L'Église Saint-Pierre-de-Gallègue was an old church which has since disappeared. It was situated in Trinquetaille on the right bank of the River Rhône across from Arles. The second church was built in the eleventh or twelfth century, near the remains of an older Roman church, and was destroyed at the end of the eighteenth century.
History The first monastery of Arles was established on the Isle of Gallègue in the time of the Dominate. It was likely founded by Hilary of Arles at the beginning of the 5th century, "in insula suburbana civitatis" defining the Isle of Gallègue as the location.Paul Masson, Fernand Benoît - Bouches-du-Rhône (Les) : T.14 : encyclopédie départementale : Monographies communales, Marseille- Aix- Arles – Some historians now believe it to have been the Island of Cappe, which has since disappeared and was about two kilometres to the south-west of Arles. At the site of the monastery two churches are mentioned: the priory "Notre-Dame-la-Capella", or chapel "Notre-Dame-en-Gallègue", which was perhaps the old chapel for the Château des Baux, of which there remains no trace, and the church "Saint-Pierre-de-Gallègue".Jean et Maurice Molinier - Les Amis du Vieil Arles, No. 35 –
This church was probably ruined by the conflict around the years 470-508 and was transferred a century later, in 546 or 547, to the left bank of the Rhône, in the Vieux-Bourg, in the reign of Childebert I and the archbishop Aurelianus of Arles.Fernand Benoit - La basilique St-Pierre et St-Paul à Arles - , here
During the Middle Ages, except possibly at the beginning of the ninth century, this area was totally abandoned, and there is no evidence of a church.
A second church was built in the quarter of "la Pointe" (to the north of Trinquetaille, where the Rhône separates into two streams), probably during the twelfth century. The House of Baux possessed a strong castle at Trinquetaille at the beginning of the twelfth century, and this may have included the church. The church was pillaged during the siege of Arles in 1240.Martin Aurell – Une famille de la noblesse provençale au Moyen Âge : les Porcelet – Aubanel, Archives du sud, 1986 – : Notably the troops of Barral sacked Saint-Pierre en Gallègue and burned Malmissane.
The church was abandoned around 1618 because the local inhabitants thought it was too far from the villageL. Bonnemant – Paroisses – Bibliothèque d'Arles, ms.151, because it had been moved upstream when the boat bridge was moved. The church was still known under the name of "Saint-Pierre-le-Vieux".Jean et Maurice Molinier - Les Amis du Vieil Arles, No. 35 – It was then demolished in 1786Annie Tuloup-Smith - Rues d'Arles qui êtes-vous ?, page 264Site du patrimoine here and razed entirely in 1872; its stones were used to build an enclosure around the cemetery, which marks its site.
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