A Proud Tradition

During the fourteenth century Tropezians took to the sea to defend the coast. In the next century Good King Rene of Provence, charged an Italian nobleman with the defense of the town, which Rene considered a weak point in the coastal defenses. The noblemen brought nearly two dozen Genoese families who rebuilt and fortified the town. Even today, most of the names on the tombs in the maritime cemetery seem to be Italian. As reward for defending and populating the town, St. Tropez was granted the status of a ville franche, a town that was exempted from taxation.

In the sixteenth century, the king granted Heracléa the right to raise its own army under a Capitaine de Ville, Captain of the City, elected by the citizens and posted a royal garrison at the Citadelle, which is now a naval museum.

Although Louis XIV revoked the privileges in the seventeenth century, the Tropezians continued to elect an honorary Capitaine de Ville each year, and they recall their proud history and the origin of their town in three days of mingled reverence and revelry known as Les Bravades.

The Bravades (Provençal for acts of bravado or defiance) trace their origins to 1554, when the town’s fortifications were completed. The townspeople armed themselves to build a chapel in honor of their patron saint on the site where legend held he was buried, outside the walls of the town, some of which still exist.

Each year on May 17 a procession of Tropezians ventured out of the safety of the city walls, accompanied by the defiant volleys of gunshots and the martial sounds of drum and fife, to visit the chapel to commemorate the day that the martyr’s corpse arrived on their shores.

When Louis dissolved the army and revoked their special status, Tropezians redoubled their demonstrations of pride and heritage. The Bravades, still led by a Capitaine de Ville and his Ensign and officers, recall the combination of their glory as a ville franche, their vigilance and attention to the security of their town, and their respect for their patron saint.

The Bravades

The three days of celebration begin with a twenty-one gun salute on the morning of May 16. Throughout the morning the traditional anthem of the Bravades’ echoes off the walls of the city and the Citadelle that looks down upon it, as the fife and drum corps parades through the narrow streets, stopping frequently to honor civic officials and former Capitaines de Ville, for rest and refreshment, and for a chance to mingle with the assembled friends and relatives.

In late morning, the three groups of Bravadeurs, the Sailors, the Musketeers and the Saint’s Guard, join in the Place de l'Hôtel de Ville, the plaza in front of the town hall. There the sounds of fifes and drums are punctuated by the firing of muskets and blunderbusses, sometimes singly and sometimes in ear-shattering volleys.

In mid-afternoon, the Bravadeurs gather at the church of Notre Dame de l’Assomption for the big moment that the bust of St. Tropez is released from his long confinement to be paraded around the city on the shoulders of four crimson-clad Pisans who have come expressly from the city of his martyrdom for the purpose. The priests from Note Dame follow somberly behind.

From  Notre Dame to the Place de l'Hôtel de Ville is only a few blocks, and the entourage carries St. Tropez to a place of honor between two evergreens in front of the city hall. From his vantage point, he oversees the blessing of the weapons and the installation of the Capitaine de Ville who has been recommended by the Cépoun  (a  Provençal term for the one responsible for reserving tradition) and elected by the town Council. At the same time his ensign and young boys who will serve as  are also installed. The Capitain de Ville serves as the year’s master of the Bravades  and the young boys who will serve as standard-bearers.

The town square is filled with the smell of cordite as gunfire alternates with music and parading and ritual of homage before the bust of the saint, until the Bravadeurs are swallowed up in gun smoke.

Each of the three groups of Bravadeurs marches as a separate unit, and each carries performs its individual rites and rituals amid incessant weapons fire. (The Bravadeurs use an estimated 500 kg of gunpowder during the three-day celebration.)

When the ceremonies in the Place de Mairie have concluded, we enjoy the carillons ringing in our ears as the groups reassemble and a cross bearer leads followed by the musketeers, the sailors, and the Saint’s guards. The procession along the rue  between the famous restaurants and the yachts that line the Quay Frederich Mistral. The red-cloaked Pisans carrying the Saint to the rue at the head of the harbor, where the honors begin anew.  The three sections of Bravadeurs march and mill and do homage to the saint’s effigy, again ensconced between evergreens just outside the city’s busy Tourist Office. At each stop the young standard-bearer repeats a ritualistic display of banner twirling much like a somber majorette. The drummers drum, the fifers fife and the Bravadeurs –  who knew enough to wear ear protection – again fire their muskets and blunderbusses, many of them apparently bored by the repetition.

In front of the famous Café de Paris, the statue of some sailor guy also receives honors, music, flag-waving, and gunfire, before the procession careers along the smaller streets, stopping at each corner for a reprise of the larger ceremonies in the Place de Ville and at the quayside, until the saint is returned to the church for the night at eight o’clock.

Purification and preservation of its identity

May 17

The next morning begins with a Mass of the Musketeers in Notre Dame. The church is packed full of Bravadeurs, now joined with women and children in seventeenth century garb.

Bouquets of flowers sold at the entrance to the church are blessed and taken home to the family busts if St, Tropez displayed in every Trapezienne home and business. And the villagers sing traditional hymns, familiar to every native Tropezienne.

The events of the previous day are repeated and expanded, beginning at the Palace de Ville and continuing around town, with the busts of saints Peter, Ursula, and joining the procession before returning to the church to pay homage to St. Tropez at noon.

At 4:00, the Grand Bravades begin at Place de Ville, following the same plan as the previous day, with longer and more frequent stops. A small boy, the son of one of the Bravadeurs, wraps around the neck of the saint a red scarf that symbolizes the link between past and present.

At about 8:00, St. Tropez returns again to the church, where the Bravadeurs show him final homage before promising “A l’an gue vien,” Until next year!

May 18

The final morning begins with a Mass of Thanksgiving at the Chapel of Saint Anne and concludes with the Provencales dancing the farandole behind the Bravadeurs and ends with the traditional reunion picnic on the hill near the Chapel, where families mingle and many of those who have moved from town return for the symbolic union of faith and loyalty