Provence Live an Aix-périence guaranteed Aix-en-Provence Study opportunities in Aix-en-Provence
Practical information Maps and where abouts Map of Provence
Kiosk, news and events Camargue Road map
Festivals, concerts, night life Short cut Streets of Aix en Provence
Art gallery to send us an e-mail

 

- Bourg Saint-Sauveur -

Provence l road map l streets of Aix-en-Provence

 
Place aux Herbes Place de l'Archevêché ou des Martyres de la Résistance Cathédrale Saint Sauveur Rue Jacques de Laroque Rue Gaston de Saporta Place de l'Hôtel de Ville Musée des Tapisseries, l'Archevêché La Vieille Poste Monument Joseph Sec Place de l'Université
 
Sites
       
1 Place de l'Hôtel de Ville 6 Rue Jacques de Laroque
2 Rue Gaston de Saporta 7 Place de l'Université
3 Place de l'Archevêché 20 La Vieille Poste
4 Musée des Tapisseries
l'Archevêché
21 Place aux Herbes
  62 Monument Joseph Sec
5 La Cathédrale Saint-Sauveur  

 
The oldest part of the "old town" the stones reveal over two thousand years of wear and tear. The Roman forum now lies beneath a part of the Cathedral and the only twentieth century intruder in this part of town is located at the bottom of the rue du Bon Pasteur, the Aqua Bella hotel, rises four square atop the Roman thermal establishment of the "Aquae Sextiae". The earliest depiction of this part of town, a fifteenth century painting of "scenes from the life of" Saint Mitre is in the saint's chapel directly behind the Cathedral high altar. Though unbelievers will always disbelieve, the saint is here seen at a "crowning moment" of his life, holding his severed head "to the merriment of Roman soldiers and the awe-struck horror of onlookers". It is told that he kissed it. A less challenging truth, Aix-en-Provence in the fifteenth century, with its Cathedral tower, and the magnificent palaces that surrounded it. We are, here, most surely, on the site of Aix's prehistory, the crossroads and thermal springs that quenched the thirst of weary travellers on their way from Italy to Spain and from Marseille to Paris.
 

 


Copyright © Provence Live 2011