Introduction
724km (450 miles) S of Paris; 35km (22 miles) SW of Avignon; 89km (55 miles) NW of Marseille
Often called the soul of Provence, this town on the Rhône attracts art lovers, archaeologists, and historians. To the delight of visitors, many of the vistas of van Gogh's paintings so luminously remain. The painter left Paris for Arles in 1888, the same year he cut off part of his left ear. He painted some of his most celebrated works here, including Starry Night, The Bridge at Arles, Sunflowers, and L'Arlésienne.
The Greeks are said to have founded Arles in the 6th century B.C. Julius Caesar established a Roman colony here; Constantine the Great named it the second capital of his empire in A.D. 306, when it was known as "the little Rome of the Gauls." Arles was incorporated into France in 1481.
Though Arles doesn't possess as much charm as Aix-en-Provence, it's still rewarding to visit, with first-rate museums, excellent restaurants, and summer festivals. The city today, with...
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Eglise St-Trophime
This church is noted for its 12th-century portal, one of the finest achievements of the southern Romanesque style. Frederick Barbarossa was crowned...
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Museon Arlaten
The museum was founded by Frédéric Mistral, the Provençal poet who led a movement to establish modern Provençal as a literary language, using the...
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- Museums
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Théâtre Antique
This is one of the city's two great classical monuments. The Roman theater, begun by Augustus in the 1st century, was mostly destroyed and only...
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- Landmarks
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