The cathedral surroundings
Near the Passage of the Lordship Saurine, is located a house called House of the Count of Arboré.
Governor of Sainte-Marie from 1767 to 1770, the Count Joseph of Arboré, spanish highborn, contributed to the embellishment of the city in the XVIIIth century.
South of the cathedral, the rest-home replaced the episcopal palace of which remains a squared and massive tower dating from the XVIth century.
The episcopal palace, burnt at the beginning of the XIIIrd century and again in 1569, was rebuilt in 1751 by François de Révol, bishop at that time.
Close to the previous episcopal palace is the place of the cloister existent from the XIIIrd to the XVIIIth century.
Excavations lead in 1994 permitted the exact location of the cloister, perpendicularly to southern chapels, materialised today by a squared space.
These same excavations permitted to update a gallo-roman hypocauste : heating system of that time, through the floor and the walls to discover at the head of the chevet and proof of the presence of inhabitants from the Ist century After Christ.
At last, the cemetery occupying the southern and eastern parts of the Sainte-Marie cathedral, welcomed many sepulchres dating from the IIIrd century : this funeral vocation is today evoked through a necropolis presenting the different burial ways.
