Église Saint-Jean-de-Malte d'Aix-en-Provence

Aix-en-Provence

The Hospitallers were established at Aix in the 12th century: a deed of 1192 mentions their commandery and the chapel they had built there. A century later they undertook in its place a church of a kind Provence did not know — a very high single nave, rib-vaulted, without a projecting transept — and it is agreed to see in it the first Gothic building in the region. The work is held to have been carried out between 1272 and 1277, according to the testamentary wishes of Countess Béatrice of Provence, whose tomb Charles I of Anjou wanted to find a place there. The brothers had already received, before 1256, the bodies of Count Alphonse II and of his son Raimond-Bérenger V: the church of the Hospitallers of Aix thus became the necropolis of the counts of Provence, which explains its size and its bell-tower, the highest in the town. The order held it until the Revolution; the neighbouring building, its priory, is today the Musée Granet. It is the place in France where one best measures what the Hospital could build when it had the means: neither a farm chapel nor a castle, but a church of a court.

Wikipédia — Église Saint-Jean-de-Malte d'Aix-en-Provence ↗

Getting there : In the heart of the Mazarin quarter, ten minutes' walk from the cours Mirabeau; rue Cardinale. The church is a parish church and is open every day, with sung services; entry is free and the choir can be visited outside celebrations. The former priory, adjoining, houses the Musée Granet, which is visited separately and for a charge.

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

Ambient sound