The beautiful Church of Saint-Trophime is one of those points in town that I kept passing throughout my daily meanderings. The Hotel du Cloitre, is just up the street from here, on either side of the church, so to get from there to my daily morning bowl of coffee I had to pass it.
The spectacular part of this church is the frieze of The Last Judgment that adorns the portal outside, which is well worth standing around and staring at. It is one of the best examples of Romanesque frieze work anywhere in the world. Inside, the church is beautiful in the way that Romaneque architecture is with its smooth stone arches. There are some very high and narrow in this church which made for great picture making. This church was made a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1981.
This photo, although not perfect from an editorial perspective, was caught perfectly as the man on the bicycle passed by the church just as I clicked the shutter. It was late morning or early afternoon. I did see him come into view and prayed that none of the people strolling the square would walk into the frame as I shot it. A split second is all it took and the moment was captured.
The Church of St. Trophime (Trophimus) is a Roman Catholic church and former cathedral built between the 12th century and the 15th century in the city of Arles, in the Bouches-du-Rhône Department of southern France. The church is an important example of Romanesque architecture, and the sculptures over the portal, particularly the Last Judgement, and the columns in the adjacent cloister, are considered some of the finest examples of Romanesque sculpture. …
At the time the Cathedral was built, in the late 11th century or early 12th century, Arles was the second-largest city in Provence, with a population of between 15,000 and 20,000 people. It had a busy port on the Rhone River, and two new cities, on either side of the old Roman town, surrounded by a wall. It was at least formally independent as the Kingdom of Arles, and it had attracted many religious orders, including the Knights Hospitalier, the Knights Templar and mendicant orders, which had built a number of churches within the town. — Wikipedia
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Tags: architecture, arles, churches, daily photo, saint-trophime
