Explorations of a picturesque Southern French town.
Arles, France, has been around for millennia. It was an important Phoenician trading port that was taken over by the Romans in 123 BCE. The city is full of Roman ruins from that era. The medieval era brought churches and winding streets. It was also a favorite haunt of Vincent van Gogh. History can be found everyone in this 2,000-year-old city.
Let’s start with the Roman era. UNESCO designated Arles a world heritage site just for its Roman remains, which are some of the best preserved in the world. They are hidden away in a mess of picturesque medieval streets.
*Pictures are from two separate visits to Arles, June 2009 and November 2016.
The Gallo-Roman theater. Theaters were an important part of Greek and Roman culture. No TV meant that plays and speeches were great entertainment.
The monumental entrance to the theater still survives and can be seen from Le Jardin d’ete.
The Roman amphitheater has had a long life. It started out showing gladiatorial shows, then during the medieval period, it was turned into a fortress. 200 houses were built within the ruins. The interior buildings were removed by 1830. Towers were added to the amphitheater to make it more of a castle.
The interior was mostly gutted, but since the amphitheater is still used for shows, benches were added.
You can climb to the top of one of the towers, leaving you with this amazing view of the city.
My favorite ruin was the Ancient Roman necropolis, Alyscamps. There are no more bodies in those tombs. It was Roman custom to bury the dead along the roads outside of the city. This necropolis became really popular after Saint Genesius, in the 4th century, was buried here. The cemetery got completely full.
I love this medieval gate. The cemetery was used well into the medieval era. However, the Roman sarcophagi were systematically looted during the Renaissance.
The Thermes of Constantine (Baths of Constantine) is a bath house supposedly built here by the Roman Emperor Constantine in the 4th century CE. Now it is a bunch of ruins, entangled in more “modern” buildings. At the site, you can explore what remains of the bath house. This is the remaining apse from the baths. There would have been a pool of water underneath. Those windows are not original
The Hypocaust system pushed hot air around underneath the floor to heat the room above, an essential part of the Roman bath house.
Last ruin I’m going to show is this piece of what was probably a temple in the Forum. Today, the forum is full of cafes.
The Place du Forum and its adorable cafes. I ate here the during my first visit to Arles.
Now for exploration of the rest of Arles. I took this picture of this house back in 2009. It still has the ivy all over, but it was in sparse winter mode the next time I visited.
The winding streets are Arles are a great place to just wander. You can find gems like this house.
Or this house, a similar house just with painted blue doors. I like this one more.
The city folk go out of their way to make their city adorable. Brightly colored doors and shutters are my favorite thing about this area. This region relies much on tourism these days.
Some of the churches have been here for a very long time. Notre-Dame-de-la-Major was founded back in 452. The original church was built on the site of an ancient Roman temple. Construction of the current church started back in 1152. So still, really old.
Old simple Romanesque architecture with later embellishments.
A fancy fountain on the way to the baths.
The main town square is the Place de la Republique. The stone church on the left is Saint-Anne d’Arles. The building in the back I think is an official city building.
To the right of all that is the Church of St. Trophime. It’s a lovely Romanesque church building built between the 12th and 15th centuries.
Close up on all that detail. Amazing!
I feel a strong connection to this guy for some reason.
This church kind of has a modern simplicity to it.
A little bit of Ancient Roman art made it into the church. It may have been from a sarcophagus from the Alyscamps.
The church architecture may be simple but later embellishments were certainly added to the décor.
Ivy covered alley way. This is what most of the streets look like in the old city center.
A rare open space.
They are very fond of blue shutters and ivy here. I love it.
Former cloister turned cultural center. Lovely little garden.
A newer building for Arles. I love the detail and the pinkish shutters.
Arles is one of my favorite places in France. I spent much of the day walking around, missing a ton of museums that the city has. You can easily spend three days here wandering the city, exploring the ancient ruins and museums. I vow to return to this lovely city on the Rhone River.
Check out more posts on the amazing country of France.
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Check out the rest of my Wandering series.
