The cave in the Mountains of La Sainte Baume where Saint Mary Magdalene took refuge during the last years of her life. Today, it is a sanctuary sheltering some Relics and can only be reached by a minimum of 45 minutes hike.

According to legend, fourteen years after the Ascension and absolute loyalty to his new faith, Madeleine was leaving Bethany, driven by persecution. Reaching Marseilles, she preferred the solitude of contemplation and followed Huveaune climbing the slopes of this magnificent massif of Sainte Baume. At the top of the massif opens a particular cave facing North 0uest, meaning that the sun penetrates there with reluctance.

It is very humid all year round, water drips endlessly there, except over a small mound that remains dry. It is in this precarious shelter that Holy fled. For thirty years, the recluse would feed on roots and to drink water from the sky. Mary Magdalene, seven times a day, was visited by angels and seven times she was in ecstasy. Angels saw approaching last hour, Madeleine warned that his deliverance was at hand. They lifted him in the air and deposited on the Via Aurelia, near the shrine of St. Maximin.

The shrine is a cave that holds up to 1,000 people and which is accessed by a staircase of 150 steps. A beautiful shrine houses a part of the remains of the saint, his skull being exposed in the crypt of the Basilica of St Maximin. Whit Monday is held here pilgrimage in all of Provence. To reach the basilica and the grotto, the way of the Kings was built in the late fourteenth century during installation of the Dominicans at the Royal Convent of Saint Maximin and hospitality of the Sainte-Baume. Until the construction in 1897 of the Departmental 80, this road was the only access to the plateau of Plan-d'Aups from Nans. 7 original oratory, there remain only 4. They were erected in 1516 by the Archbishop of Arles.