Franciscan Monastery of Saorge and Notre-Dame des Miracles church

The village of Saorge overlooks the Roya Gorge at the gates of Mercantour Park. Listed at the Centre des Monuments Nationaux, the Monastery, a former Francosiscan convent founded in 1633, is baroque in style. It has retained its original structure, painted decorations and food garden. The Church has remarkable walnut woodwork, paintings and liturgical objects. The cloister is decorated with 17th century frescoes illustrating the episodes of the life of St Francis of Assisi, as well as an exceptional set of nine period sundials. The refectory preserves 17th-century frescoes on monastic virtues. The garden, a veritable haven of peace open to the mountains, consists of an organic vegetable garden and an orchard, arranged in terraces with several irrigation basins linked together.
The monastery welcomes writers, translators, writers-in-residence writing from April to October.
- For the visually impaired public, the Monastery offers mediation tools: a tactile model and tour guides in Braille and thermoformed leaflets, very well designed, produced by a specialised association in collaboration with the Valentin Haüy association.
- For the mentally handicapped public, adapted tours are offered, in-house, by reservation.
- For the deaf and hearing-impaired, the Monastery can call upon the services of LSF interpreters, externally, by reservation and only for groups.
- To date, for the time being, no specific accessibility equipment is available for people with motor disabilities.