The Abbey of Mont-Majour contains a cloister (Fig. 82) with the same style of ornament and sculpture, but much simpler in design than that of St Trophime. The cloister walk is covered with a plain barrel vault constructed with carefully wrought stones, strengthened with transverse ribs resting on “storied” consoles built into the wall. The arcade is formed with segmental arches springing from solid piers, and fluted pillars, with the simplest cornice. Each large arch is filled in with three small round ones, springing from light shafts with elaborately carved caps. The buttresses are fluted like those of St Trophime. The original lean-to roof, covered with stone flags and provided with large rude gargoyles and corbels, is here preserved, and shews what that at Arles was like when first constructed. The cloister here, as at St Trophime, is in the original Provençal style, and is probably a relic of an older series of structures which existed before the present church was erected in the second Provençal style of the twelfth century. A remarkable specimen of a plan more common in the East than the West occurs in the chapel of STE CROIX (Fig. 83), which seems to have been the mortuary chapel of the monks. The main building consists of four apses arranged in the form of a Greek cross, and crowned over the [Illustration: CHAPELLE DE SAINTE CROIX MONTMAJOUR FIG. 83.] crossing with a square dome. This is preceded by a square porch with simple barrel vault, separated by a door from the chapel. The whole aspect (Fig. 84) and arrangements of the edifice have a strange and foreign appearance, and recall the architecture of the East. At the same time the high triangular pediments of the exterior, and the cornices, egg mouldings, modillions, and the simple circular arch of the doorway, are all features characteristic of the late Empire; while the ornamental cresting and other details are illustrative of the Eastern character impressed on Roman work at Byzantium, and thence transported into Western Europe. In the porch is an inscription attributing the foundation to Charlemagne, but Mérimée clearly proves that this is a forgery, and that the date of the building is 1019. The chapel is only lighted with three small windows, which open upon a little enclosure where numerous shallow graves have been excavated in the rock. A door in the south apse also opens into this graveyard, so that the bodies might be carried into it from the chapel after the service had been performed. Several similar graves are cut in the rock in front of the porch. These excavations are all very [Illustration: FIG. 84. MORTUARY CHAPEL, MONT-MAJOUR.]