The Alyscamps continued to be used after the city was Christianised in the 4th century.
Saint Genesius, a Roman civil servant beheaded in 303 for refusing to follow orders to persecute Christians, was buried there and rapidly became the focus of a cult.
Saint Trophimus, possibly the first
bishop of Arles, was buried there soon afterwards. It was claimed that
Christ himself attended the ceremony, leaving the imprint of his knee on a sarcophagus lid. The area became a highly desirable place to be buried and tombs soon multiplied. As early as the 4th century there were already several thousand tombs, necessitating the stacking of sarcophagi three layers deep. Burial in the Alyscamps became so desirable that bodies were shipped there from all over Europe, with the
Rhône boatmen making a healthy profit from the transportation of coffins to Arles. The Alyscamps continued to be used well into medieval times, although the removal of Saint Trophimus' relics to the cathedral in 1152 reduced its prestige. During the
Renaissance the necropolis was systematically looted, with city councillors giving sarcophagi as gifts to distinguished visitors and local people using funerary stones as building material. It was further damaged by the arrival of the railway and a canal in the 19th century, both of which sliced across the site. In late October 1888
Vincent van Gogh and
Paul Gauguin chose the Alyscamps as the first site for their expeditions where they painted side by side; by this time it was a remnant of its former self. It has since been somewhat restored as an open-air museum. In his final book ''Caesar's Vast Ghost,''
Lawrence Durrell recommends the Alyscamps for its beauty and atmosphere; he writes: "It is unique in its charm." ==Conservation==