Apt’s roots stretch back more than two millennia, making it one of the oldest continuously inhabited towns in Provence. Founded in 45 BC as Apta Julia by Julius Caesar, it was designed as a Roman stronghold and quickly became a strategic hub, linking the Rhône Valley to the Mediterranean through a network of trade and military roads. Its location made it both a crossroads and a prize, a place where goods, cultures, and armies all passed through. Walking through Apt today, you’re quite literally tracing those ancient footsteps—Roman stones still form part of the medieval walls, fragments of aqueducts peek through modern streets, and hints of the old forum remain buried beneath the town center. Apt wears its history in layers, and those layers are everywhere you look.

Yet Apt’s deepest mark on history isn’t just political or architectural—it’s spiritual. Rising from the heart of town, the Cathédrale Sainte-Anne is one of the oldest Christian worship sites in France, its foundations reaching back to the earliest days of Christianity. According to tradition, sacred relics of Saint Anne, the mother of the Virgin Mary, were secretly brought here during the violent Roman persecutions of Christians. For centuries they remained hidden, forgotten beneath the town, until their miraculous rediscovery in the 8th century. That moment transformed Apt into a center of pilgrimage, a place where faith and history intertwined. Ever since, Sainte-Anne has been honored as the patron saint of Apt, and her presence continues to shape the town’s identity.

Inside the cathedral, you’ll find:

• The Crypt – dating back to the 1st century, one of the earliest Christian sanctuaries in Europe
• The Relics of Sainte-Anne – venerated by pilgrims for over 1,200 years
• Architectural layers – Romanesque arches, Gothic chapels, and Renaissance ornamentation

Fun fact: Apt’s cathedral is so important that in 1660, Louis XIV himself visited to venerate Saint Anne’s relics.