134 Arles, France : Saint Trophimus cathedral : a Chinese nightmare ?

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Fairly minimalist Stations of the Cross, very chunky pulpit by an 18th century Portuguese sculptor, pretty fancy crib. The nativity crib belongs to that wonderful provençal tradition where you surround the holy family with a provençal village, complete with sheep and bagpipes. Seventeenth century tapestries and fabulous thirteenth-fourteenth century cloisters. Romanesque entrance with animals, which Van Gogh said was a « Chinese nightmare ».

The church is dedicated to Saint Trophimus, a real pioneer in the art of sainthood, because he arrived in Arles in 43 AD, unless he was actually just a legend, or a third century bishop. Trophimus is considered by the Catholic Church the protector of those with gout.

The church was mostly built in the 12th century, on the spot where there had been a church since the 5th century. In the 6th century, Saint Augustine was here consecrated Archbishop of England. And Louis II got married here in 1400.

Like many other churches around France, this cathedral was converted, for a few years during the French Revolution, into a “Temple of the Supreme Being” before going back to that old time religion in 1801.






























































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