A Country Hike to Van Gogh's Asylum and Roman Ruins

While staying in Saint-Remy-de-Provence for a few days, visiting the market and touring to nearby towns, we also enjoyed a hike out into the surrounding country for two local attractions: The hospital where Vincent Van Gogh was under treatment for more than a year, and the nearby ruins of the ancient town of Glanum, buried from antiquity until the past century.

The walk started from our apartment in the center, past "downtown" shops and old houses along the street leading away from the center.

Along the route, there's a series of signs showing Van Gogh paintings made in the area; some of them are at places shown in the pictures; others that might have been, such as this old farmhouse along the Canal des Alpilles, the small stream in the foreground. It's for irrigation, not navigation, obviously.

By the side of the road, one farmer offered free sprigs of lavender, an important local crop. Sadly, we arrived too late to see fields in bloom. But in the markets and in stores, you can buy lavender almost anything: Soap, syrup, chocolate, ice cream and more.

Most of the walk, once out of town, passes small farms and summer houses, many with pleasant flowers and intriguing angles and details.

And then the road ended. The only way we could see to go forward was this narrow path along a wall, which we followed. After a while, we realized it was the outside wall of the hospital grounds, and we had reached Saint-Paul de Mausole, our first goal.

Van Gogh admitted himself to the hospital clinic in May 1889, and stayed there for just over a year. It was a good choice for him; in an era when the treatment of mental illness ranged from none to barbaric, the clinic at Saint-Paul was a pioneer in sympathetic treatment, and the directors believed in occupational therapy. Van Gogh, when he was able to paint, had extra room assigned for his materials and as a studio, in addition to his bedroom (this is a reproduction; the actual room is in the part of the clinic still in use as a therapeutic rest home.)

For much of the time at Saint-Paul, before he was able to leave the grounds in a one-hour radius, Van Gogh painted what could be seen from the hospital's windows or on its grounds, which included a small wheatfield and olive orchard. He also painted his fellow patients. In all, he produced over 180 canvases and hundreds of drawings during a troubled and productive year. Here are some of the scenes he would have seen in that time, including the beautiful medieval cloister that is part of the hospital buildings.

Inside the cloister, the inevitable souvenir shop...but with a twist. Not only Van Gogh prints and Van Gogh mugs and Van Gogh T-shirts, but artworks painted by current patients in art therapy programs for sale. Some is quite good, many are "in the style of" Van Gogh, Gauguin and others, and a few are truly original and stunning.

Leaving the hospital behind, we returned to the main road, where, just over a hundred yards away, stand "The Antiques," two well-preserved Roman stone monuments that for hundreds of years were the only clue that a Roman town had been nearby. The taller one is a mausoleum of the Julii family, honoring grandparents who had been among the first in the area granted Roman citizenship because of their service in Caesar's armies. It accounts for the "de Mausole" in the name of the cloister that became the hospital.

The Mausoleum (which is a memorial, not a tomb) was built about 30 BC; the honored ancestor would have been part of Caesar's victorious campaign 20 years before. The arch, which served as a formal gate to the town of Glanum, honors victories of the Emperor Augustus, and dates to about 20 AD. They are the oldest Roman monuments in France.

The town of Glanum's own history goes back further, to about the 6th century BC, when it was founded by Celtic people around a spring dedicated to a god called Glanis. Within a century or two, they came into contact (sometimes friendly, sometimes not) with the Greek colony of Marseille, and the town's growth shows a shift to Greek architecture and social practices. Eventually, during a war between Celts and Greeks in the area, the town was seized by Roman troops allied with the Marsellais, and the town was extended and took on all the traditional Roman forms, with forum, bathhouses, etc.

But history teaches us that only change is guaranteed to continue; as the power of Rome declined, as the legions in far places were no longer recruited or paid from Rome, and as large migrations of Germanic and other groups from the east increased, Glanum came under repeated attacks from Allamanic tribes. By about 270 AD it was either destroyed or abandoned, and the remaining inhabitants appear to have taken refuge in the territory of the bishop of what is now Saint-Remy, sheltered under a more powerful army.

In the years after its abandonment, the remains of the town slowly disappeared under silt washed down from the Alpilles, the mountains behind the town; certainly by the Middle Ages, few if any knew it was there. Only The Antiques gave a clue. It was only in 1921 that a serious archaeological effort began to uncover the ruins. There have been several interruptions, but the work is ongoing, and it is considered one of the most important archaeological sites in France.

After a brief lunch, including some Roman-style salads, at the on-site cafe, we turned and walked back to Saint-Remy in search of...what else on a hot summer day? Ice cream! Along the way, back in town, we passed this unusual bell tower on a church now used as an art gallery. All-in-all a pleasant walk, totaling about 3.5 miles.