Arènes de Lutèce

Historic · Latin Quarter (5th)Paris,France

A Roman amphitheatre in Paris used as a neighbourhood square, boules along one side and football on the arena floor.

The Arènes de Lutèce is a Roman amphitheatre with a football pitch in it. What you walk into is roughly half an amphitheatre. Old men play boules along one side under the trees, children play football on the arena floor where animals were fought, and people sit on the terraces where Roman audiences sat. The backs of apartment buildings stand on three sides, at about the height of the top row. It is one of only two Roman structures still standing in Paris. It was cut into the hillside in the first century, when the Roman town on the left bank was called Lutetia. It was built to do two jobs at once: plays on a stage at one end, fights and animal shows in the oval arena in front of it. Seating is estimated at about fifteen thousand, more people than are thought to have lived in the town. It went out of use, filled with earth, and by the Middle Ages nobody knew it was there. Men digging foundations for a tram depot cut into the terraces in 1869, and Victor Hugo campaigned to save what was left.

Worth knowing

Good to know

It is a public square, not a ticketed site — There is no entrance fee and nothing inside is fenced off. The gates follow park hours and close around dusk.
The entrances are easy to walk past — One is a passage under a residential building on rue Monge; another comes off rue des Arènes. Neither is marked in a way you notice from the street.
Late afternoon is when it is actually used — Mornings are almost empty, and after school the arena floor fills with football while the boules players take the side strip.
The stage wall faces east — The surviving Roman stonework is in full sun through the morning. By mid-afternoon it has gone into shade and the light is on the terraces instead.

Things to do

1
Slip in through the passage under the flats on rue Monge
The site has no gate on a main square. Two passages lead in. One is a plain opening under a block of flats on rue Monge, wide enough for one person and easy to walk straight past. The other comes in from rue de Navarre, on the other side of the arena. Go through either one and the ground opens out below you.
2
Sit on the top row
Climb to the highest surviving terrace and sit down. From up there the oval of the arena looks complete, the stage wall closes the far end, and the whole thing is the size of a small stadium. Then look at what surrounds it. The backs of apartment buildings stand on three sides, at about the height of the row you are sitting on.
3
Look into the animal openings
Go down onto the arena floor and walk to the low arched openings at the base of the terraces. This is where animals were held before they were let out. Put your head into one. They are small, stone-lined and cold, and nothing here is fenced off or set behind glass, because the ruin is used as a neighbourhood square.