SITES AND MONUMENTS

Saint-Anne's Cathedral

Located next to the Clock Tower, the basilica of Saint Anne is Apt's most striking monument.
Built over a long period, the cathedral combines a variety of architectural styles from Roman to Baroque.

The lower crypt is part of the original 1st-century Roman building, used as a place of worship as early as the Carolingian era, and consists of a corridor leading to a vault where, as local legend has it, Saint Anne's veil was found.
The upper crypt dates back to the 11th century and is made up of a small nave (around 8 metres or 26 feet) and an apse. On the walls are seven alcoves containing Christian sarcophagi. The altar is made up of a pre-Roman engraved table placed on top of a Roman funeral stele with inscriptions on three sides.

The early Christian cathedral was probably destroyed during the invasions and rebuilt in the 11th century. The cathedral underwent a series of radical transformations in the 14th and 18th centuries, particularly in the central nave.

The chapel of Saint Anne was built in the 17th century, largely financed by Anne of Austria.

The sacristy houses a number of treasures including religious objects, reliquaries, early manuscripts and priest's robes, and an Arab standard, known as the veil of Saint Anne, brought back from the Crusades and woven by a caliph in the 11th century. The veil was used to cover and uncover the relics during processions.
Next to the cathedral is the Clock Tower or belfry, built between 1561 and 1563 and notable for its typical Provencal Gothic-style double-arched vault.

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