Abbaye Saint-Michel de Frigolet

Tarascon

Nestled in the wooded hills of the Montagnette, between Tarascon and Avignon, the abbey of Saint-Michel de Frigolet occupies a religious site whose origins are said to go back to the 7th century. The priory is first mentioned by name in 1133, then confirmed by a bull of Pope Adrian IV in 1155. Attached in the 14th century to the cathedral of Avignon, it then saw several waves of occupation, notably by Augustinian canons and then by Hieronymites in the 17th century, before a decisive revival under Father Edmond Boulbon, prior from 1858 to 1869, the year the community was raised to the rank of abbey. The monastery twice weathered the hostility of the State towards religious congregations, with the expulsion of the religious in 1880 and again in 1903. At the heart of the abbey survives a 17th-century Baroque chapel, now encased within the neo-Gothic basilica built later, where the statue of Notre-Dame du Bon Remède (Our Lady of Good Remedy) is venerated, solemnly crowned in the 19th century by authorisation of Pope Pius IX — an ancient Marian cult that makes Frigolet a still-living place of Provençal pilgrimage. In 1984, John Paul II raised the building to the rank of minor basilica. A fire ravaged part of the surrounding woodland in 2022, sparing the monastic buildings.

Getting there : About 8 km north of Tarascon by the Montagnette road (D81); parking on site; free visits to the basilica, services and monastery shop.

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

Ambient sound