Orange’s monumental, UNESCO-protected Roman theater is unquestionably one of France’s most impressive Roman sights. It’s one of only three intact Roman theaters left in the world (the others are in Syria and Turkey), and its sheer size is awe-inspiring: designed to seat 10,000 spectators, its stage wall reaches 37m high, 103m wide and 1.8m thick. Little wonder that Louis XIV called it “the finest wall in my kingdom.”
In its heyday the theater would truly have been a sight to behold, covered in statues and carvings, and richly decorated in mosaics and marble slabs. Experiments have shown the wall was specially designed to focus and project sound.
You can book admission tickets in advance online. There’s also a useful app available to download, which includes an 80-minute guided tour. The entrance is on the theater’s west side.
