Chapelle Saint-Jean

On the edge of Antibes, a stone's throw from the Mediterranean, stands the Chapelle Saint-Jean, one of the oldest chapels in the city and the region around it. Built in the seventeenth century as a dependency of the Abbey of Lérins, which once owned more than fifty churches across the hinterland, it served the confraternity of Saint John the Baptist and Our Lady of the Guard. Its nave runs on a classic north-south axis, divided into three identical bays marked by double arches and groin vaults, with only small openings on the west and east walls to keep out the Provençal heat.

Look closer and the building tells an older story. The octagonal section behind the altar suggests the chapel was raised beside or even on top of a Merovingian baptistery from the sixth century, its form echoing the baptistery in Fréjus. The porch came later, added in the eighteenth century, and the square tower with its octagonal base carries a small dome of glazed tiles above a set of bells. Over the porch once stood a statue of Saint Roch, believed to shield Antibes from the plague, which the city escaped several times.

What makes the chapel rare is that history here never stopped. Confiscated during the French Revolution, it was bought back in 1796 by Henri Guide, whose descendants still hold it, celebrating baptisms, weddings and burials across more than two centuries. Since 1989 it has been a listed historic monument, and services continue on Saint John's Day and All Saints' Day.