The Roman amphitheatre at Beziers

A View of Beziers from the ramparts looking west

Two years ago I passed Beziers on the train en route from Marseilles to Bordeaux. As the train pulled out of Beziers I saw for the first time the town's walls, citadel and cathedral perched high on a hillside. While on a short break to Carcassonne, I suggested to Corinne that we might consider a short excursion to either Beziers, Narbonne or Toulouse, which were within easy reach. We settled on Beziers and Corinne had yet again chosen to stand by and look at me roaming around gazing at another pile of stones, followed by an enjoyable, amiable and lengthy lunch at Restaurant Cote Sud, 19 rue Viennet.

The Romans founded a colony on the site of the modern town of Beziers, naming it Julia Baeterrae Septimanorum, on or about 36 - 35 B.C. Given the strong strategic qualities of the topography of this hilltop site and the proximity of the river Orb at the foot of the hill of St Nazaire to the west, it is not difficult to argue with their choice. The Romans were not the first to chose this site as archaeological excavations have revealed evidence of habitation dating to the 6th Century B.C.

The views commanded from the ramparts today further underline the importance of the site; the town stands at a point where the valley is almost at its broadest providing uninterrupted views to the north, west and south, most importantly up the valley towards Narbonne and beyond. Julia Baeterrae Septimanorum was also chosen because of the fact it stood on the Via Domitia. This was an overland route constructed by the Romans in 118 B.C. initially linking Italy to the colonia Narbo Martius [Narbonne], but as time went on and expansion continued the route was extended into Spain.

Medieval buildings along Rue des Arenes the curve of which was dictated by the amphitheatre

I initially wanted to find the Roman amphitheatre which I understood to be south east of the cathedral of St Nazaire. Finding Rue des Arenes in the quiet residential Quartier of St-Jacques, where some of the streets in the area were clearly following an ellipse, I knew the amphitheatre could not have been too far away, but we could not catch a glimpse of any opening or space that would reveal the remains of the amphitheatre.

Detail from a street sign

Getting desperate we asked an old man where we might find the amphitheatre, and he pointed us in the opposite direction where we found locked steal gates preventing entry and a view of the site. I was initially disappointed but climbed the barrier to get a better view. My disappointment continued as I always thought there would be more obvious visible signs of the amphitheatre's remains. A clearance where a part of the central area of the original arena had originally been was now roughly preserved as a garden or park with a number of surrounding buildings backing onto it, and others built across an area to the south where the amphitheatre had been dismantled.

View of the amphitheatre site looking north

The amphitheater at this particular site was in no way similar to the amphitheatres I had seen at Arles and Nimes. The scale of the amphitheatre at Beziers was never going to rival those structures; the structure at Beziers is estimated to have measured approximately 108.3 metres by 88.6 metres and reported to be capable of seating 13,700 people. However, as I gazed at the site an impression of the amphitheatre was slowly being built in my mind as I pondered the levels of occupation, some built directly on top of the supporting arches of the amphitheatre. I gradually felt quite fortunate to be viewing an amphitheatre from another perspective i.e. beneath more recent levels of occupation which had their own merit. In the case of the amphitheatre at Arles over 200 buildings were cleared from the structure and the areas around the amphitheatre during the 1820s in an attempt to restore and preserve the amphitheatre. Thus today at Beziers you can get a real idea of how a Roman amphitheatre impacts on a modern street plan and development of a town following its demise.

View to the north-west showing the top edge of an area where spectators possibly the media cavea would have been seated and structures to support further seating below

The amphitheatre is reported to date to the third quarter of the 1st century A.D. placing it in the great period of amphitheatre building under the Flavian emperors. The topography of the hill of St-Jacques lends itself well to the building of an amphitheatre as the south and west sides are built into the hillside. The amphitheatre in situ was built with stone like many of the other Roman amphitheatres built at this time; there is no evidence of brick in the visible remains of the substructures, arches and supports of the amphitheatre at Beziers.

A sketch or impression of the amphitheatre at Beziers dating to circa 1627 has been discovered, and this gives us an idea of the dilapidated state of the structure during the early 17th Century. It clearly illustrates the fact that not all of the structure had been reduced as a section of the elliptical exterior wall remains [page 131 of the PDF]. The sketch appears to have been made from a vantage point or building close to the aptly named Place du Cirque to the North of the amphitheatre. Still visible today is an elliptical wall of the arena in the sketch which appears in the photograph below.

View of the amphitheatre remains looking south

The thought that I was exploring the Roman amphitheatre after it had become inhabited and absorbed by the swelling population of the town following the demise of the amphitheatre from the end of the 3rd century A.D. was becoming more attractive to me. However, the fact that I could only do this from a distance, and at that from selected perches on top of various fences was not so attractive.

The stonework taken from the amphitheatre at Beziers was said to be used in the construction of the town's walls. This may be correct as the Roman provinces of Gaul were gradually destabilised and plunged into turmoil. Beziers would not have escaped the notice of invading Visigoths and Franks and was devastated by being sacked on numerous occasions over the last 2000 years; the Albigensian Crusade in 1209 being one of the most infamous. One might have thought there would have been little or no evidence on this site to be found of the Roman occupation, and in particular decorative material. However, in April 1844 10 statuary busts dating to the Julio-Claudian period were discovered in a cellar of a house on what is now called Boulevard Paul Riquet. The busts are now in the Musee Saint-Raymond in Toulouse.

As the Cathedral of St Nazaire at Beziers rolled into my line of sight as I sat on the train two years ago, the view was quite alluring and clearly echoed an ancient past. In reality the town of Beziers is a little disappointing. The lack of a map at the gare SNCF signals a general lack of interest. I may be biased but the Mairie or town council does not go out of its way to make the amphitheatre a landmark or accessible, and this is most unfortunate for the town. A few viewing platforms in locations, possibly in places where I was forced to climb fences, with informative displays (vandal proof if required) would not interfere or have a negative impact on the ambiance of the residential area, or indeed turn it into a tourist trap. Beziers clearly needs a boost to rise above the dull mediocrity and in many places the filth. This could be a start!