Valbonne is a village and commune near Nice, in the Alpes-Maritimes département, in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur région of southeastern France. Constructed in 1519 by Augustin de Grimaldi, bishop of Grasse and abbot of Lérins, the aim was to use exclusively local labour to build a community that would lead to the repopulation of the region, which had suffered greatly in the Black Death in 1351. This was accomplished by the importation of Italian artisans, to work the clay found in the nearby villages of Vallauris and Biot. Located adjacent to a Chalasian abbey originally established in 1199, the village is laid out along a grid pattern, under the influence of Roman military camps, with two principal avenues, arranged perpendicular to one another, and the forum at the intersection.