Curiously, the cartularies of Saint-Victor Abbey in Marseille do not mention the chapel which occupied the site of the priory of the Sainte-Victoire mountain in the Middle Ages. Yet, at that time, the abbey owned virtually all the religious buildings in the region and ensured their control. Though the date and conditions of construction of the initial Sainte-Venture chapel, therefore, remain enigmatic, historians assume that the site witnessed religious rites, first pagan and then Christian, common on high promontories or in isolated places at the time.