la Vigne et du Rosaire (Our Lady of the Vine and the Rosary). Many of the stones of Saint Martin had been pillaged during the previous centuries and were used to construct houses in the area. At the same time the village and the apartments and houses which had been built into the fortified walls constructed by the Knights Templars were sold to private owners, mostly from the region. The revival of the old village had begun and by 1980 most of the work had been finished. Cairanne wine During the eighteenth century the economy of the region began to revive as wine growing increased in importance. A decree of 1766 demonstrates that the local winegrowers were thinking in terms of an appellation: "Innkeepers may only sell to private individuals wine of the place, in sealed bottles. In consequence, kindly ask the Police to place the seal on said bottles, and innkeepers must justify the provenance of their wine". In 1863 phylloxera first appeared and progressively destroyed the majority of French vineyards except for some in sandy terrain. At the beginning of the twentieth century the winegrowers struggled to revive the ravaged vineyards and enhance the quality of their wine. The main remedy was the use of resistant rootstock from the Five Finger Lake region in upstate New York to guard against phylloxera as well as to focus on quality rather than quantity. Finally Baron Pierre Le Roy Boiseaumarié, a trained lawyer and winegrower at heart, successfully obtained legal recognition of the "Côtes du Rhône" appellation of origin in 1937. The village of Cairanne is on the southern Côtes du Rhône wine route and its quality wines are designated Cairanne AOC since February 2016, having previously been part of the larger Côtes-du-Rhône Villages AOC. Other notable wine villages nearby are Gigondas, Rasteau, Seguret, Sablet, Beaumes de Venise, Vacqueyras. The Cairanne red wines are full-bodied, fruity and spicy (black pepper), with a smooth finish. Buildings The village is made up of two distinct parts: the old village (population 80) on top of the hill and the village proper below (population 850). Most of the buildings in the old village date from the eighteenth century except the old ramparts which date back to the 12th century when first the Knights Templar and then the Knights Hospitaller lived in the village. A steep stairway leads up to the keep and then on to