Chapelle Saint-Cyprien-et-Sainte-Justine

The Chapelle Saint-Cyprien-et-Sainte-Justine stands on the Île Saint-Honorat, one of the two main Lérins Islands just off the coast from Cannes. Monks have lived there since the year 410, and over the centuries they raised a belt of chapels around it. This is one of them: a plain stone building with small windows, built for simplicity and contemplation.

The chapel honours Saint Cyprien and Saint Justine, two saints with a place in the history of Lérins. Records of its building and earliest use are scarce, though maps and documents name it by the seventeenth century. Chapels like this one served the monks for prayer and meditation, and sometimes for small gatherings and processions. Rebuildings and restorations over the centuries have reshaped the abbey and the chapels as styles and needs changed. A Cistercian community owns the island, and the Abbey of Lérins has anchored monastic life here for more than fifteen hundred years.

The island is a protected natural site, and a three-kilometre path links its historic sites. You pass the Chapelle de la Trinité, the Chapelle Saint-Pierre and the Chapelle Saint-Sauveur along the way, each with its own story. Together they map out the island's spiritual geography through quiet greenery and views of the sea. The chapels hold no regular public worship, but the monks maintain them as part of the island's religious legacy. The community still tends vineyards and makes wine, a tradition that goes back centuries.