The Saint-Vincent Les Baux-de-Provence, in the Bouches-du-Rhône, was built from the twelfth to the sixteenth century.
Within this village of exception, it is unusual to have partially dug into the rock.
Dedicated to Vincent of Saragossa, who died of persecution in the fourth century, it is Romanesque and its square area is divided into three naves, a span that were added in the early seventeenth.
Note on the left a circular tower topped with gargoyles: it is a lantern of the dead where a lantern was lit when a parishioner died.
On a column near the gate, an engraved inscription knife spotted long, "FRIC MISTRAL", according to some historians would be the work of the famous Provencal writer Frédéric Mistral who was a frequent visitor.
Inside the church, in one of the three chapels on the left, we see a recumbent medieval looking but dates only from 1906, realized and installed at the request of the family of one of whose Manville ancestors had commissioned the chapel in question.
Right side, three other chapels house baptismal tanks (one of which is the eighteenth century and the other was carved into the rock). Finally, in the central aisle marker has been affixed at a pillar on which a kneeling man FIG praying (XV).
Protected as historical monuments, the church was raised in part on an ancient ossuary, as revealed 1862 restoration.
Finally, we remark obviously contemporary windows of the building, made by master Max Ingrand, which were offered by Prince Rainier of Monaco.
Visit possible all year round. Information +33 4 90 54 34 39 or +33 4 90 54 30 23.
