A meeting with an icon of rural Provence
A chapel in the Alpilles landscape
Perched on its pale limestone slab, Saint-Sixte Chapel has stood for centuries at the gates of Eygalières, at the foot of the Alpilles. This humble Romanesque nave of rubble seems to find a perfect balance between the raw ruggedness of the rocky ground and the openness of the sky. Around it, a few cypresses, scattered almond trees, and the shifting light that sculpts the landscape through the hours and the seasons.
An Ancestral Sanctuary
The sobriety of its architecture is its quiet strength. Long ago, an ancient sanctuary stood near the neighboring spring; the chapel was built in the 12th century and dedicated to Saint Sixtus, pope and martyr. A pilgrimage on Easter Tuesday began in the 13th century, a spring ritual still honored today. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the ensemble was expanded: a massive porch, a hermitage, and a walled garden. These buildings served as a quarantine station during the plague of 1720.
An Icon of Provence
Located east of the village, about 1.5 km from the town center along the road to Orgon, the chapel gently overlooks the landscape of the Alpilles. A discreet emblem of rural Provence, it offers one of the most photographed and admired panoramas in the region.
Discovering Saint-Sixte Chapel is encountering sacred Provence. Its immobile and clear presence is complete in itself.
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