‘The most beautiful wall in my kingdom,’ - Louis XIV, King of France (1660-1715)
It was with these words that Louis XIV referred to the Ancient Theatre in Orange, which was a major theatre in antiquity. It is the most complete surviving theatre from the Roman world, together with the Theatre of Aspendos in eastern Turkey. Built during the reign of Augustus in the 1st century AD, it was turned into a fortress in the Middle Ages and was then divided into parts, only beginning to regain something of its former dignity in the middle of the 19th century when the first clearance works were undertaken by Auguste Caristie.

/ Listed as a National Landmark