Manosque is a thousand-year-old city with a rich religious, architectural and cultural heritage. Its historic pear-shaped heart has retained its old charm. It combines a picturesque network of narrow streets lined with tall houses with pretty little squares hosting Provençal markets in the shade of plane trees. One can also discover the vestiges of the military architecture of the city (including three of its four original gates and the tower of the old castle of Mont-D'or), as well as various buildings of civil architecture including the Renaissance-style town hall, the music school in the Carmelite and Observantine convents, the Hôtel d'Herbès which houses the municipal library and the house of Jean Giono.