Montmajour

The "Abbaye de Montmajour" was a really important abbey during medieval times. Founded around 1000 on an island like hill surrounded by swamps and marshes just outside of Arles. Already since 1030 pilgrims walked to Montmajour to see a part of the "True Cross" and so obtaining the "Pardon de Montmajour". The abbey was secularized already in 1786 (by Louis XVI), after the revolution it was sold to different owners. Today it is a massive ruin, used as a quarry over decades in the 19th century. Many stones were used to build the channels in Arles.

Over long periods the abbey was an empty complex of crumbling buildings. So traces of vandalism are widely spread. Here a carved capital from the cloister. A man running very fast (see the legs!) through a jungle-like forest. For me he looks like an athletic runner in a relay-race. In the hand left to the head there is the baton. Yes, that is an "overinterpretation".