What to see in Arles: the UNESCO sites and Van Gogh, in walking order

Morning: theatre, arena, cathedral

I send friends to the theatre first and the arena second, because the theatre is empty at nine. Augustus built it around 12 BC; two columns are left standing and the town calls them les deux veuves. Two hundred metres on is the amphitheatre, 120 arches and a medieval tower you can climb for the view over the roofs to the Rhône. A combined ticket or a pass covers both; the ticket page explains which. Then downhill to place de la République: the obelisk, the Romanesque portal of Saint-Trophime and the cloister behind it. The cryptoportiques, 1st-century BC galleries under the old forum, are entered from the town hall on the same square.

Midday: Van Gogh without a map

Place du Forum is two minutes from the town hall; the café on the corner is the one in Café Terrace at Night. The hospital courtyard he painted is now the Espace Van Gogh. The Yellow House on place Lamartine was destroyed in 1944. He made more than 300 paintings and drawings here in fourteen months; the Fondation Vincent van Gogh opened in 2014. The half-day from Avignon walks this route with a guide and adds Saint-Paul-de-Mausole.

Afternoon: baths, LUMA, Alyscamps

Constantine’s baths are a ten-minute walk north to the river, 4th century. Cross town to the Parc des Ateliers for LUMA Arles, Frank Gehry’s 56-metre tower; the Rencontres photography festival, 6 July to 4 October in 2026, fills the same district. Finish at the Alyscamps, the Roman necropolis both Van Gogh and Gauguin painted.

Do it in an hour with a local

The express walk starts two minutes from the amphitheatre and finishes in the Roquette, my quarter, with café recommendations thrown in.

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