Description: St. Trophime's church and cloisters are along one side of the central square of Arles, the Place de la Republique. Nearly 1000 years old, it was built in the 11th and 12th century. If you've never heard of St. Trophime, he was an early bishop of Arles.
Visually, the highlight of the church is the wonderful stone carvings on the main entrance portal, showing the apostles, Christ, and scenes of the last judgement. We also were treated to the music of the church's organ playing as we were exploring the adjacent cloisters
Admission to the cloisters can be included as part of your multi-site Arles pass and are a really worthwhile stop while you are in town. The cloisters themselves are really a grand sight and easily worth the 3 euro entrance fee if you don't have the bargain of the pass. As you navigate around the cloisters, they alternate between massive support pillars and delicate double columns. There are figures of saints or apostles carved into the pillars while the columns are also adorned with biblical carvings.
Just off one corner is a great hall displaying a half dozen intricate wall-sized tapestries, each a masterpiece in its own right, representing untold amounts of work to create. After that, you proceed upstairs where there's a rather dry exhibit in what looks like it might have been the dormitory at one time. But proceed outside of the upper level to get a lofty perspective of the peaceful courtyard and beautiful cloisters. You get to walk around the rooftop and admire the cloisters, half of which date to the 12th century and the other half to the 14th century.
There isn't any signage on the interior to tell you about the carvings or tapestries, unfortunately. And this wasn't really on our initial plan of sights to see in Arles, but we were really stunned by the beauty of the St. Trophime Cloisters and were happy that we chose to visit this historical gem of Arles. The preserved details in the carvings here are very nice after noticing how much is gone from the town's roman ruins.
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