Rue Sainte, off of Quai de Rive Neuve, Marseille
This abbey located about three blocks above the Vieux Port is what remains of a monastery complex first founded in the fifth century that was the first pilgrimage site in France. The early abbeys built on this site were repeatedly ransacked and ruined between the fifth and tenth centuries when the city suffered under invasions by pirates and Saracens. It’s dedicated to St. Victor, who died during the rule of Diocletian. The current fortified abbey was begun in the 11th century, with the great nave and higher church being built in the 13th century.
The exterior of the abbey has a very Italianate look, similar to the old granary-style churches in Florence. It sprouts abruptly out of a city block, hemmed in by parked cars, quite incongruous with its battlements and rustic stones, looking like the love-child of a fortress and a church.
The interior is very plain, with scarcely any ornamentation beyond the simple table-style altar set before the arched niche in the bricks that holds the cross. What treasures the abbey once had were removed during the Revolution when the Catholic church in France came under attack; there are no paintings, frescoes, or relics remaining. After the Revolution, the abbey saw service as a depository for straw and even housing for convicts, but it was returned to religious use in 1804. Despite this turbulent history, the crypt still holds many sarcophagi of early Christians, some of which have been built right into the foundations of the current abbey.
There isn’t a lot to see here, but the abbey is an interesting oddity. Located just off the port and about a block from Marcel Carbonel Santons, it won’t take you far out of your way and is worth a quick visit.