Alyscamps - Arles - Provence/France - Abandoned Cemeteries on Waymarking.com

The Alyscamps (lat. Allissi Campi) is an ancient necropolis on the southeastern edge of the old town of Arles in southern France. Between the more or less preserved remains of the churches of St. Cesaire-le-Vieux and St Honorat lined up today on both sides of a 500-meter-long plane trees Avenue ancient stone sarcophagi each other.

The applied already in ancient burial site on the Roman road Via Aurelia won from the 5th century, when the worship of St. Genesius widespread, important. Genesius (St. Genès) was chancery clerk in Arles, which was under the Roman emperor Maximian n around the year 303. Chr. Beheaded because he had refused to confirm death sentences against Christians. Genesius was buried in the cemetery and in the subsequent period, the bishops of Arles.

With the onset of the pilgrims to Santiago de Compostela, the importance of Alyscamps took in the 12th century to continue. Here on the Alyscamps begins via Tolosana, the southernmost of the four main routes of the Camino de Santiago in France, the Aimeric Picaud in his Codex Calixtinus (5th book: Le Guide du Pèlerin de Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle) Via Aegidia (Route of the Saint -Gilles du Gard) calls. Here the pilgrims gathered for their way to Santiago de Compostela. Aimeric Picaud recommends in its incurred in 1139 writing the worship of the dead saints in the crypt of St Honorat.

The Church of St. Honorat, built on pre-Romanesque remains of walls, comes in its main parts from the 12th and early 13th centuries. With numerous interruptions worked constantly at the church until the 19th century, without that she could ever be fully completed. Choir, transepts with chapels from the 15th to the 18th century and the transept with the bell tower remain. Of five planned longhouse Jochen was only the easternmost yoke, which was closed in the 17th century by a temporary wall to the west, realized. Together with the Saint-Trophime in Arles, the Church of St. Honorat is one of the great works of the second Romanesque period (12th century.) In the Rhône-Provence.

Before the church of St. Honorat lie the remains of an early Christian cemetery, which can be dated to the 4th and 5th centuries.

In the Middle Ages the Church of St. Cesaire-le-Vieux monastery church of the monastery of St. Cesaire. Probably it was the successor of the grave Church Sainte-Marie church where the nuns were buried.

Particularly valuable, late Roman sarcophagi from the necropolis Alyscamps today form part of the attractions in the Musée de l'Arles Antique in Arles. The simply designed sarcophagi, partly decorated with symbols, remained on site.

The necropolis Alyscamps was originally much larger than the still existing remains. With the construction of a railway line in the 19th century, the southern part of the street of tombs were destroyed.

Earliest Burial: 5 Century

Latest Burial: 01/01/1600 Earliest Burial: Not listed

Visit Instructions:
Take a photo of at least one grave marker and including a qualitative and quantitative description

Recent Visits/Logs:

Date Logged Log   11/25/2017 SISABIEL visited it