Theater
Preceding its illustrious neighbor the amphitheater by a century, the Roman theater of Arles is today much less well preserved.
General view of the ancient theater
Built at the end of the 1st century BC, it dates from the first phase of urbanization of the Roman colony founded by Caesar in –45.
Built on the Hauture hill, it is part of the Roman grid, on the decumanus (east-west road).
Fortified in the Middle Ages and taken over by parasitic constructions - its own materials having often been reused in neighboring buildings - we even lose knowledge of the initial function of the monument.
It was rediscovered at the end of the 17th century and confirmed in the following centuries by the numerous archaeological pieces unearthed from its soil, including the famous “Venus of Arles” (Louvre).
It was only in the 19th century that the site was completely cleared.
Only a few stands remain, the orchestra, the stage curtain pit and two high marble columns topped with a fragment of the entablature.
The theater has nevertheless regained, especially in the summer, its vocation as a performance venue.
The amphitheater
The amphitheater is the most important monument of the ancient Roman colony that we can admire, some two millennia after its construction.
Its architecture is entirely designed in relation to its vocation as a venue for major shows, welcoming a large audience. In their initial elevation, the stands could accommodate around 21,000 spectators, whose flows were cleverly organized by a network of doors, galleries and staircases, on several floors. Having become a veritable closed and fortified town from the beginning of the Middle Ages, the building was only cleared in the 19th century. It then regained, in part, its initial function, notably with bullfighting, which has earned it its current common name of “arenas”.
Les cryptoportiques
Late 1st century BC
The cryptoportics form the base, the hidden part of the forum, the central public square of a Roman city.
Little is known about the Arlesian forum itself.
Only a few elements (decoration, layout) allow us to date the start of the work, a few years after the founding of the colony.
These foundations are intended to stabilize the vast esplanade on naturally sloping ground.
They are in the form of three galleries forming a U-shaped opening towards the east.
The southern gallery is dug into the rock, while to the north, the land is backfilled by several meters, which has allowed the preservation of vestiges of the pre-Roman town.
The current level of traffic corresponds quite well to that of the ancient ground of the city, which was much lower.
Only the north gallery, due to the slope of the land, opened onto a square, the ancestor of our current Place du Forum.
A fourth gallery, characterized by the use of bricks, probably testifies to a restructuring of the building during Late Antiquity.