Places to Visit
Maeght Foundation
The Maeght Foundation is a story of family and friendship. Aimé & Marguerite Maeght came up with the funding, and the idea in collaboration with Catalonian architect Josep Lluis Sert. Their artist friends participated in the design and in bringing the project to fruition, each taking over an area of the future Foundation. Joan Miró, Marc Chagall, Alberto Giacometti, Georges Braque, Alexander Calder and Fernand Léger all found the ideal creative setting in a museum at one with nature, where the rooms and the gardens interact in perfect harmony.
La Maeght was opened on July 26, 1964, by Charles de Gaulle’s legendary Culture Minister André Malraux, a close friend of the Maeghts. It was France’s very first private art institution and was modelled on American institutions such as the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, the Barnes Collection and the Phillips Collection, which the couple visited during their frequent trips to the US in the 1950s.
The Maeght contains one of the biggest 20th-century art collections in Europe.
The Foundation
The Foundation
Henri Layet Discovery Walk
Explore the pathway that has been created along the foot of the western ramparts to find out about the origins and architecture of Francis 1st’s bastioned enclosure and about the village’s agricultural heritage, which is still alive and preserved to this day.
This pathway was created as part of the European Alcotra SuCCeS project, uniting Saint-Paul de Vence and Ceresola d’Alba (in the Piedmont region, Italy), two Communes that share a common historical event: the Battle of Cérisoles (1544).
Folon Chapel
Discover the admirable design work of Jean-Michel Folon and learn more about an artist who nurtured strong links with Saint-Paul for over thirty years. Folon's close collaboration with village craftsmen, his stained glass designs, sculptures, and fascination with light, are all keys to understanding his world and his conception of art.
The White Penitents' Chapel was Jean-Michel Folon's last design project before his death in 2005. It is also the last chapel in the Midi to have been decorated by an artist.
More about Jean-Michel Folon
The Chapel
Folon Chapel