The website The Roman amphitheatre - Office de Tourisme et des Congrès de Nîmes (nimes-tourisme.com) can show and give you a wealth of information about the history and survival of this incredible structure. Click on the link to the Amphitheatre and then the one to ‘see the webdocumentaire’ . If you skip the bits with actors and cartoons and follow the links to history and restoration there are photographs, prints, short history lectures and CGI virtual tours.

The story of Nîmes encompasses the collapse and shrinkage of the Roman Empire, depopulation of towns, and the lawlessness and infighting that occupied subsequent centuries. If you had a massive amphitheatre in your vulnerable town you could do a lot with it, two options being to use the parts to build a wall around your settlement, or make the outer walls of the amphitheatre safe and turn it into a castle/redoubt.

Gladiatorial contests were banned by the Emperor in 404AD. By the 6th Century the Visigoths had walled up the external arches and turned the Nîmes Amphitheatre into a fortress. In the 8th Century the ‘Carolingian Counts’ moved in and added their own extensions to form a fortress/palace. This was taken over by the ‘Counts of Toulouse’ in the 9th century who occupied it until the 12th century when it became a royal chateau until Viscount and Knights made their exit in the 14th century. At this point the locals started moving in. 58 of the 60 external arches were incorporated into house conversions. A similar number of residential buildings occupied the interior together with two churches and ecclesiastical residences. More were built onto the external walls. By the 18th century, some 1500 people lived in and around the structure.

A decree of the Council of State made in 1786 recognised the Arena as one of the most beautiful surviving Roman monuments. A lot happened in France at the end of the 18th Century, in particular a revolution and formation of a Republic. By 1807 a prefectoral decree stated that the ancient magnificence was dishonoured by the ‘vile constructions erected there during the barbarian centuries..’, and that by renovating it the city would halt the spread of disease through the insalubrious hovels obstructing parts of it and remove the insult to this venerable monument.  

Post revolutionary France acquired a new enthusiasm for its architectural heritage, that desire to equate a new empire with a great ancient one, as well as slum clearance. The ‘new’ France set about revealing, preserving and restoring many sites. The houses and buildings within, and attached to, the arena, were demolished and the occupants relocated, the structure was excavated and repaired and restoration and repair continues to this day. From the mid 19th Century it hosted bullfights, circus and acrobatic shows, operas, military parades and it continues to accommodate Jazz festivals, Roman re-enactments and rock concerts.