A day in Nîmes

Nîmes-Centre Station

Welcome to Nîmes. You are at Nîmes-Centre station, at 1 boulevard Sergent-Triaire, in the south of the city. This is the starting point of our tours.

170 m to the next stop

Avenue Feuchères

Here you are on avenue Feuchères, the grand avenue linking the station to the Esplanade Charles-de-Gaulle. In 1841, the Nîmes town council decided to lay out both this avenue and the esplanade, and the work was completed in 1851. The avenue thus gives travellers a stately entrance to the city: as you leave the station, you walk straight up towards the Pradier fountain and the Arena.

360 m to the next stop

Esplanade Charles-de-Gaulle

Here you are on the Esplanade Charles-de-Gaulle, between the railway station and the Arena, at the end of avenue Feuchères. This space has a long history. In the sixteenth century, the consul Jacques d’Albenas created a square here for artillery drills and official receptions.

30 m to the next stop

Pradier Fountain

Here you are in front of the Pradier fountain, in the centre of the Esplanade Charles-de-Gaulle. It was inaugurated on 1 June 1851. We owe it to two men: the architect Charles Questel and the sculptor James Pradier.

360 m to the next stop

Nîmes Arena

Here you are in front of the Nîmes Arena, a Roman amphitheatre built around 90 AD, probably during the reign of Domitian. The ellipse measures about 133 metres by 101, and stands 21 metres high. The façade lines up 60 arches on each of its two levels.

290 m to the next stop

Musée de la Romanité

Here you are in front of the Museum of Roman History, the Musée de la Romanité, facing the Arena. Opened on 2 June 2018, it was designed by the architect Elizabeth de Portzamparc. Look at its façade: a pleated glass drape whose blades recall a mosaic, answering the stone arches of the amphitheatre.

660 m to the next stop

Maison Carrée

Here you are in front of the Maison Carrée, a Roman temple built during the reign of Augustus and completed around the years 2 and 3 AD. It is one of the best preserved Roman temples. It was dedicated to Gaius and Lucius Caesar, the adopted sons of Augustus, known as the princes of youth.

110 m to the next stop

Carré d’Art

Here you are in front of the Carré d’Art, facing the Maison Carrée. This building of glass, concrete and steel is the work of the British architect Norman Foster. He won the 1984 international competition against rivals such as Jean Nouvel, Frank Gehry, Arata Isozaki and César Pelli.

300 m to the next stop

Quai de la Fontaine

You are on the quai de la Fontaine, alongside the canal that flows from the Jardins de la Fontaine. It all began in 1738: the city wanted to improve its water supply and decided, on 19 July, to have the basin of the spring dug out and cleaned. The works, directed from 1739 by the engineer Jean de Clapiès, uncovered major Roman remains: a sanctuary dedicated to Augustus, a portico around a pool, and a theatre.

530 m to the next stop

Jardins de la Fontaine

Here you are in the Jardins de la Fontaine, around the spring that gave birth to Nîmes. This karst spring drew inhabitants as early as the Iron Age, in the sixth century BC. In Roman times, a great sanctuary, the Augusteum, occupied the site; the Temple of Diana is a still visible remnant of it.

320 m to the next stop

Temple of Diana

Here you are in front of the Temple of Diana, in the Jardins de la Fontaine. Despite its name, nothing proves that this building was dedicated to Diana: the name has no known archaeological or historical basis. Built in the first century AD, it was part of a sanctuary dedicated to Augustus.

460 m to the next stop

Tour Magne

Here you are in front of the Tour Magne, at the top of Mont Cavalier. It is the most imposing remnant of the very long Roman wall of Nîmes. But its story begins before Rome: in the third century BC, a pre-Roman tower 18 metres high already stood here.

730 m to the next stop

Castellum aquae

Here you are in front of the castellum aquae, on rue de la Lampèze. This is where the water of the Roman aqueduct of Nîmes arrived, after a journey of around 50 kilometres from the Eure spring, across bridges and through tunnels, including the famous Pont du Gard. This water tower was not used to store water but to distribute it.

580 m to the next stop

Place de l’Horloge

You are on the place de l’Horloge, in the heart of the Écusson. The tower in front of you is 31 metres high. It was rebuilt from 1752 to 1754, on the site of an older fifteenth-century belfry: so a clock has set the rhythm of life in this district for about five centuries.

330 m to the next stop

Place du Marché

You are on the place du Marché, a small square in the Écusson lined with café terraces. In the centre, the fountain features the crocodile, the emblem of Nîmes. Its origin goes back to antiquity: after the battle of Actium, in 31 BC, coins struck to celebrate Octavian’s victory showed a crocodile chained to a palm, a symbol of Egypt conquered by Rome.

340 m to the next stop

Nîmes Cathedral

You are on the place aux Herbes, in front of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame-et-Saint-Castor, seat of the diocese of Nîmes, Uzès and Alès. In the Middle Ages, this square was the economic and religious heart of the city. The Romanesque church was consecrated in 1096 by Pope Urban the Second.

20 m to the next stop

Musée du Vieux Nîmes

You are in front of the Museum of Old Nîmes, the Musée du Vieux Nîmes, on the place aux Herbes, right next to the cathedral. The building is the former bishops’ palace. A first palace was begun in 1490 under Bishop Guillaume Briçonnet, and the building you see dates mostly from the late seventeenth century.

270 m to the next stop

Les Halles de Nîmes

You are at Les Halles de Nîmes, the covered market of the historic centre. It opened in 1884, under Mayor Ali Margarot, with a celebration held on 9 and 10 November. The architects John Monod and Félix Beaujouan had divided it into four pavilions.

440 m to the next stop

Porte d’Auguste

Here you are in front of the Porte d’Auguste, the Gate of Augustus, built around 16 BC during the reign of Augustus. It was once called the Arles Gate. It was one of the main entrances to the Roman colony of Nemausus: the Via Domitia, which linked Italy to Spain, entered the town here.