The South of France—East Half

by C. B. Black

[East]

PARIS
MARSEILLES 483 54 [ARLES], pop. 26,000. Hotels: Nord; Forum; near each other in the Place du Forum. Arles is situated on the Rhône, near the Camargue, in a marshy place, as its original name, Arelas, from the Celtic words, “Ar lach,” damp place, indicates. It is said to have been founded 900 years before Marseilles, 700 years before Rome, and 1500 before the birth of Christ. The ramparts and walls rising from the public gardens and the Boulevard des Aliscamps are chiefly the work of the Emperor Constantine, who came to Arles with his family and mother, Saint Helena. He built by the side of the Rhône a superb palace, called afterwards “de la Trouille,” because opposite a ferry-boat, which was pulled or dragged from one side of the river to the other. Of this palace little more remains than the attached tower La Trouille, constructed of alternate layers of brick and stone. On the 7th August 312 his wife Faustina presented him with a son, Constantine II., who succeeded his father in May 357. He commenced the Forum, but was shortly after killed in battle defending himself against his brother Constance, who usurped the throne and finished the Forum. All that remains of this formerly splendid edifice are the two Corinthian columns, with part of the pediment encrusted into the wall of the Hôtel du Nord. It occupied the site of the Place du Forum, called also the Place des Hommes, because labourers and men-servants used to be hired in this “Place.”

In the Place de la République is the Hôtel de Ville, built in 1675 on the site of the Roman baths constructed by the Emperor Augustus. The spacious vaults under the Hôtel du Nord formed probably a part of these baths, although in later times they seem to have been used as an ossuary.

Almost adjoining the Hôtel de Ville is the church of St. Anne,

now the Archæological Museum, with a collection of inscriptions, sarcophagi, urns, statues, columns, friezes, altars, and tombstones, those of the Pagans having the letters D.M., Diis manibus. Also some of the long lead pipes, with the name of the plumber, “C. Canthius Porthinus fac.,” which helped to bring water from the fountain at the foot of the hill on which Baux stands. At the inner end, right hand, is a torse of Mithras of white Pharos marble, 3 ft. 2 inches high, found in 1598 on the site of the Roman Circus. A serpent is coiled round the body, and between the coils are the signs of the Zodiac. In the opposite corner is an altar in Carrara marble to the good goddess “Bonae-Deae,” found under the church La Major. On the front face is a garland of oak leaves and acorns, and 7 inches distant from each other two human ears. Near it is a good head of Augustus, and a mutilated one of Diana. About the centre of the room is a recumbent figure of Silenus, with a wine skin under his arm.

In the centre of the “Place” is the monolith obelisk, 49 ft. high, hewn by the Romans from the quarries of Esterel. It stood originally in the Circus at the S.W. corner of the town; but of it no vestiges remain.

Arles: St. Trophime.

Opposite St. Anne is the cathedral of [St. Trophime], consecrated on the 17th May 626, and rebuilt in the 9th cent. The portal, erected in 1221, consists of a semicircular arch resting on six columns, behind which are statues of apostles and saints separated by pilasters. In the tympanum is Christ, the judge of the world, with the symbols of the Evangelists. In the interior the door on the S. side of the choir leads out to the cloister, of which the N. side belongs to the 9th, the south to the 16th, the east to the 13th, and the west to the 14th cent.

Passing from the cloister into the street, and turning to the left, we arrive at the Theatre, commenced during the dominion of the Greeks, and finished before the Christian era. In the centre of this grand ruin, originally 335 ft. in its greatest diameter, stand two Corinthian columns 30 ft. high, and the base of other two, which formed part of the proscenium. Opposite them is the semicircular space for the spectators, with still many of the stone seats. The Venus of Arles, one of the most valuable statues in the Louvre, was found here. The theatre is open to the public, but the keeper endeavours to attach himself to strangers.