The village of Ménerbes in the Vaucluse department was fortified in the Middle Ages. An imposing citadel surrounded by ramparts pierced with two entrance gates - the Saint-Sauveur gate through which the Huguenots took possession of the village in 1573 and the Notre-Dame gate or Porte du Midi demolished in the 19th century - was built there from the 12th century. These gates appear in the form of two keys in the coat of arms of Ménerbes. Numerous underground passages testify to the activity of the village integrated in 1274 to the Comtat Venaissin and on the territory of which a convent was established by the Carmelites, hermits from Mount Carmel in Palestine, in the middle of the 13th century.