Saint-Anne's Cathedral (Apt)

 cathedral, church

Located next to the Clock Tower, the basilica of Saint Anne is Apt's most striking monument.
Built over a long period, the cathedral combines a variety of architectural styles from Roman to Baroque.
The lower crypt is part of the original 1st-century Roman building, used as a place of worship as early as the Carolingian era, and consists of a corridor leading to a vault where, as local legend has it, Saint Anne's veil was found.

The upper crypt dates back to the 11th century and is made up of a small nave (around 8 metres or 26 feet) and an apse. On the walls are seven alcoves containing Christian sarcophagi. The altar is made up of a pre-Roman engraved table placed on top of a Roman funeral stele with inscriptions on three sides.

The early Christian cathedral was probably destroyed during the invasions and rebuilt in the 11th century. The cathedral underwent a series of radical transformations in the 14th and 18th centuries, particularly in the central nave. www.luberon-apt.fr