Arles hotels and guide

History & Civilization

Arles was established by the Greeks as early as the 6^th century BC under the name of Theline. It was captured by the Celtic Salluvii in 535 BC, who renamed it to Arelate. The Romans took the town in 123 BC and expanded it into an important city, with a canal link to the Mediterranean Sea being constructed in 104 BC.

 

• Roman Arelate was a city of considerable importance in the province of Gallia Narbonensis. It covered an area of some 99 acres and possessed a wide array of monuments, including an amphitheater, triumphal arch, Roman circus, theater and a full circuit of walls. It was closer to the sea than it is now and served as a major port.

 

• The city reached a peak of influence during the 4^th and 5^th centuries, when it was frequently used as headquarters for Roman Emperors during military campaigns. In 395 it became the seat of the Praetorian Prefecture of the Gauls, governing the western part of the Western Empire: Gaul proper plus Hispania (Spain) and Armorica (Brittany).

 

• Arles became renowned as a cultural and religious center during the late Roman Empire. It was the birthplace of the skeptical philosopher Favorinus. It was also a key location for Roman Christianity and an important base for the Christianization of Gaul. The city’s bishopric was held by a series of outstanding clerics, beginning with Saint Trophimus around 225 and continuing with Saint Honore, then Saint Hilary in the first half of the 5^th century.

 

• Arles was badly affected by the invasion of Provence by the Muslim Saracens and the Franks, who took control of the region in the 8^th century. In 855 it was made the capital of a Frankish Kingdom of Arles, which included Burgundy and part of Provence, but was frequently terrorized by Saracen and Viking raiders.

 

• In 933, Hugh of Arles gave his kingdom up to Rodolphe II, who merged the two kingdoms into a new Kingdom of Arles. In 1032, King Rodolphe III died, and the Kingdom was inherited by Emperor Conrad II the Salic. Though his successors counted themselves kings of Arles, few went to be crowned in the cathedral.

 

• Most of the Kingdom’s territory was progressively incorporated into France. During these troubled times, the amphitheater was converted into a fortress, with watchtowers built at each of the four quadrants and a minuscule walled town being constructed within. The population was by now only a fraction of what it had been in Roman times, with much of old Arles lying in ruins.

 

• The town regained political and economic prominence in the 12th century, with the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa traveling there in 1178 for his coronation. In the 12th century, it became a free city governed by an elected chief magistrate, who appointed the consuls and other magistrates. It retained this status until the French Revolution of 1789.

 

• Vincent van Gogh arrived in Arles on the 21st of February 1888. Many of his most famous paintings were completed there, including The Night Cafe, the Yellow Room, Starry Night Over the Rhone, and L’Arlésienne. However, van Gogh’s mental health deteriorated and he became alarmingly eccentric, culminating in the infamous ear-severing incident in December 1888.