Alyscamps

In Arles, along the Avenue des Alyscamps, on the southeastern edge of the Old Town, stretch the Alyscamps (the "Elysian Fields"), an extensive Roman burial place which, according to the legend of St Trophime, was dedicated as a Christian cemetery and, in the Middle Ages, was so famous that the dead were brought here for burial from considerable distances; Dante refers to it in his "Inferno". This led to the curious procedure of bringing the dead - in cleverly designed barrels together with a sum of money - along the Rhône to Arles, where they were fished out of the water by people employed for the purpose and duly interred. Their marble sarcophagi, which were later neglected, sold or destroyed, were not assembled again until the 18th C. Along the idyllic Allée des Tombeaux (Street of Graves), the only coffins now standing are the plain stone ones of the Middle Ages; the best ones are housed in the museums, especially in the Musée d'Art Chrétien, and in the Church of St Trophime. At the end of the Allée stands the Church of St-Honorat (12th C.), the only remains of which are the choir and the adjoining 15th-18th C. chapels. In the side-chapel on the left will be found a beautiful sarcophagus dating from the fourth century A.D.