Abbaye de Montmajour

Founded in 948 by Benedictine monks on a promontory that then emerged from the marshes surrounding Arles, Montmajour Abbey became one of the richest and most powerful abbeys in Provence in the Middle Ages, partly thanks to the pilgrimage drawn by its Sainte-Croix chapel.

The monumental complex combines a Romanesque abbey church with an unfinished nave, a cloister with carved capitals, a semi-underground crypt and an imposing fortified keep added in the 14th century to protect the monks from armed bands. Van Gogh, who lived in Arles, painted and drew the ruins of Montmajour several times, when they were overgrown with vegetation.

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