Église Sainte-Marthe

The church Sainte-Marthe (former collegiate Royal St. Marthe) is a Romanesque church situated in Tarascon in the Bouches-du-Rhone. St. Marthe's Church was erected in the eleventh and twelfth centuries in honor of Martha of Bethany, who came from Palestine and who overcame the Tarasque amphibian monster who terrorized the people of Tarascon. It was consecrated on 1 June 1197, by Imbert Eyguières, Archbishop of Arles, assisted by Marguerite Rostaing, bishop of Avignon. The church was rebuilt in the fourteenth century, rebuilt in the fifteenth century and the seventeenth century, damaged and restored in 1944. The shrine, whose crypt contains the tomb of St. Martha, was brought under college in 1482. The Royal College Sainte-Marthe de Tarascon is the subject of a classification as an historical monuments by the list of 1840. It therefore appears on the first list of French historical monuments, the list of historic monuments in 1840.