Arles Roman Amphitheatre

Arles flourished as a favoured Roman city after Julius Caesar rewarded it for backing him against Pompey, and its amphitheatre, built around 90 AD, held 20,000 spectators for gladiatorial games. Like Nîmes, it became a fortified town in the Middle Ages, three medieval towers still crowning its arches. Seventeen centuries later Arles drew another kind of fame: Vincent van Gogh arrived in February 1888 and, in barely fifteen months, painted some 300 works—the Café Terrace, the Yellow House, sunflowers and starry nights—before his breakdown and the severing of his ear. The Roman and Romanesque monuments of Arles are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.