Tourist attractions Arles

From the Gallo-Roman period up to the end of the Middle Ages, the Alyscamps ("Champs-Élysées") was one of the most prestigious necropolises in the West. Its heyday came when the necropolis was Christianised, with relics from St Trophimus an..

With its vast open spaces that are home to herds of black bulls with distinctive curved horns, slender silhouettes of pink flamingoes and galloping white horses, the Camargue is a unique place. This natural habitat has been preserved thanks to the cr..

The must-see buildings in Les Baux include: the former town hall and its museum of "santons" (Christmas crib figures), and the Porcelet mansion which houses the Museum dedicated to Yves Brayer, who painted the pastoral scenes in the Péniten..

The carved decoration of the 12C-14C cloisters is most remarkable, in particular that of the capitals and the magnificent corner pillars in the north gallery (on the left on entering). Those in the east gallery, next to the refectory, depict the Life..

The Arles arenas which were transformed into a fortress in the 5th and 6th C (retaining their two, «Saracen towers» - medieval alterations) and then into a veritable «town within a town», have been extremely well conserved. Today the arenas are the s..

With its two impressively preserved columns standing in a landscape of rare elegance, the Théâtre Antique is one of the greatest Roman theatres from the end of the 1C BC. It served as quarry from the 5C, was transformed into a fortified reduit in the..

Large statuary (the colossal statue of Auguste that adorned the stage of the theatre), models illustrating how the city and its monuments developed in imperial times, the daily life of the people of Arles in Ancient times, splendid mosaics and an a..

One of the favourite residences of King René of Anjou , who commissioned the highly refined exterior decoration. Don't miss the outer bailey and apothecary, the royal court with the cantors' chapel and the many-sided turret housing a stairway. The..

Located between Arles and Avignon, the Alpilles chain is a geological extension of the Luberon, divided into the Alpilles des Baux to the West and the Alpilles d’Eygalières to the East. The villages ( Les Baux-de-Provence , Fontvieille, Maussane, etc..

The west front of St Gilles is a remarkable example of Romanesque sculpture in the South of France. Created in the 12C by artists of several schools (five different styles in all), it draws its inspiration from antiquity: high relief, draped and plea..

You access the Church via a gate that is a master piece from the provincial Roman school from the late 12th C. Of the works of art inside, main interests are the sarcophages from the 4 C and the cloister built after 1150, which is famous for its ..

The function of these twin horseshoe-shaped underground galleries is unknown. It has often been suggested that, as well as stabilising the monuments of the forum, they were used as huge granaries or, more prosaically, that they were conceived as a pl..

After winning the Nobel Prize in 1906, Frédéric Mistral founded this museum dedicated to the part of Provence located along the Rhône. Countless objects (furniture, costumes, ceramics, reconstructions of interiors) evoking traditional trades, livin..

Constantine loved Arles and made it his capital in the West, endowing the city with many good works. Of these, the thermal baths remain, the largest still to be seen in Provence; they have been partly cleared. Access via the tepidarium (warm room) ..

The museum is named after Arles-born painter Jacques Réattu (1760-1833), who used to live here. In addition to paintings from the 16C-18C, you can enjoy a collection of contemporary sculptures (César, Richier, Bourdelle, Zadkine), Modern paintings ..

A system of channels and pumps enables water levels and their salinity to be monitored, and to preserve the Camargue’s diverse ecosystems. Purple and grey herons, mallards, northern lapwings, black-winged stilts, moustached warblers and many other bi..

The Montmajour site was an island in the marshes which extended from the River Rhône to the Alpilles. The abbey was saved by the painter, Jacques Réattu. The remains include the 12C church of Notre-Dame , the Romanesque cloister with its capitals,..

This former townhouse housed the famous calico print factory beginning in 1806. The museum, devoted to these colourful fabrics, has nearly 40,000 wood print blocks with brass tips. The blocks were applied manually, then hammered by workers who printe..

The event is immortalised in a painting by Carle Van Loo depicting a kindly-looking Tarasque. The collegial church, built in the 12C and partly reconstructed in the 14C, has preserved its attractive Romanesque gate (south side), although the scul..

A signposted path leads to the chapel carved out of the rock which contains the tomb of St Roman. From the terrace, there is a fine view over the Rhône, Avignon and the Ventoux area with Tarascon in the foreground. On the way back down, note the ..