page_title: Barles
section_title: Contemporary period
hierarchical_section_title: Barles / History / Contemporary period
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Tunnel à l'entrée (en aval) de Barles
context_page_description: Barles is a French commune in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of south-eastern France.
  The inhabitants of the commune are known as Barlatans or Barlatanes.
context_section_description: In 1820, an Italian miner operated a copper mine for a few days. This was the last attempt to mine ore in the commune: in the end none were profitable.
  Until the 19th century there were no roads in Barles. The nearest road was the Route nationale 100, from Digne to Coni via the Col du Labouret and Verdaches which was built in 1854. A mule path, Communal path No. 7, was built around the same time and gradually improved in the 1860s: it was the only road construction in Barles in the 19th century. This path was often difficult to use when the weather was bad especially the passage through the Eyssarts ravine (towards Saint Clement) after thunderstorms and Barles was sometimes cut off by landslides (as in 1890 in Tanaron). The clues of Saint-Clément were traversed by tunnels the width of a mule.
  As with many communes in the department, Barles adopted schools well before the Jules Ferry laws: in 1863 it had two, installed one in the main village and one in a hamlet, both of which provided primary education for boys. Although the Falloux Laws (1851) did not require the opening of a school for girls unless a commune had more than 800 inhabitants, the commune instructed their girls in 1863. The lack of roads lead to the multiplication of schools: from one for boys in 1863 the commune created five by 1881. These were located in the main village (104 inhabitants, 170 with dependent hamlets in 1881), Vaux (49 inhabitants in 1881), Forest (108 inhabitants), Sauvans (82 inhabitants with Bloudes and Le Mas in 1881), and Saint Clement (87 inhabitants with Lauzet at the same date). The town benefited from subsidies in the second Duruy Law (1877) which were used to build a new school at Sauvans and to renovate the others.
  The construction of a road through the Barles Water gap was initiated in 1882 to link Digne to Verdaches and Coni. It was inaugurated in July 1913. The construction was long and difficult: starting in 1891 it covered the Saint Clement Water gap (currently called clues de Barles) which, in 1908, was traversed through the drilling of new tunnels. The opening of the road allowed the creation of a Stagecoach service by a Barles innkeeper which was replaced by a coach in the 20th century.
  The types of livestock at the end of the 19th century testified to the hardness of farming and livelihoods. There were few horses and oxen were used to work the land (19 horses and 14 oxen). Mules were preferred to work sloping land and light soils. A few years later the fair, which was held in Barles the Monday following May 16, disappeared. Barlatans preferred to attend the fairs at Authon while the people of Saint-Clément preferred those at Digne.
  In the 1950s roads were built to serve the hamlets that had preserved the use of mules, pack saddles and sleds until that time.
  Barles appears as Barles on the 1750 Cassini Map and the same on the 1790 version.
caption: The Barles tunnel, built in the 1900s
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