In our trip to France we have visited the beautiful town of Arles. The most important monument is the amphitheatre, with two storeys and Doric arcades, very well preserved because in the Medieval times it became a fort: from that remain three medieval towers. Beautiful are the remains of the Roman theatre, with the steps, the orchestra and the two high columns; it had three storeys of arches, like you can see from the part of it that is included in the walls. The cryptoportica (subterranean galleries) were used to stabilize the Forum (of which you can see two columns of a temple on the overlooking Forum Square) and as a deposit of grain; it has a horseshoe form and big pillars and arches. Near that are the impressive remains of two rooms (tepidarium and calidarium) with an apse of the Constantine Baths, the Roman exedra, that was part of a basilica, and the Roman walls with the Gate of the Cavalry. The Cathedral of St. Trophime, that was also with Les Alyscamps one of the points of departure of the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, is a masterpiece of the Romanesque architecture (only the chapels and the apse are Gothic and the transept is later) and has a stunning portal with statues relieves, columns, pilasters, capitals, cornices, lintels, tympanums and statues of lions. Inside there are three naves, the main with ogival vaulting, the lateral with barrel vaulting, tapestries and a early Christian sarcophagus. The same two types of vaulting has the cloister, with a Romanesque part and a Gothic part and arcades, statues, relieves, double columns, pilasters and capitals; nice is the chapter house, that contains tapestries. In the Roman, early Christian and medieval cemetery Les Alyscamps there is a long avenue bordered by old cypress trees and sarcophaguses, that ends at the church of St. Honorat, that has a nice façade, an octagonal tower and a nave and contains sarcophaguses. Near Arles there is, on a hill, the beautiful Romanesque abbey of Montmajour with the church of Our Lady, that has a nave, a transept and a nice crypt, with a choir, an ambulatory and lateral chapels. The nice cloister has columns, capitals and arches. Near that is the rectangular Abbey tower, a rock cemetery and the churches of St. Peter, with two naves (one of which is dig up in the rock), and of the Holy Cross.

Arles is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen because of the beauty and diversity of the period of construction of its monuments but I was disappointed by the fact that some monuments were closed. It's absolutely worth to be visited, also because has the most beautiful amphitheatre in France, and justifies the inscription, but I think that also other Roman monuments in Provence (like that in Nîmes or Saint-Rémy-de-Provence) could be inscibed alone or together with one, two or all of the WHS of Arles, Orange and Pont du Gard.

Photo: Arles - Amphiteatre