The creation of Salagon
How did one of the department's three most visited cultural attractions come to be located here, at Mane in Haute-Provence?
Volunteers from an association worked on the site, and in 1981 the French government and local authorities became involved. Between them, they conserved the historic monument and added the museum and later the gardens.
Nous sommes en 1890. Le prieuré de Salagon est photographié par Saint-Marcel Eysseric. Érudit et collectionneur, Saint-Marcel Eysseric a photographié, durant une grande partie de sa vie, les routes des Alpes et de la Provence.
Augustin Calixte, ancien propriétaire des lieux, photographié devant la porte du logis dans les années 1970. En 1981, la commune de Mane a racheté à sa famille le monument pour y développer le projet culturel de Salagon.
Pierre Martel (1923-2001), père fondateur du projet de Salagon. Avec l'association Alpes de Lumière, il a, le premier, collecté les objets qui font aujourd'hui la collection du musée et recueilli les témoignages des habitants de la haute Provence. Fonds Alpes de Lumière
Le prieuré de Salagon en 1980. Un an plus tard, un important chantier de restauration démarre à l'initiative de l’association Alpes de Lumière.
Les travaux de restauration du monument ont été titanesques. Ils ont été conduits par les architectes des Monuments historiques et par de très nombreux bénévoles inscrits aux chantiers volontaires d'Alpes de Lumière.
A gauche de la photo, Pierre Lieutaghi qui a conçu la grande majorité des jardins ethnobotaniques de Salagon. Ses travaux et ses recherches sont mondialement connus. François Tessari, chef jardinier de Salagon a conçu le jardin de senteurs inauguré en 2011.
Salagon through the ages
Salagon has known many different uses during its 2,000-year history. It was a neolithic habitat, Gallic farm, Gallo-Roman villa, funeral basilica in late Antiquity, Benedictine priory, country residence and then a farm again, with the nearby church reconsecrated and listed as a historic monument in 1922...
After World War II, during which the Italian army requisitioned the church for use as a stable, only a visionary could have imagined the site becoming a museum thirty years later.
Pierre Martel, founding father
In 1953, Reverend Pierre Martel, parish priest of Mane, founded the 
Alpes de Lumière association. Aim: to study, safeguard and showcase the architectural, natural and cultural heritage of Haute-Provence, including local, building, domestic and environmental expertise. At this time, the rural world was not held in high esteem.
In Haute-Provence as elsewhere, the rural exodus was in full swing. The Alpes de Lumière association collected stories, archives, photos and objects to conserve and showcase rural culture, and pass it on to the young generation. This collection formed the basis of the museum.
A museum is founded
Under the impetus of Pierre Martel and the association, a cultural project for Salagon began to take shape. In 1981, Mane village council took the first step towards making the project reality when it bought the site from the last owner. Alpes de Lumière opened its Haute-Provence conservation centre to the public, laying the foundations for today's museum.
During this same year, 1981, the Salagon site as a whole was listed as a historic monument. A new chapter in the reconstruction began. It was to last around fifteen years, and was made possible by the village council, the department council (which took ownership of the site in 1984), Provence-Alpes-Cote-d'Azur region council and the French Ministry of Culture.
During this period, Salagon Museum was officially created and the ethnobotanical gardens were developed as part of a government programme of research into popular knowledge of nature. The Salagon cultural, museum and ethnobotanical project developed, gradually taking possession of the site.
In January 2000, the site as a whole passed into the hands of Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department. This enabled the museum to gradually become more professional, and it received "Musée de France" certification in 2002.
Only a visionary could have imagined the site becoming a museum thirty years later...