[1] According to writer Jean-Paul Clébert, the Greek geographer and historian Strabo wrote that the Phocaeans of Massalia (modern Marseille) erected a temple to Artemis.

It passed into the mense of the metropolitan chapter of the Church of St. Trophime in Arles, then the canons returned it to the Montmajour Abbey, which established a priory there in 1078.

[9] The church was then divided into three parts, "savoir une nef, une chapelle assez allongée fermée sur le devant par une grille de fer, et sur les deux côtés et le fond par un mur de pierres de taille; un chœur au centre, réservé aux clercs.

(English: "namely a nave, a rather elongated chapel closed on the front by an iron gate, and on both sides and the bottom by a wall of freestone; a choir in the center, reserved for clerics.

[11] That same year, Arnaud de Cervole, known as the Archpriest, headed for Avignon via the Camargue with his Anglo-Gascon bands.

[4] Archaeological excavations have found that the structures of the church that preceded Notre-Dame-de-la-Mer was a rural chapel with a single nave.

[7] The nave of this primitive church consisted of three bays which led to a choir closed by a semicircular apse.

[9][10] At the end of the excavations, three cippi were exhumed and were named, as was smooth piece of marble, "the pillows of the Saints."

[5] Jean-Paul Clébert points out that the statue of Sarah as well as that of Three Marys in their boat are headless and have a removable head.

He notes, "Les "Mères", qui avaient pris tant de soins d'apporter en exil quatre têtes sacrées, semblent avoir perdu les leurs au cours des vicissitudes de leur histoire," (English:The "Mothers", who had taken so much care to bring four sacred heads into exile, seem to have lost theirs during the vicissitudes of their history)[13] Fernand Benoit [fr], who was the first historian to study the folklore of the Three Marys and Saint Sarah, notes the importance of the Roma procession to the sea.

Since 1936, the immersion of Sarah, the black saint, which the Romani people have done, precedes by one day that of the Marys in their boat.

Already in the 17th century, the Camarguais [fr] people went through the woods and vineyards to the beach, then several kilometers away from the church, and bowed on their knees in the sea.

[14] Le rite de la navigation du "char naval," dépouillé de la légende du débarquement, apparaît comme une cérémonie complexe qui unit procession du char à travers la campagne et pratique de l'immersion des reliques, il se rattache aux processions agraires et purificatrices qui nous ont été conservées par les fêtes des Rogations et du CarnavalThe rite of the navigation of the "naval chariot," stripped of the legend of the landing, appears as a complex ceremony which unites procession of the chariot through the countryside and the practice of immersing the relics, it is linked to the agrarian and purifying processions which have been preserved to us by the festivals of Rogations and CarnivalBenoit, to emphasize that these processions to the sea demonstrate Provençal culture and its respect of the Mediterranean since processions (linked to other saints) are found in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, and in Fréjus, Monaco, Saint-Tropez and Collioure.

[7] The region regularly underwent raids by Barbary pirates, so at the beginning of its construction, the choice of a form of fortress was quickly taken, with a single nave, alternating machicolations, battlements and watchtower, overlooking the city from a height of 15 meters (49 ft).

[8] The bell-gable has five bells: The Romanesque style church consists of a nave, four bays and a semi-circular apse.

This single nave, in a broken cradle, is supported laterally only by full vaults, with arches, contained in the wide thicknesses of the walls.

[19] The presence of a well, under the 17th century wooden Christ, harkens back to when the fortified church served as a shelter for the population during pirate invasions in the Middle Ages.

[18] North side of the nave, close to the entrance portal, is also visible part of the original paving, as well as a holy water font, dug in an old capital.

[21] The apse was built in the shape of a semi-dome and has seven blind arcades supported by eight marble columns topped with historiated (or figured) capitals.

[8] The Mystery of the Incarnation stages on one side the theme of the Visitation and on the other the appearance of the Archangel Gabriel to Zechariah.