Description: It is impossible to deny the importance of Roman-era Arelate, precursor to modern-day Arles. The town was beautified by a number of public diversions, that still can be seen in part - a 10,000 seater theatre, a 20,000 seater arena, a chariot-racing circus that sat a similar number, grand public baths. However I failed to be impressed by these surviving monuments. The baths and theatre can be safely avoided, and there is next to nothing visible of the circus. The arena might be worth a nosey, but it is in use by modern audiences for bullfighting. However, the cream of Roman civilisation can be seen at the Musée de l'Arles Antiques. This is a very worth-while stop, and illustrates the development of the town with marvellous models and exhibits. Pride of place must go to the luminous mosaic floors with their mythological images.
As opposed to paying separate entrance fees, there is a joint pass that you can buy at any attraction: the Pass Romain. This ticket is €9.00 and gives access to Arena, Theatre, Thermes and Alyscamps. It’s worth-while if you want to see everything Arles has to offer; my money-saving tip would actually be to not bother.
The most central hub of ancient Arles is its arena. Within, the actual Roman arena itself is almost invisible behind its shroud of seating. Protective barriers and a sand-strewn floor obscure the stone. Yet, this is what it would presumably have resembled, in spirit anyway, back 1900 years ago. Doubtless the Romans would approve that even today their amphitheatre is still in use for its original purpose, that of bloodsports. For from 1830 onwards, this arena has been used for bull-fighting.
Just south of the Arena sits the earlier Roman theatre. This was once a massive edifice when first constructed in the 1st century BC. It was also lavishly decorated. The Venus of Arles that once graced it now resides in the Louvre, though a copy is in the Musée de l'Arles Antique, along with the theatre's statues of dancers and the Emperor Augustus. Once it would have rivalled the theatre upstream in Orange. Once it sat 10,000 people. Today however this theatre is but a shadow of its former self. Used for masonry by later generations of townsfolk, or just built over, its adornments spirited away to museums, all that remains now is a shallow saucer with only two tiers of seating. Only two columns remain in situ. Rigging and a projector screen obscured the view of the stage when I visited. Workmen's dust filled the air in gritty clouds.
From the Roman theatre cross the gardens, and then the wide Boulevard des Lices. Avenue des Alyscamps leads south by the large moden Gendarmerie, crossing the railway tracks and canal. Essentially, the site is merely a cool shaded walk, flanked by tombs and sarcophagi. Bear in kind however, that the most impressive have been relocated to the Musée de l'Arles Antique. At the far end stands a bare 12th-century chuch. It is hauntingly quiet. Don't miss the spiral staircase in the back left corner which proves a spookily atmospheric way to enter the crypt / undercroft... with worryingly loose flagstones down there!
This peaceful retreat from the city is wonderful. It is no wonder that it has become so famed. Medieval poetry, at a loss to explain the presence of so many of the dead, fancifully located Charlemagne's battle against the Saracens in its vicinity. Dante's 'Inferno' also gives a big shout out to the Alyscamps. It is most famous though for its appearance in art. Gauguin and Van Gogh scoped out the shaded way in the autumn of 1888, and there is a board displaying a reproduction of Van Gogh's 'Les Alyscamps' to one side. Not much has changed since those days except that the skirts nowadays are shorter, and on my visit brollies were not as much in evidence. Oh, and to my eyes the tombs were not jade green, and the tree trunks were not aquamarine.
Back in town, and up beside the river Rhone, the internal remains of the Thermes de Constantin are very scanty. You spend most of your time trying to work out the orientation of the leaflet map to figure out precisely what you are meant to be looking at. There are well preserved remains of a hypocaust. This was flooring raised on pillars, and through which hot air from countless fires would circulate. Likewise, pipes ran up through the walls to heat those as well. However, unless you are keenly fascinated by Roman public sanitary architecture I would recommend skipping a visit. You can see most of what there is to see from outside anyway.
The one true must-see from Roman Arles, is actually the Musée de l'Arles Antiques, inconviniently located out by the site of the Roman circus, to the west of the flyover. I would heartily recommend a visit to those interested in the development of the Roman colonies. The museum is a big blue bunker of a building that takes up quite a lot of space to best display the relics of ancient Arles. Inside are good exhibits, and a clear charter to explain the development of the colony of 'Arelate', settled by demob-happy veterans of Julius Caesar's legions. Upon entry (€5.50) you get an A3 sheet of paper in English with a map of the triangular building and an overview of the separate sections; you also get a brochure which translates the explanatory panels. Sections are clearly separated (though sometimes in a bit of a jumbled order). There are maps of Arelate at various stages of development, and models of the city and its key features - the forum, the theatre, the circus, the cemetaries, its famous 'bridge of boats' which spanned the Rhone etc. One fascinating model is of the watermill at Barbegal. An aqueduct brought water, which was then split into two channels running downhill. Each channel held eight water wheels. These sixteen mills were then capable of grinding 4.5 tons of flour a day to support the town. If we accept the truism that all that was necessary to run the empire was 'bread and circuses', that's the bread covered. What about the circuses? Well, its theatre could seat 10,000 spectators, its amphitheatre could seat twice as many, and the hippodrome could also seat 20,000. The town's prosperity is evident in its civic monuments. In terms of statuary, the Venus of Arles now stands in the Louvre, but this museum holds a replica.The goddess of love has distinctive Madonna-esque pointy boobs. They have to be fake, right? Venus is represented here as she was the mythical ancestor of the Juliae clan, that of Caesars Julius and Augustus. A vainglorious representation of a youthful Emperor Augustus is all tousled locks, muscley chest, and rock-hard abs. By contrast, a bust of what is assumed to be the bearded Emperor Hadrian looks, to British eyes, like a fat Rory McGrath.
Aside from the Emperor cult, traditional Roman gods do not seem to have been very entrenched here. The town was a nexus for trade and commerce (Romans would sail to Arelate, before following the Rhone valley north to the less civilised edges of their empire. As a result it seems to have been a melting pot, full of traders from all fringes of the empire. There are signs that the cults of the Egyptian goddess Isis and the mystical middle-eastern Mithras made significant inroads here.
Likewise, the inhabitants of Arelate spread outwards. This was one of the few senatorial provinces, which returned dignitaries to Rome. A very few local soldiers even served in the elite Praetorian Guard, bodyguards to the Imperial family. Other soldiers from the town, as we know from tombstones, served in theatres as far away as Britain, Africa and Cappadocia (central Turkey).
Yet, fascinating as all this detail and context is, if you are to visit for only one thing, it would have to be the mosaics. Rescued from private villas they are evidence of a very wealthy class of citizens. And they are masterpieces. You can climb to a gallery to see them from above. Here you can see Orpheus charming the animals; Aion, god of Time, with the Zodiacal wheel and framed by nymphs; Jupiter as a bull, whisking a lounging Europa across the sea.
Getting to Arles is easy, as it is well-connected to other centres in Provence by bus, train or TGV. I came down from Avignon for a mere €6.40 each way.
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