Chapelle Sainte-Roseline et monastère de la Celle-Roubaud

Les Arcs-sur-Argens

The site, called Cella and then La Celle-Roubaud, has housed a religious community since the 6th century; the Templars settled there in 1200, the Carthusians from 1260, the Observant Franciscans in the early 16th century. Roseline de Villeneuve, born in 1263 at the château of Les Arcs, entered religion there and became its prioress in 1300; she died on 17 January 1329. Tradition relates that her mother, while pregnant, heard a voice announce: "you shall bring forth a rose without thorns". As a child, Roseline would take bread from the castle stores for the poor; caught by her father, she opened her apron, and out fell roses — in the middle of January. This is the miracle of the roses, and the place where it happened is still pointed out. Five years after her death, in 1334, her body was exhumed intact and a scent of roses is said to have risen from the tomb; her eyes, reputed to have kept their brightness, were placed in a separate reliquary that can still be seen. In 1660 Antoine Vallot, first physician to Louis XIV, came to study the phenomenon and pierced the left eye with a needle: the humour ran out and the eye grew dull. The body, ravaged by insects, was reconstructed in 1894 in beeswax by an Italian doctor, and an analysis in 1995 established that the visible parts — face, hands, feet — are entirely of wax; the crystal shrine nonetheless remains one of the great pilgrimage destinations of the Var, notably for the healing of children. In 1968–1975 the patron Marguerite Maeght had the chapel completed with a mosaic by Marc Chagall depicting the meal of the angels, doors and a lectern by Diego Giacometti and stained glass by Jean Bazaine and Raoul Ubac.

Diocèse de Fréjus-Toulon — chapelle Sainte-Roseline ↗

Getting there : Route de Sainte-Roseline (D91), about 4 km north-east of the village of Les Arcs-sur-Argens, in the middle of the vineyards; from the A8, exit 36 Le Muy, towards Draguignan, then left at the third roundabout. Open Tuesday to Sunday, closed on Mondays: 2.30–5 pm from February to May and October to December, 2.30–6.30 pm from June to September. Free admission.

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

Ambient sound