Aix Cathedral

Aix Cathedral tickets: which one to buy

Aix Cathedral, the Cathedral of Saint-Sauveur, stands at the northern end of the old town of Aix-en-Provence, in southern France, on the Rue Gaston de Saporta, and entry to the church is free, while the Romanesque cloister is visited with a ticket or on guided tours organised with the tourist office. The cathedral is unusual because it combines buildings from many periods, from a baptistery of late antiquity to Romanesque, Gothic and baroque parts, side by side under one roof.

Walking tours of Aix combine the cathedral with the Cours Mirabeau, a plane-tree-lined boulevard of cafés and fountains, the Hôtel de Ville square and its markets, the Granet Museum, and the sites associated with Paul Cézanne, including his studio and the Bibémus quarries, as well as the Montagne Sainte-Victoire he painted. Aix is about half an hour from Marseille by bus and three hours from Paris by high-speed train. The cathedral is active, and visiting pauses during services. The narrow streets around the cathedral hold some of the oldest houses in Aix, and the nearby Tapestry Museum, in the former archbishop's palace, is worth adding. The market days bring colour to the old town.

Visiting Aix Cathedral: what to see

The cathedral stands on the site of the Roman forum of Aquae Sextiae, and its oldest part is the baptistery, built around the fifth or sixth century, with an octagonal basin surrounded by eight ancient Roman columns reused from a temple, under a Renaissance dome. The Romanesque nave of Corpus Domini, from the twelfth century, stands beside the Gothic main nave, begun in the thirteenth century, and a baroque nave was added later, so the church has three naves of different styles. The Gothic west facade, finished in the sixteenth century, has a carved portal with walnut doors carved in the early sixteenth century, showing prophets and sibyls, usually protected by wooden shutters.

Inside, the cathedral's most famous work is the triptych of the Burning Bush, painted by Nicolas Froment around 1476 for King René of Anjou, showing the Virgin and Child in a burning bush, with King René and Queen Jeanne kneeling on the side panels; it is sometimes closed and shown on certain days. The cathedral also holds tapestries and paintings. The Romanesque cloister, from the twelfth century, has slender paired columns with carved capitals showing biblical scenes and animals, and a peaceful garden in the centre.

Aix Cathedral opening hours and the best time to go

The cathedral is open daily, with a break at lunchtime on some days, and the cloister opens at set times. Aix is pleasant most of the year, although summer is hot, and the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, an international opera festival in July, fills the city. Spring and autumn are ideal for walking in the old town and the Provençal countryside. The Christmas season brings a market of santons, the traditional Provençal nativity figures. Allow about forty-five minutes for the cathedral and cloister, and continue down to the Cours Mirabeau.