Romantic Cities of Provence

by Mona Caird

The inside is very dark and solemn, stirring in the grave simplicity of its style. True Provençal Romanesque in its structure of vast arches and apses; the Roman idea but little modified except in the capitals of the columns where the classic flow and grace yields to the naïveté of early Christian sentiment. Indeed, that sentiment very seriously pervades the whole building. There is none of the sumptuous triumphant spirit of a grand classic edifice, although the general lines are the same in both cases. A careful draughtsman, conscientiously rendering the church of Maguelonne, might produce a portrait correct and unrecognisable, as many portraits are; the bare lines without the meaning behind them, the matter without the spirit; and a portrait of that sort might be indistinguishable from that of some great Roman interior—palace, bath, hall of justice. The painted hall of the Villa Madama on the hillside above the Milvian bridge near Rome is constructed on the same broad scheme of arch and apse, and above, on vault and spandril, garlanded, arabesqued, a riot of rosy gods and goddesses—the exquisite work of Giulio Romano—voluptuous, expansive, rich in beauty and power. Maguelonne with its classic structure—a style which had been developed during centuries for stronger and stronger expression of Pagan magnificence—nevertheless breathes forth the sentiment of poverty and asceticism, the spirit that drove men and women into the wilderness, that set them writhing under the consciousness of sin, or exalted them to the state of emotion wherein the pains of martyrdom were transfigured into ecstasy. Truly a thing of potency the human spirit! How, by the same general means, it can express emotions at once so strong and so completely opposed is one of the great mysteries of art.

MAGUELONNE FROM THE LAGOON.
By E. M. Synge.

Maguelonne is the last relic of the splendid city of that name which stood on the opposite shores of the lagoon, its towers mirrored in the blue water. The island was first the site of a Greek settlement, then of a Roman town—once attacked by Womba, King of the Visigoths; finally the Saracens built a city there which Charles Martel destroyed when he changed for good and all the fortunes of Europe by the great victories which turned back those marauding people just at the critical moment when they were on the point of becoming masters of Christendom. For many years it was the site of a famous monastic establishment which has earned a reputation for a mild and beneficent and altogether admirable administration of great wealth and greater power.

Maguelonne is famous for its charming old story of "Pierre de Provence et la belle Maguelonne," known in most European countries among the people, and sold at fairs and markets for a few pence. It was written by a deacon of Maguelonne, Bernard of the Three Ways, about whom one desires in vain to know more. The story is of lovers parted, wandering; exchanging rings which are carried off by ravens and finally turn up miraculously inside a tunny fish caught on the coast, and so lead to the meeting and reunion of the despairing Pierre and Maguelonne.

CHURCH OF MAGUELONNE.
By E. M. Synge.

There are a few small buildings near the church, in one of which live the woman and her family who look after it. They do not trouble the visitor with gratuitous information, but hand him the key and leave him severely alone, unless, indeed, he is adventurous and elects to go on the roof. Then a boy unlocks the staircase door that gives access to that windy spot, and amuses himself by sliding down the stone slabs of the roof while the visitor turns to admire the view of sea, mountains and lagoons spread forth in a brilliant circle round him. The remarkable and characteristic roof, however, is what he comes officially to see. It is formed of thick, overlapping slabs of stone laid at a gentle slope, and is considered a marvel of architectural skill.