Origin and history
The church of Saint-Césaire of Arles, former Conventual Church of the Great Augustine, was built from ~1450 in the Roquette district, then populated by sailors, fishermen and poor farmers. The Saint Joseph Chapel, completed in 1479, marked the first phase of the work, followed by enlargements in 1492 and 1511. The choir, made between 1463 and 1477, was embellished after the fire of 1627 by an octagonal dome with lantern, while a new, sober western facade was erected in 1628. That same year Archbishop Gaspard of Laurens dedicated the building under the double name of the Virgin and Saint Augustine, sealing his reconstruction.
At the Revolution, the convent and neighbouring parishes (Sainte-Croix, Saint-Laurent) were sold as national goods. In 1826, the former Conventual Church, bought by the municipality, became the parish of Saint-Césaire under the impulse of Archbishop Pierre-Ferdinand of Bausset-Roquefort, honoring Césaire d'Arles (bishop from 502 to 543). The nineteenth century saw major changes: construction of the sacristy in 1843, remodelling of the choir in 1885 (disappearing from the presbyterium of 1643), and addition of a neo-flooding decoration on the facade. The church, classified as a historical monument in 2014, now houses a Heterogenous furniture, from the deleted marine parishes.
The building, in the southern Gothic style, is distinguished by its four-span nave vaulted doogives, its chapeled collaterals, and a forechoeur surmounted by an octagonal dome. The cloister, partially preserved, is integrated into the Jean-Buon nursery school. Its original pavement, blazons and worn epitaphs, as well as its furniture (retreadables, paintings from the 17th to 19th centuries, organ François Mader of 1866) reflect its turbulent history. Closed temporarily for work after falling stones, the church remains a cultural place (exhibitions, concerts) and liturgical, with a weekly mass and the traditional midnight mass of shepherds.
The furniture, partly dispersed during the Revolution, was reconstructed with elements of the former marine parishes, explaining the iconography linked to the sea (Vierge des mariniers, Saint Nicholas, Saint Clement). Among the notable pieces: a 17th century classified stone altarpiece (Saint Joseph Chapel), a canvas by Jean-Baptiste Marie Fouque (Saint Césaire at the bedside of the Prefect of Ravenna), and the tomb of Honoré Quiqueran de Beaujeu (1638), knight of Malta, in the Chapel of the Sacred Heart. The Mader organ, restored in 1992, is one of the few instruments of the 19th century not modified in Provence.
The 19th century stained glass windows, two of which were signed by Charles Guilbert d'Anelle (1875), complete this collection. The Chapel of Souls-du-Purgatory houses a classified wrought iron fence and a canvas of Fouque (1863), while the Chapel of Sainte-Anne preserves ex-voto maritimes, including a view of the port of Arles by Fouque. The former ante-chapel of the white penitents, now school office, and the remains of the cloister (north and west galleries) recall the monastic organization of origin. The site, a communal property, has been protected since 2014, including the church, the sacristy, the galleries of the cloister and the soil of the old conventyard.
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