Arles entdecken

The Roman Theatre of Arles was built under Augustus and completed around 12 BC in the heart of the ancient city. It seated about 8,000 people; after serving as a stone quarry in the Middle Ages it keeps its stage area, orchestra, rows of seats and two standing columns. The Venus of Arles was found here in 1651, and festivals use it in summer.

The Arles Amphitheatre is a Roman arena built at the end of the 1st century AD for about 21,000 spectators, an oval of 136 by 107 metres with two tiers of 60 arches. In the Middle Ages it became a fortified quarter with houses inside, whose towers still rise above the arcades; cleared in the 19th century, it again hosts bullfights and summer shows.

The Alyscamps is the Roman and medieval necropolis of Arles, which lay along the Via Aurelia outside the city walls and received burials from the 1st century BC to the 15th century. An avenue lined with stone sarcophagi leads to the Romanesque church of Saint-Honorat; Van Gogh and Gauguin both painted the site in 1888.

The Musée de l'Arles antique presents the archaeology of Roman Arles in a blue-clad building by Henri Ciriani, opened in 1995 on the site of the Roman circus beside the Rhône. Its collections include statues, mosaics and carved sarcophagi, and a later extension displays the Arles-Rhône 3, a 31-metre Gallo-Roman barge raised from the river in 2011.