Arles Walking Tour

Free Arles Walking Tour with Roamee Pro

Roamee Pro offers a free Arles walking tour with audio narration. Explore Roman amphitheater, Roman theater, Van Gogh trail, plus hidden gems like Espace Van Gogh and Alyscamps, without booking a group tour.

• •Roman amphitheater — Built in 90 AD during the reign of Emperor Domitian, this arena could seat approximately 20,000 spectators for gladiatorial combat and chariot races. It measures 136 by 107 meters across two tiers of 60 arches each, making it the 20th-largest Roman amphitheater ever built. Unlike many Roman ruins, it has been in continuous use for 2,000 years
• •Roman theater — Built during the reign of Emperor Augustus around 40 BC, this theater once seated 10,000 spectators and featured an elaborate stage wall decorated with columns, statues, and marble panels. Only two Corinthian columns survive from the original stage wall, but they are among the most photographed Roman ruins in Provence. The Venus of Arles, discovered here in 1651 and now in the Louvre, is considered one of the finest Roman copies of a Greek original.
• •Van Gogh trail — Twelve reproduction panels are positioned throughout the city at the exact locations where Van Gogh set up his easel during his 15-month residence from February 1888 to May 1889. The trail includes the cafe terrace on Place du Forum (Cafe Terrace at Night), the Rhone riverbank (Starry Night Over the Rhone), and the public garden at Place Lamartine. Though the yellow house he rented was destroyed in WWII bombing, its location is marked.
• •Eglise Saint-Trophime — This 12th-century Romanesque church boasts one of the finest carved portal tympanums in all of Provencal Romanesque art, depicting the Last Judgment with Christ in Majesty surrounded by the symbols of the four evangelists. The adjacent cloister, built in two phases from the 12th to 14th centuries, features exquisitely carved capitals with biblical scenes. The church is part of Arles's UNESCO World Heritage designation.

• •Espace Van Gogh — This former hospital, the Hotel-Dieu, is where Van Gogh was treated after severing his ear in December 1888. The central courtyard garden has been replanted to match his painting 'The Garden of the Hospital in Arles,' with beds of irises, oleanders, and forget-me-nots arranged exactly as he depicted them. The building now houses a cultural center, library, and university offices.
• •Alyscamps — One of the most famous necropolises of the ancient Western world, this Roman-era burial ground lined with carved stone sarcophagi was a prestigious burial site for nearly 1,500 years. Dante referenced it in the Inferno, and both Van Gogh and Gauguin painted its atmospheric tree-lined avenue of tombs during their brief shared stay in Arles in 1888. The Romanesque Church of Saint-Honorat anchors the far end of the avenue.