Friday 22 January 2010

Fishing Boats on the Beach at Saintes-Maries


No, it isn't a mistake, it's Saint Mary in the plural, however you write that in English.   It's a village on the coast of Provence which got its name from a legend that Mary Jacobe, mother of James and sister to the mother of Jesus; Mary Salome, mother of James and John;  Sarah their handmaid; Lararus and his sisters Mary Magdelene and Martha; St Maximinus; and Cedonius all drifted ashore in a boat.

The group built a small oratory on the spot and most of them went their separate ways.  But Mary Jacobe, Mary Salome and Sarah stayed and were eventually buried there.  Their tomb became an attraction for pilgrimages and eventually in the 9th century, the oratory was replaced by a fortified church. 

The building of the fortified church was supervised by the Archbishop of Arles.  One day the Saracens raided the town and kidnapped him.  The ransom they demanded was quickly paid by the townspeople so the Saracens returned the Archbishop on his throne, before leaving with the payment.  It was only then that the people realised he died died while in captivity and that the Saracens had carefully returned a dead body.

The card is a reproduction of Van Gogh's "Boats on the beach at Saintes-Maries" 1888.  The original hangs in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.  The card was sent to me from Finland, an unusual choice for December 2009, but very welcome because I visited Saintes-Maries last summer, and the beach really does look very like this.

This is a post for Postcard Friendship Friday.Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

13 comments:

  1. What a wild coincidence that you were just there! I remember staring at this painting in the Van Gogh museum agessss ago... I went there on my honeymoon! ...Well I'm not married to him anymore!

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  2. I love the Van Gogh postcard - and the story behind Saintes--Maries. It's probably a bit of a tall story, but that's it's claim to fame nonetheless.I am always interested in how place-names originate. In Ireland there is always a meaning behind the Irish language version. Have a nice weekend Sheila!

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  3. That's an interesting story behind the name.

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  4. Sheila,

    Beautiful card and how wonderful that you were just there. I love the story about the name. Van Gogh knew about color! Happy PFF

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  5. It really is quite a coincidence! Somewhere I have an old postcard of the fortified church where the poor old archbishop ended up, but I couldn't find it in time.

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  6. Lovely Van Gogh! So nice to see a beach scene this time of year. Happy PFF!

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  7. Happy PFF - Van Gogh had some amazing pictures, they are so recognizable! The scene looks so peaceful... :)

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  8. Love the story... Thanks for giving us the background history.

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  9. PFF. love all the stories from the postcards. VanGogh was an amazing artist of his time.

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  10. Thats a rather lovely Van Gogh, it is years since I have visited the Museum and don't remember it, I will have to go back.
    Love your postcards,I also followed you link, what an interesting meme.

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  11. What a beautiful picure postcard. I enjoyed reading about the place he painted. Happy PFF!

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  12. beautiful card and fascinating story. i would love to visit Saintes-Maries.

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Welcome to my postcard collection! I love hearing what you think of the cards - but spam WILL be deleted.

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