Station: [10] Cévennes Parlour

These rather plain pieces of furniture are 300 years old. It's from a farmhouse in the Cévennes. There, on the edge of the Massif Central in the South of France, people lived in dire poverty for centuries. 
Farming was barely conceivable in the barren mountain landscape with its poor soil and steep gorges. Many local people made a living mainly by growing sweet chestnuts. They were Huguenots, who were long able to live a relatively untroubled life in this isolated mountain region. 
But when a new monarch came to power at the French court, the Reformed Christians' situation underwent a radical change. 
King Louis the Fourteenth was obsessed with the idea of France as a purely Roman Catholic country and subjected French Protestants to relentless, country-wide persecution. In the Cévennes, the War of the Camisards was launched – a ruthless battle for the freedom to practise the Protestant faith.  
The name Camisards literally means "smock men" and derives from the traditional smocks worn by locals in the Cévennes. For eight years, the Camisards fought for their Protestant faith. It was an unequal war; at times, no more than two or three thousand Huguenot fighters found themselves facing an army of 25 thousand royal soldiers. In the end, the Camisards were defeated. The last of their fighters were executed in 1710. 

Foto: © DHG