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The Tartonne salt spring was granted to the inhabitants by Queen Jeanne in 1402. The layout visible today probably dates from the modern era.
The layout visible today around the spring already existed in 1732, when the consuls of Tartonne awarded a repair contract to Honoré Giraud, a mason from Clumanc. Giraud was to demolish and rebuild the north and west walls identically, raise all the walls to reduce the slope, render them and cover the building in stone. Achard’s dictionary, published in 1788, describes the salt spring as a well containing a large wooden tank and fitted with two locks, the keys to which were kept by the consuls of Tartonne and the farmers of the royal gabelle. The well filled up within 24 hours, and water was distributed to the inhabitants every 8 days in summer and every 15 days in winter. The abolition of the royal monopoly put an end to this practice. The cadastral map of 1837 shows a small public building in the bed of the Salaou torrent, bordered on the south by a dike. The aedicula, which was restored after its inscription in 1993, is now preserved only as a curiosity and a testimony to the past.
The well, with its square plank formwork, is housed in a small, square, barrel-vaulted building with no roof. The rough rubble block elevations are blind, except on the south side, where a door with monolithic lintel and an opening for the monoxyle pipe used as an overflow open up. Very close to the bed of the Salaou torrent, the well is protected from flooding by an earth embankment faced with rough rubble.
source: Inventaire général du Patrimoine culturel Région Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur
04330 Tartonne-en