Tarasque

The Tarasque is a dragon-like monster of Provençal legend that is said to have lived in the Rhône near the town of Tarascon, sinking boats and devouring travellers. Medieval texts describe it as coming from Galatia and as a cross between a lion and a turtle-shelled beast, with six bear-clawed feet, a scaly serpent’s tail and poisonous breath.

According to the story, which belongs to the medieval Life of Saint Martha, the sister of Lazarus travelled to Provence after the Crucifixion and was asked by the villagers to help. She found the creature eating a man, sprinkled it with holy water, held up a cross and bound it with her girdle. It became docile, and the townspeople killed it with stones and spears. The text most often cited, a late twelfth-century Latin life, appears in several forms; the Golden Legend later made it famous.

The monster became the emblem of Tarascon. Tradition credits King René of Anjou with organising a festival of the Tarasque in 1469, and with founding the Order of the Tarascaires in 1474. For centuries an effigy was carried through the streets by men hidden inside it, charging the crowd; the modern annual festival, held on the last weekend of June, dates from 1946 and includes the character Tartarin, from Alphonse Daudet’s novel. In 2005 UNESCO listed the Tarasque among the processional giants and dragons of Belgium and France.

Scholars have proposed pre-Christian roots, linking the legend to a Celtic stone beast found at Noves, but the evidence is debated. Similar processional dragons are found elsewhere, such as the Graoully of Metz and the Gargouille of Rouen, and a related figure, the Tarasca, appears in Spanish Corpus Christi processions.

A heavy, scaly monster with a lion’s head, a turtle-like shell with plates, six legs ending in claws, a serpent’s tail and sulphurous breath; the festival effigy has a long tail and a hinged jaw.

The banks of the Rhône at Tarascon and the forest and marsh nearby, according to the legend.

The Tarasque is the central figure of Tarascon’s annual festival, with the effigy, the knights and traditional dances. It appears in sculpture at Tarascon, Arles and Montmajour, and was honoured in 1991 when a dinosaur was named Tarascosaurus.