Primatiale Saint-Trophime d'Arles

Arles

"Those who go to Saint James by the road of Saint-Gilles must first visit, at Arles, the body of the blessed Trophime": so begins, in the Book of Saint James, the list of the holy bodies of the road. Trophime, the legendary first bishop of Arles, lay at the Alyscamps; on 29 September 1152 Archbishop Raimon de Montredon moved his relics into the cathedral, until then dedicated to Saint Stephen, which took his name. The church one sees is that of this century: a high nave in pointed barrel vault, flanked by narrow aisles, a short transept under a dome, and, around 1180-1190, the great carved doorway that spreads out on the square the Last Judgement, the apostles and the procession of the elect and the damned, one of the major works of Provençal Romanesque sculpture. The cloister, whose north and east galleries are Romanesque and the other two Gothic, continues this programme. Here, on 30 July 1178, Frederick Barbarossa had himself crowned king of Arles. The seat of an archbishopric until the Revolution, the church has been classified since the very first list of 1840 and appears on the World Heritage list on two counts: among the Roman and Romanesque monuments of Arles in 1981, and within the Arles group of the roads to Santiago in 1998. The pilgrim who leaves it has before him Saint-Gilles, Saint-Guilhem, Toulouse and the Somport.

Wikipédia — Saint-Trophime d'Arles ↗

Getting there : In the very centre of Arles, ten minutes' walk from the station and the arena. The church is freely open during the day; the cloister is visited with a ticket for the monuments of Arles (hours according to the season). The doorway is best read from the square, preferably in the morning.

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

Ambient sound