Royal Collegiate Church of Saint Martha, Tarascon

Image: Wikimedia Commons

In Tarascon, in Provence, the Royal Collegiate Church of Saint Martha guards in its crypt the tomb of Saint Martha of Bethany, the friend of Jesus who according to Provençal tradition came from the Holy Land and tamed the Tarasque, the monster that terrorised the town. Consecrated in 1197 and rebuilt in the Gothic style from the fourteenth century, the Romanesque church was raised to a royal collegiate by King Louis XI in 1482. Classified a historic monument on France's very first list of 1840, it celebrates its patroness every 29 July.