Orange

Today we had a shorter distance to travel as we were going to explore the Roman town of Orange. It was smaller and much less crowed than Nimes yesterday and we had a lovely relaxed day as we only were going to see 2 things.

First stop was the amazing Arc d' Triomphe which forms the gateway into Orange.

The road in and through was as straight as a die.

It was built around 20 BC and it was massive with finely carved scenes of battle.

The decoration on the ceiling of the main arch was impressive.

Narrow streets everywhere in Orange.

This history of Orange is interesting.

Roman Orange was founded in 35 BC by veterans of the Second legion as Arausio The name was originally unrelated to that of the orange fruit.

A previous Celtic settlement with that name existed in the same place and a major battle, which is generally known as the Battle of Arausio, had been fought in 105 BC between two Roman armies and the Cimbri and Teutones tribes.

Arausio covered an area of some 170 acres (69 ha) and was well endowed with civic monuments – as well as the theatre and arch, it had a monumental temple complex and a forum.

It was the capital of a wide area of northern Provence, which was parcelled up into lots for the Roman colonists.

The town prospered, but was sacked by the Visigoths in 412. It had by then become largely Christianized, and from the end of the 3rd century constituted the Ancient Diocese of Orange.

The sovereign Carolingian counts of Orange had their origin in the eighth century, and passed into the family of the lords of Baux. The Baux counts of Orange became fully independent with the breakup of the Kingdom of Arles after 1033. From the twelfth century, Orange was raised to a minor principality, the Principality of Orange, as a fief of the Holy Roman Empire. During this period the town and the principality of Orange belonged to the administration and province of Dauphiné.

When William the Silent, count of Nassau, with estates in the Netherlands, inherited the title Prince of Orange in 1544, the Principality was incorporated into the holdings of what became the House of Orange-Nassau. This pitched it into the Protestant side in the Wars of Religion, during which the town was badly damaged. In 1568 the Eighty Years' War began with William as stadtholder leading the bid for independence from Spain. William the Silent was assassinated in Delft in 1584. It was his son who solidified the independence of the Dutch republic. The United Provinces survived to become the Netherlands, which is still ruled by the House of Orange-Nassau. William, Prince of Orange, ruled England as William III of England. Orange gave its name to other Dutch-influenced parts of the world, such as the Oranges (West Orange, South Orange, East Orange, Orange) in New Jersey, USA, and the Orange Free State in South Africa.

The city remained part of scattered Nassau holdings until it was captured by the forces of Louis XIV in 1672 during the Franco-Dutch War, again captured in August 1682 and was finally ceded to France in 1713 under the Treaty of Utrecht that ended the wars of Louis XIV. Following the French Revolution of 1789, Orange was absorbed into the French département of Drôme, then Bouches-du-Rhône, then finally Vaucluse.

After a nice sit down and cup of coffee we continued on to the main attraction for the day. The Ancient theatre d' Orange. What a spectacle it is.

This ancient Roman theatre was built early in the 1st century AD.

It is one of the best preserved of all the Roman theatres in the world and it played a major role in the life of the citizens, who spent a large part of their free time there, the theatre was seen by the Roman authorities not only as a means of spreading Roman culture to the colonies, but also as a way of distracting them from all political activities.

View from the top of the theatre.

They are excavating the temple next door to the theatre.

And we found the wall to the forum which existed nearby.

After lunch we spent so me time in the museum which was quite interesting. Geoff was fascinated by huge stones recording cadastre which is basically a wall map. It is based on a coordinate grid and represented local landowners property. It included type of ownership, coordinates and name of the owner.

There were also some absolutely beautiful watercolours by english painter Frank Bargwyn

We were going to head straight home until Mike mentioned Vaison La Romaine which is an old town just north of Orange full of Roman ruins.

The area was inhabited in the Bronze Age. At the end of the fourth century BCE, the upper city of Vaison became the capital of a Celtic tribe, the Vocontii or Voconces. After the Roman conquest (125-118 BCE) the Vocontii retained a certain degree of autonomy And this meant that the city plan incurred no disruptive refounding.

The ruins are an open-air museum - the biggest Gallo-Roman site in France. The vestiges cover over fifteen hectares, on two sites which stand at the base of the medieval city, silent witness to the past grandeur of the Roman city of Vasio.

The visit of the Puymin hill takes you into a veritable neighbourhood of the Roman city, with paved streets, the shops, the Nymphea - a fountain and pools - the sanctuary known as the "Sanctuaire à Portiques", a public monument framing a vast garden with columns and rich patrician homes such as the Home with the wreathed Apollo, covering 2000 m2, which was perhaps the home of the Messii family, a leading family in Vasio. There is a huge dining room, kitchens, private baths, latrines, and a big garden with portico and a pool.

The archaeological site of La Villasse lies below this quarter, and is bordered by the street with shops and columns. Again there are public baths, rich private homes of exceptional size, such as the House with the Silver Bust, covering over 5000m² with a series of rooms, courtyards, gardens.Apparently one grand house when excavated the houses revealed the successive transformations which changed it from a modest, rustic home into a comfortable city mansion - testimony to the developments in the city of Vasio.

The medieval town is high on the rocky cliff. In the Middle Ages attacks were frequent, and the town retreated up-hill to a more defensible position. This part of the town looks just lovely from the vantage point of the Roman ruins with the medieval houses clustered around the castle around the hill.

The ruins were full of cats. How on earth get Fletcher get over here?

We came home via the northern route through Suzette and the scenery was totally amazing and was a perfect end to a wonderful day. I found a photo on the net that looked something like it but the scenes were far grander!