Qualla: Arles Amphitheatre https://qualla.com/arles-amphitheatre en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:30 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/s/p/g/2/arles-amphitheatre-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Arles Amphitheatre https://qualla.com/arles-amphitheatre Arles Amphitheatre: Introduction https://qualla.com/arles-amphitheatre/ Photo credit GO69, CC BY-SA 3.0. Vincent van Gogh painted the crowd inside the Arles Amphitheatre in 1888, capturing the scene of spectators attending a bullfight in the same oval that had hosted gladiatorial combat eighteen centuries earlier. The painting, Les Arenes, shows what makes this place remarkable: not just that a Roman amphitheatre from 90 AD survives in southern France, but that people never stopped using it. Built a decade after the Colosseum, topped with medieval towers that the Romans never intended, the Arles Amphitheatre has been arena, fortress, town, and stage -- each era leaving its mark on walls that refuse to become ruins.

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Image: GO69 | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/p/g/2/arles-amphitheatre-wp/spg2-arles-amphitheatre-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Arles Amphitheatre: Colosseum of the Provinces https://qualla.com/arles-amphitheatre/ Photo credit Jeremy J. Shapiro, CC BY-SA 3.0. The amphitheatre measures 136 meters long and 109 meters wide, with 120 arches arranged across two tiers. It held over 20,000 spectators for chariot races and gladiatorial combat, seating them on terraces served by a sophisticated system of arcades, galleries, and staircases desi...

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Image: Jeremy J. Shapiro | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/p/g/2/arles-amphitheatre-wp/spg2-arles-amphitheatre-colosseum-of-the-provinces.mp3 0:06 2 full Arles Amphitheatre: Two Hundred Houses and Two Chapels https://qualla.com/arles-amphitheatre/ Photo credit Bjs, CC BY-SA 4.0. When the Western Roman Empire collapsed in the fifth century, the people of Arles did what people throughout the former empire did with amphitheatres: they moved in. Four towers were added to the structure, transforming it into a fortress. Within the oval walls, more than 200 hou...

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Image: Bjs | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/p/g/2/arles-amphitheatre-wp/spg2-arles-amphitheatre-two-hundred-houses-and-two-chapels.mp3 0:06 3 full Arles Amphitheatre: From Monument to Matador https://qualla.com/arles-amphitheatre/ Photo credit Rolf Süssbrich, CC BY-SA 3.0. The transformation began in 1825, when the writer Prosper Merimee championed the amphitheatre's conversion to a national historical monument. Expropriation of the interior houses started in 1826 and was complete by 1830, when the first event was staged in the cleared arena -- a b...

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Image: Rolf Süssbrich | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/p/g/2/arles-amphitheatre-wp/spg2-arles-amphitheatre-from-monument-to-matador.mp3 0:06 4 full Arles Amphitheatre: Arena of Many Lives https://qualla.com/arles-amphitheatre/ Photo credit Velvet, CC BY-SA 4.0. The medieval towers still jut from the top of the Roman walls, a visual reminder that this building has never belonged to a single era. John Frankenheimer staged an action sequence inside the amphitheatre for his 1998 film Ronin. Van Gogh's painting of the bullfight crowd hangs i...

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Image: Velvet | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/p/g/2/arles-amphitheatre-wp/spg2-arles-amphitheatre-arena-of-many-lives.mp3 0:06 5 full