The famous hill of Hermitage found along the banks of the Northern Rhone Valley, was so named in honor of the hermitage founded there in 1224 by Henri Gaspard de Sterimberg, a knight of the Albigensian crusade. Awarded the hill by Blanche of Castille, Queen of France, as a place of refuge and recuperation from the war, Steinberg chose to live as a hermit at the top of the hill. A few others joined him over the years, and this small new community turned their attention to winegrowing.