, from Saint-Vincent to Hostun, are punctuated by a series of quarries, some of which were opened as long ago as the 19th century. The substances extracted here are kaolin, for use as a mineral element in various industrial products, and silica, which has a number of uses, some of them quite surprising: glass fibre, construction, water treatment and… golf bunkers!