Museum of Christian Art & Cryptoportiques, Arles
 A 4th-century Christian sarcophagus from Trinquetaille, now on display in the Museum of Christian Art, Arles.
|
The Museum of Christian Art (Musée d'Art Chrétien) lies just northwest of the Museum of Pagan Art on Rue Balze in Arles.
Housed in the chapel of a former Jesuit college (built 1652), the museum contains one of the most important collections of early Christian sarcophagi.
Many of the sarcophagi are from the necropolis of the Alyscamps and the early Christian burial place of St. Genest in the modern suburb of Trinquetaille. Mostly dating from the 4th century AD, the sarcophagi are decorated with reliefs of scenes from the Old and New Testaments.
The Cryptoporticus (Cryptoportiques) can be reached from the museum. Dating from 30-20 BC, this horseshoe of vaults and pillars buttressed the ancient forum from below ground. Used as a refuge for Resistance members in WWII, these galleries still have a rather ominous atmosphere. Yet openings let in natural daylight, and artworks of considerable merit and worth were unearthed here, adding to the mystery of the original function of these passages.
