Today my first report from the trip to Arles. Our trip to this town went not as was planned initially and I was forced to speed up the visit :)
Today some of the most famous antique monuments of Arles:
Arles is very famous town despite the fact that official statistic says that here lives less than 50 thousand residents. Much of the fame is due to the various artists and particularly painters who lived there (Van Gogh, Goghin, Picasso, etc.) . But Arles also is very old town and has one of the most impressive set of Roman and medieval artifacts in southern France (only to mention the fact that Arles was established by Phoenicians as a trading and port center even before the Romans).
Today I will show only few antique monuments in Arles and in the consecutive reports will show more Arles.
So after arrival - the Arles train station. In principle very common for the southern France:
Train station is located in principle close to the center and old town but not exactly in this part of the town. Near train station you can find part of modern Arles - the building of "College Frederic Mistral":
Dormitory of the college is the closest building to the train station:
Then we rapidly went to the old town. The first glimpse to the amphitheater:
First of all we went to visit Roman theater:
Arles theater is relatively well preserved. Those ruins are more than 2000 years of old...
And theater is used even today for various festivals and performances. Stage:
Places for spectators:
From the upper part of the tribunes you can see another very famous Arles monument - the amphitheater:
The we went to visit amphitheater too:
This 2000 years old structure is also used these days. The main modern usage - the corrida :)
View to the Arles old town from upper part of amphitheater:
The designers of the amphitheater were very clever engineers and had good understanding about ergonomics, convenience and users satisfaction. Each part of the amphitheater could be reached very easy using a system of corridors. Corridors are situated in three different grounds:
Arles amphitheater now is under cosmetic restauration. But still you can find some not restaurated corridors:
One of Arles church looking from amphitheater:
It is only difficult to photograph the amphitheater from outside since it is surrounded by numerous medieval houses coming very close to it:
After visit to theater and amphitheater I felt some relax and we will began exploration of Arles old town and center in a more relaxed manner. But about those explorations next time :)