Chapelle Saint-Sixte d'Eygalières, Romanesque chapel in Eygalières, France

Chapelle Saint-Sixte d'Eygalières is a Romanesque chapel built of rubble stone on a rocky knoll 1,500 metres east of the village. Its surviving Romanesque parts are the semi-circular apse in dressed stone with a cul-de-four vault and the triumphal arch wall, which keeps two consoles carved as boar heads. A tall porch added in 1629 stands before the nave, which is held by massive buttresses and topped by a single-bay bell gable.

The structure was built in the 12th century near an ancient sanctuary and natural spring. A porch and hermitage were added in 1629.

Each Easter Tuesday a procession leaves the village church for the chapel, opened by the gilded wooden bust of Saint Sixte and followed by clergy, villagers and Camargue gardians carrying Arlésiennes in traditional dress on horseback. A mass is held outside, then a sermon in Provençal. Since 1587 the people of Saint-Andiol have also come yearly in memory of protection from the plague.

The chapel stands isolated on a rocky knoll about 1,500 m east of Eygalières, in the Alpilles massif; it is reached on foot from the village. The building is small and unstaffed, so visits depend on the pilgrimage days and local openings rather than fixed hours. The surrounding ground is uneven.

The chapel is one of the most painted rural buildings in Provence: hundreds of easels have stood at its feet, and with its cypresses it forms a well-known image of Provençal Romanesque art. The apse and the triumphal-arch wall keep two corbels carved as boar heads.