- Bourg 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. |
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