Su questo luogo
Perched on the south side of the Vieux-Port, the Abbaye Saint-Victor is where the Christian history of Marseille begins. Around the year 415 the monk John Cassian, newly arrived from the desert monasteries of Egypt, founded an abbey here beside the tombs of early martyrs, among them Saint Victor, a Roman soldier said to have been crushed between millstones for his faith. Beneath the church lies a labyrinth of crypts holding carved sarcophagi from the fourth and fifth centuries and the famous Black Madonna. Burned twice by Saracen raiders and later fortified by a former abbot who became Pope Urban the Fifth, the abbey still wears the crenellated ramparts that once helped guard the harbour, looking more like a citadel than a house of prayer.
Fatti principali
- 415 year — John Cassian founded the abbey here, beside the tombs of early Christian martyrs
- 838 year — A Saracen fleet destroyed the monastery, one of two raids that razed it
- 2 February — Each year at Candlemas a procession carries the Black Madonna up from the crypt
📍 Rue de l'Abbaye, 13007, Marseille