Les Alyscamps et Saint-Honorat d'Arles

Arles

At the gates of Arles, the Alyscamps were one of the most venerated necropolises of the Christian West. Around the memory of Saint Genesius, a clerk of Arles beheaded around 303 for refusing to sign condemnations of Christians, the city of the dead spread from the 4th century into a forest of sarcophagi. Around 1035–1040, the basilica and its dependencies were ceded to the monks of Saint-Victor of Marseille; rebuilt in the 12th century, the church of Saint-Honorat became the starting point of the Via Tolosana, the "Arles route" to Santiago de Compostela. The transfer of the relics of Saint Trophimus to the cathedral in 1152 set the site's decline in motion, later deepened by the Craponne canal (1584) and then the railway (1848); the Minims had settled there in 1615, and the chapel of Saint-Accurse, raised in 1520 in expiation for a duel, still stands beside the avenue. Listed as early as 1840 for the church and protected in 1862 and 1913, the ensemble has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1981 as part of the Roman and Romanesque monuments of Arles. In the autumn of 1888, Vincent van Gogh painted four canvases here and Paul Gauguin two, fixing for ever the avenue of tombs beneath the russet foliage.

Getting there : Avenue des Alyscamps, 13200 Arles; open daily (9 am–7 pm in season), admission €5 (reduced €4)

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound