Arles

Albi Aix-en-Provence Arles Avignon Basque France Bayeux Biarritz Brest Brittany Bordeaux Camargue Carcassonne Cathedrals Chartres Cognac Colmar Giverny Langres Loire Valley Lourdes Marseilles Mont St. Michel Nice Nimes Normandy Paris Pont du Gard Provence Rouen Saone and Rhone Rivers St. Paul de Vence Strasbourg Vals les Bains Versailles

Rice Festival Roman Arles Roman Mosaics Saint Trophime Van Gogh Market Day

Arles

 

in 1957

horizontal rule

Photos from 2003

 

city hall

 

Forum columns embedded in the wall
center of the town is built on the ruins of the Roman Forum

 

next to the Nord Pinus restaurant

 

on Forum Square is the stature of Frédéric Mistral

horizontal rule

Mistral, Frédéric (1830-1914), French Provençal poet and Nobel laureate, born near Maillane, Bouches-du-Rhône Department. In 1854 Mistral and other writers founded the Félibrige, a society to revive the use of the Provençal language. His pastoral poem Mirèio (1859; trans. 1868), written in his native Provençal dialect, gained for him the poet's prize of the French Academy. He also wrote and compiled a Provençal-French dictionary (1878-86) and wrote several volumes of poetry, including Lis isclo d'or (The Golden Isles, 1876) and the dramatic poem La Reino Jano (Queen Joan, 1890). He shared the 1904 Nobel Prize with the Spanish writer José Echegaray y Eizaguirre.

 



medallion on the stature
(supposedly his wife was the model)

horizontal rule


fountain

 

door knob
 

olive products for sale

 

 

 

restaurant

Arles (ancient Arelas or Arelate), city in southern France, in Bouches-du-Rhône Department, on the Rhône River, in Provence. Arles is a port (linked to the Mediterranean Sea by canal) and a farm-trade and manufacturing center. Products include processed food, textiles, and chemicals. Tourism is also important to the economy. Points of interest include a Roman amphitheater, which held about 26,000 spectators; a Roman obelisk, retrieved from the Rhône River and now in the Place de la République; the ruins of a Roman theater, in which were found many works of art including the statue Venus of Arles (Louvre, Paris); the palace of the 4th century Roman emperor Constantine the Great; and the Romanesque Church of Saint Trophime. Parts of the wall around the old town also originate from Roman times.

 

part of the wall around Arles

Roman Arles   Mosaics and Tombs

 

Romanesque Church of Saint Trophime

More Photos of Saint Trophime


During the first century BC, Arelas, as the city was then called, emerged as one of the chief commercial centers of the Roman Empire. An episcopal see from the 4th century until 1790, it was the site of several important ecclesiastical councils, including the Council of Arles (314), which condemned Donatism, a heretical Christian movement. After the collapse (476 AD) of the Roman Empire of the West, Arles was seized by the Visigoths and then by the Ostrogoths (see Goths). In 730, while ruled by the Merovingian dynasty, it was plundered by Muslim invaders. In 879 Arles was made the seat of the kingdom of Provence, and in 933 it became the capital of the kingdom of Arles, more often called the kingdom of Bourgogne. After 1246, it was included in Provence.

 

a Romanesque church in Alyscamps
(was on the pilgrimage route to the shrine of St. James in Compostela)

 

Romanesque interior

 

gargoyle

 

associated chapel with beautiful acoustics

The Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh was very active in Arles, creating more than 200 paintings here in 1888 and 1889.

the Van Gogh story

Rice Harvest Festival

Market Day
 

Text from Microsoft Encarta

 

 

monument to war dead

 

statue in the park, Jardin d'Été
next to the Roman theater


to the victims of Nazi persecution

 

Eglise Notre Dame de la Major

 

where the tour boats dock on the Rhône
(pillars in the background are from the former railroad bridge, destroyed in WW II)

near the site of the Roman pontoon bridge

Arriving on a Grand Circle Cruise in 2013

 

tower of the city hall

horizontal rule

Rice Festival Roman Arles Roman Mosaics Saint Trophime Van Gogh Market Day

Return to Provence Elderhostel page

Albi Aix-en-Provence Arles Avignon Basque France Bayeux Biarritz Brest Brittany Bordeaux Camargue Carcassonne Cathedrals Chartres Cognac Colmar Giverny Langres Loire Valley Lourdes Marseilles Mont St. Michel Nice Nimes Normandy Paris Pont du Gard Provence Rouen Saone and Rhone Rivers St. Paul de Vence Strasbourg Vals les Bains Versailles

Return to France page

Train Tour Albania Andorra Armenia Austria Baltic States Belgium Bellorussia Bosnia Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Georgia Germany Gibraltar Greece Hungary Ireland Italy Kosovo Latvia Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macedonia Malta Moldova Monaco Montenegro Netherlands Norway Northern Cyprus Poland Portugal Romania Russia San Marino Serbia Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey United Kingdom Ukraine Vatican City

Return to Europe page

World Heritage Mosaics Roman World Africa Antarctica Asia Atlantic Islands Australia Caribbean Central America Europe Indian Ocean Middle East North America Pacific Islands South America The Traveler Recent Adventures Adventure Travel

 

Return to People and Places

horizontal rule