Photos of Abbaye Saint Victor

Saint-Victor Abbey is located on the south bank of the old port of Marseille. It was built on the ruins of an ancient old city in the 5th century AD. Although it is called a Christian monastery, its appearance is more like a castle. The monastery was destroyed and rebuilt several times in the Middle Ages, and it was not fully fortified and maintained until the 14th century under Pope Urban V. During the French Revolution, rebels used it as their camp and prison. The monastery has a peculiar underground mausoleum containing important artifacts from the 5th century AD and many sarcophagi left at that time, as well as the remains of some Christians and pagans. Every year on February 2, the monastery becomes a place of pilgrimage for believers, when the monastery will sell interesting boat-shaped cakes to commemorate the legendary saints more than 2,000 years ago. It was from this monastery that the entire Provence region began the process of Christianization.