Chapelle Sainte-Roseline

In the southeast of France, in the Var department (Provence - Alpes - Cote d’Azur) in the old town of Les Arcs, there is a very interesting old monument – Église Sainte-Roseline. This medieval building is one of the oldest (according to scientists, it dates from the 11^th century).

This chapel was one of the buildings belonging to the great abbey Celle-Roubaud, the first written mention refers to 1038. (The Abbey bore the name of the hermit saint who founded a small monastery that was formerly located on the site).

The chapel building housed a monastery, not owned by a single religious order (in 1200, the Templars settled there, and later they were the Benedictines, and from 1260 to 1420 - the Carthusian). Finally, the Franciscans arrived there; in 1504, they re-consecrated the abbey in honor of Saint Catherine of Alexandria (Sainte Catherine d’Alexandrie). The Franciscans differed with a strict monastic charter. Of the numerous monastic buildings, only the main temple with the surrounding cloister «survived» until our time.

La Chapelle de Sainte-Roseline got its present name in the nineteenth century. The church was named in honor of the abbess of the monastery - Rosaline Bénie (Rosaline Blessed) (she lived there in the early fourteenth and died in 1329). Rosaline is one of the patron saints of the region. Pilgrims gather in Les Arcs to worship the relics for over 600 years. (The relics of the saint, represented in the chapel in a crystal coffin, are considered to be miraculous). There are legends of committing all kinds of miracles after prayers at the holy relics of Rosaline – from exorcism of the possessed people to the events in the visions of the other nuns.

La Chapelle de Sainte-Roseline is brightly decorated inside - herenyou can see the altarpiece of 1541, representing the Nativity of Christ. Beautiful sculptural groups from the early sixteenth century from either side of the altarpiece.

In the church La Chapelle de Sainte-Roseline, restoration works were conducted in 1969. Later on (in 1975), a famous artist Marc Chagall was working in the church – the chapel was decorated with a mosaic and stained glass by him, recounting the life and miracles of Sainte Rosaline. In 1980, the chapel was officially inscribed in the list of monuments of history and architecture of France.