XX Senlis (Augustomagnus)

 What3words –  Entrance – dock.ideal.craters

                           Arena – buzz.spoil.curtains

 Visited September 2023

Status – Charming and not easy to get to see

Construction Date – 100AD

Capacity – 10,000

(I do not own the copyright of this video and am not responsible for the content - especially not the music or the spelling ‘Amphitheater’)

30 miles north of Paris, just off the A1 to Lille, lies Senlis. As a destination it lacks anything internationally spectacular to rival the Chateau and racecourse of  Chantilly to the east, and probably was spared expansion with posh commuter homes when somebody ripped up the railway in the mid 20th Century. Senlis enjoys a quiet existence and its churches walls and cobbled streets attract many visitors, although it’s whispered that the ubiquitous Sting has one of his many homes here.

Outside the town to the west, in a secluded location surrounded by beautifully tended back gardens and home to a flock of grazing rare breed sheep, sits the Senlis Amphitheatre. It is of earth banked construction which was encased and enhanced with stonework, quite a bit of which survives.  In the 2nd century it seated some 10,000.

It looks great on google earth but unless you make a special arrangement with La Société d'histoire et d'archéologie de Senlis SHAS (archeologie-senlis.fr) or visit on one of the two weekends in spring and summer when it is open to the public, that’s the only way you’ll get to see it (without trespassing through someone’s garden or other illegal means of entry).

The Society itself was founded by interested locals in 1862. Their interest extended to a field outside the town referred to occasionally as ‘la fosse’ (The trench or pit) which contained a mound on top of which had been a gun emplacement during the ‘French Wars of Religion’ (36 years of vicious sectarian infighting between 1562 and 1598).  

In 1865, Felix Vernois, a member of the CAS, discovered evidence of the Arènes.  The ‘mound’ consisted of a thousand years plus of rubbish deposited in the ‘pit’. Poking around in the field revealed a curved wall which gave rise to a century or so of excavation revealing the amphitheatre. The society purchased the land for 4,500 francs and  owns and cares for it to this day.

Tell-tale road names include the Allée des Arènes to the west, the rue de la Fontaine des Arènes to the south and the Place des Arènes to the east where the entrance gate to the site lies.