Arles - Saint-Trophime

In 2010 I had started to walk the Via Tolosana here, in front of Saint-Trophime. The (maybe) oldest known tourist guidebook "Codex Calixtinus", written by Aimeric Picaud, an account of his journey to Santiago de Compostella around 1140, describes two point to be visited in Arles: Alyscamps, the necropolis around Saint Honoratus, and Saint-Trophime.

At that time the facade of Saint-Trophime was not existing, as it was added to the building 1170-1180 after a long renovation of the church. The architects of the facade, that is a kind of narthex, may have known the (still standing) triumphal arch of the Roman settlement of Glanum (today Saint Rémy-de-Provence, 25kms northeast).

Everything was brandnew, when end of July 1178 Frederick I Barbarossa walked through this portal and was crowned here "King of Burgundy".

During the French Revolution this church served the revolutionists as a "Temple of Reason", but even the delicate carvings of the facade were not damaged, other as in nearby Saint-Gilles.

One of the many details, that I overlooked before, is this "Dream of the Magi".