. The historic capital of Provence, Aix (Bouches-du-Rhone) has its origin in a Celto-Iberian fortress founded in the 4th century B. C. on the plateau north of the present-day city. That stronghold was destroyed in 123 B. C. by the Romans under Sextius Calvinus, who, attracted by the site’s thermal springs, founded the first Roman settlement in Transalpine Gaul, Aquae Sextiae. This settlement became the capital of Gallia Narbonensis Secunda, but was abandoned and used as a quarry after being sacked by Lombards in 574. Aix was a preferred residence of the counts of Aragon in the 12 th and 13th centuries, then of the counts of Anjou. King Rene d’Anjou made it his headquarters in 1471, but after his death in 1480 in Aix the city was merged with France. Its university was founded in 1409.
The 13th-century Gothic chapel of the knights of Saint-Jean-de-Malte, with its fortified apsidal tower, was built ca. 1285 in the form of a Latin cross; its bell tower dates from 1376. The church of Saint-Sauveur is an amalgam of styles, from a 5th-century baptistery surrounded by eight recuperated Roman columns, through a 12th-century Provengal Romanesque south aisle, a 13th-century Gothic central nave and apse (ca. 1285), to a 16th-century Flam-boyant fagade. The 15th-century triptych of the Burning Bush within the church depicts King Rene and his queen, Jeanne, kneeling to either side of the Virgin, who holds the Child Jesus. Adjacent to Saint-Sauveur is a charming late 12th - and early 13th-century Romanesque cloister with delicately carved capitals.
William W. Kibler
[See also: RENE D’ANJOU]
Benoit, Fernand. “Cathedrale Saint-Sauveur,” “Eglise de la Madeleine,” “Saint-Jean de Malte.” Congres archeologique (Aix-en-Provence, Nice) 95(1932):9-41.
World History
