Beautiful old Arles is the gateway to the Camargue. Impressive Roman and medieval buildings, awarded World Heritage status by UNESCO, bear witness to its grand history. Vincent van Gogh painted many of his most famous works here. Before the Rhone flows into the Mediterranean, it divides into the Grand Rhone (to the east) and the Petit Rhone (to the west), which enclose the Camargue. Just south of this point lies Aries, the largest commune in France, covering an area of 297 sq mi. The Celto-Ligurian Arlath, was a Roman colony from the year 46 BC and suceeded Massilia (Marseille) as the region's most important harbour. In AD 395 the town became the Roman seat of civic administration for Gaul, Spain and Britannia. From the 10th century it belonged to the Kingdom of Burgundy (Arelate) and from 1032 to the Holy Roman Empire. In 1481 it fell to France with Provence. Vincent van Gogh lived in Aries in 1888-89; he painted the town and its environs over 300 times in thn period, and yet there are few reminders of him here now. His yellow house on Place Lamartine was destroyed in the Second World War, and none of his pictures hang in Arles.
