Arles Montmajour Abbey Tickets
About this activity
Smartphone tickets accepted
- Your booking is confirmed immediately
- This option includes FREE cancellation—book now, risk-free!
Experience Highlights
By buying a ticket for the abbey of Montmajour, you can enter a place of worship which played a crucial role in the Camargue in the Middle Ages and which inspired the artistic genius of Van Gogh. The church is located a few kilometres from Arles.
- Discover a place of worship that was an important economic and cultural centre.
- Enter the abbey that inspired the Dutch painter Van Gogh.
- Visit the church, the cemetery, the tower and the terrace.
What’s included
- Entrance
- Notebook with historical information
Select date
Step by Step
By purchasing a ticket, you can enter the Abbey of Montmajour, a place of worship that has undergone several transformations over the centuries. Founded in the 10th century by Benedictine monks. It was built on an island in the delta of the Rhône river, a strategic place to control trade routes.
Various factors - such as the construction of canals or the accumulation of sediment - caused the water to disappear, but not the centrality of the building. The monks ran highly profitable agricultural and craft activities. In addition, the abbey was an important cultural centre specialising in the study of science, philosophy and the arts.
Like other religious centres of the time, it housed holy relics that were the object of devotion and pilgrimage. Unfortunately, many of these relics have been lost due to looting or removal and it is not known for certain what they may have been.
The abbey of Montmajour is linked to the figure of Vincent Van Gogh. During his stay in Arles, the Dutch painter made several excursions to the surrounding area in search of inspiration. The best known painting is "The Abbey of Montmajour", an expressionist painting with rapid, nuanced brushstrokes, in which the use of colour and light creates a lively, dynamic image. Its peculiarity is the unusual view: it seems as if the viewer is looking upwards, as if he were in a lower position.
