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Carvings in the Grotte d’Observatoire in Monaco and paintings in the Grotte Cosquer near Marseille date from as far back as 1 million BC. Between 2500 and 2000 BC, dwellers in the Vallée des Merveilles (see Vallée des Merveilles and Musée des Merveilles) left behind carvings of beasts and human figures.

In 123 BC the Phoenician Greeks, settled in Marseille since 600 BC, asked for Roman help against the invading Celtic tribes inland. After defeating the Celts, the Romans founded Aquae Sextia (Aix) in the area (see Aix-en-Provence).

In AD 40 St Honorat brought Christianity to Provence, founding the first monastery on Ile de Lérins. Camarguais legend, however, claims Christianity was brought here by Mary Magdalene herself (see Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer).

With the fall of the Roman Empire in AD 476 Provence was pillaged by barbarians, eventually coming under the rule of the Franks. From the 8th century the coasts were harried by Moorish pirates who gave their name to the Massif des Maures. They were finally defeated in 974 by Guillaume le Libérateur, Count of Arles.

In 1297 François Grimaldi, a supporter of the papacy in the Guelph-Ghibelline feuds which beset 13th-century Italy, seized Monaco and its castle to found the dynasty which still rules there today.

Pope Clement V relocated to Avignon in 1309 to escape strife-torn Rome, the first of a succession of nine French pontiffs who were to reside in the Provençal town. In 1348 Clement VI bought the city and Avignon remained the seat of the papacy until 1377 (see Palais des Papes).

In 1486 King René of Naples, the last of the Anjou dynasty who ruled Provence from 1246, died without issue, and most of the region became part of France. Nice and the Alpes Maritimes, however, remained part of the Kingdom of Savoy, before finally passing to France in 1860.

In the second half of the 16th century religious strife erupted in the Luberon between reforming Vaudois (Huguenot) factions and conservative Catholic forces. The plague of 1580 added to the region’s woes.

When the French Revolution erupted in 1789, the people of Marseille were among its staunchest supporters, marching to a tune that became known as La Marseillaise, now France’s national anthem.

After the Nazi invasion of 1940, Provence was ruled by the collaborationist Vichy government, until it was occupied by Germany in 1942. Guerrilla fighters in the maquis (scrubland) resisted the Occupation. On 15 August 1944, Allied troops landed, liberating Provence after two weeks of fighting.