Interior view

There are centrally planned buildings from the fifth and sixth centuries in the south of France. The centrally planned building was rediscovered in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, along with a renewed appreciation of the beauty of classical Roman form. Thus the baptistery chapels built in Venasque, Rieux-Minervois, and Monmajour are centrally planned.

The oldest is Venasque. Its interior consists of a rectangular space and four apses decorated inside with a row of blind arches set on columns. The bases, shafts and capitals were taken from other buildings and reassembled.

The photo shows the interior with the octagonal water basin and the altar in the eastern apse.

View the ground plan of the Baptistery, Venasque.