Musée d'Histoire, de Préhistoire et d'Archéologie sous marine de Saint-Raphaël, Archaeological museum in Saint-Raphaël, France

The Museum of History, Prehistory, and Underwater Archaeology sits in Saint-Raphaël and displays finds from different periods of this region's past. The collections range from early human traces to objects from ancient ships that rested on the seafloor.

The museum occupies the Romanesque church of Saint-Raphaël, also called the Templars' church although the Templars never held it, in the old medieval village on a site used since Roman times. Excavations revealed a quadrangular antique building of the 1st to 5th century beneath three earlier churches: a 6th-century church, a 9th- or 10th-century apse, and an unfinished three-nave church of the late 11th century. The present church dates from the 12th century; a chancel slab of the 8th or 9th century was reused in it.

The museum displays objects from sunken Roman ships, showing how people along this coast lived from the sea across many centuries. The collection tells stories of ancient trade routes and daily life for those who worked with the Mediterranean.

The prehistoric collection occupies two floors, covering the Paleolithic to the Neolithic; the medieval church, gardens with ramparts and the tower form a Romanesque ensemble listed as a Monument historique. The church hosts temporary exhibitions and can be visited with a digital application or a guide on Thursdays; the crypts are accessible. From the fortified tower, an orientation table identifies the sea and the town.

The fortified tower is topped by a geographic and archaeological orientation table, not a watchtower for guards. From it you can pick out the sea and the town below, and match what you see to the sites of the Estérel massif. The tower, the medieval church and the garden ramparts are listed as Monuments historiques.