Chapelle Notre Dame du Château

An ancient Madonna, sculpted from the trunk of a tree stump, was brought from Briançon, around 1350, by a hermit named Imbert and placed in a chapel adjoining the castle. At that time, the rue du château was also the district of the Jews. The Jews, annoyed at being in constant contact with the Christian population who were going to venerate the Virgin of Briançon, proposed to the town to build a chapel to Our Lady in another district at their own expense. The Christians agreed and a chapel was built in the Alpilles, between Tarascon and Saint-Remy. Since 1420, Our Lady precedes the Ascension, the people of Tarascon go to fetch the saint from her old chapel and bring her to the magnificent collegiate church of Sainte Marthe, where for forty days she is the object of a very special cult on the part of the people of Tarascon and the neighbouring populations. On the fortieth day, she was brought back to the sanctuary of the Alpilles.