The
abbey of Saint-Gilles was founded during the seventh century traditionally by the
hermit Saint Giles (
Latin Ægidius), whose
relics the abbey possessed. The commune formed around the nucleus of the abbey, which was the first stopping point for pilgrims bound for
Santiago de Compostela in Spain, who were following the
via Tolosana that led from
Arles to
Toulouse and crossed the
Pyrenees to join other routes at
Puente La Reina, thence to Santiago along the
Via Compostelana. The former abbey church was listed in 1998 among the
UNESCO World Heritage Sites, as part of the
Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France. The abbey church's west portal is among the most beautiful of the great
Romanesque portals and a definitive example of the
Provençal Romanesque. The church has three
naves and a famed spiral staircase of
cantilevered stone steps (in the now destroyed part of the church). During the
French Wars of Religion the Protestants fortified themselves within the abbey, which was severely damaged. The shrine of Saint Gilles, located in the crypt of the church, is the subject of pilgrimage in particular by women wishing to become pregnant or dealing with infertility. Saint-Gilles was the birthplace of Guy Foulques,
Pope Clement IV (died 1268), whose natal house is now a museum of the archaeology, ethnology and ornithology of the Camargue. Saint-Gilles is more recently the birthplace of the author
Georges-Jean Arnaud (born 1928). ==Geography==