Saint-Maximin, the basilica and the tomb

On the plain at the foot of the Sainte-Baume massif, Saint-Maximin holds the most important monument of the whole tradition: the basilica of Sainte-Marie-Madeleine, the largest Gothic building in Provence, raised from 1295 by Charles II of Anjou to house the relics found in the crypt.

That crypt, a fourth-century funerary vault, holds the marble sarcophagus and the reliquary containing the skull of Saint Mary Magdalene. Tradition makes it the third tomb of Christendom, after Jerusalem and Rome. Pilgrims, kings and popes came here in succession for centuries.

The basilica is also worth seeing for its Passion altarpiece, its immense stripped-back nave and its Isnard organ of 1774, one of the most celebrated in France, said to have been saved at the Revolution because the Marseillaise was played on it. The adjoining royal convent, long held by the Dominicans, completes one of the most powerful monumental ensembles in the south of France.