Lying 40 km east of Avignon and 100 km from Marseille, the hill village of Gordes can be seen from a winding road lined with dry-stone walls. Built on the southern slopes of the Monts de Vaucluse facing the Luberon Mountain, this municipality of 2,000 inhabitants, has an exceptional heritage of stone buildings. Cave houses, constructions built up the rock face, small terraced gardens, a multitude of "calades" (the word in Provencal for streets paved with stones which have been laid edgewise) and vaulted passageways, characterise the historic centre. It is dominated by a church, originally of Romanesque style which was rebuilt in the 18th century, and a Renaissance castle with its Gallo-Roman foundations, where the town hall and the museum of the contemporary Flemish painter, Pol Mara may be found.