Saint-Honorat des Alyscamps church, Medieval church in Alyscamps necropolis, Arles, France
Saint-Honorat des Alyscamps is a ruined Provençal Romanesque church on the Alyscamps necropolis in Arles, built of dressed stone and never completed: only one bay of the five planned for the nave was built. A dome covers the crossing, topped by a two-storey arcaded bell tower or lantern of the dead. The surviving walls include a square tower with arched openings, a round-headed archway and a rounded apse.
A first church was built in the 11th century by the monks of Saint-Victor de Marseille over a pre-existing crypt. It was rebuilt on those foundations in the 12th century and remodelled in the 16th century. From the 13th century it received numerous enfeus, wall niches for burials. It was classified as a monument historique in 1840.
From the 13th century the church received numerous enfeus, wall niches for burials, which remain visible in its masonry. In 1998 the church was separately listed as a component of the Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France, alongside its 1840 classification as a monument historique.
The church stands on the Alyscamps necropolis, a short walk southeast of Arles' Roman centre along the avenue des Alyscamps. The ruins are open to the sky, so the excavated foundations, stone trough and wall fragments are best seen in clear daylight. The site is a classified monument and part of the UNESCO listing of Arles' Roman and Romanesque monuments.
The two-storey arcaded structure above the dome is a lantern of the dead, not a bell tower. The church was listed as a monument historique in 1840, and in 1998 it was separately inscribed as a element of the Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France.
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