Nostradamus

In the Days of Nostradamus Image Gallery

SAINT REMY de Provence.

Saint Remy de Provence, the 'capital" of the Alpilles and an important town in the history of Provence. It has always been a noted religious, intellectual and artistic sanctuary. When Michel de Nostredame was born on 14th December 1503 in Saint Remy (24th December in our modern-day calendar), Provence was a meeting point for people from all over the Mediterranean regions, the Middle East and Northern Europe. Not far from Glanum (which would later become Saint Remy), is the crossroads of the Via Aurelia, the Via Domitia and the Agrippan Way, routes that connected what would be modern Spain, and North Africa with Italy and all of Northern Europe to Rome.

Michel de Nostredame, the importance of a childhood full of learning and tolerance, the wealth of several cultures.

The intellectual, artistic and economical influence of Provence in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance was immense. It was in this cultural melting pot that Michel de Nostredame grew up in a broadminded Jewish family that had converted to Catholicism. He left Saint Remy de Provence for Avignon where his studies led him to discover the wealth of Arabian and Hispanic cultures that so strongly influenced the nearby Languedoc. His intellectual curiosity and his humanism combined with his will to pass on what he had learned made him an exceptional person whose driving force was the quest for knowledge. It was at the end of this crucial period of his youth, while studying medicine that he was given the surname, "Nostradamus" ( "we give what is ours" in Latin).