Where do you find the most complete Roman monuments outside Italy?
Nîmes, has Roman remains to rival anything in Italy, yet most travellers heading for the Côte d’Azur drive straight past it. Here’s my guide to Nîmes’ Roman ruins, built from two days spent tracking down every arch, temple and tower the city has left.
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A Brief History of Nîmes
Nîmes began life as a Celtic settlement around a sacred spring in 500 BC and became part of the Roman Empire in the first century BC. Emperor Augustus (Octavian) settled veterans from his Egyptian campaigns here, naming the town Nemausus after the local Celtic god of the spring.
His soldiers adopted the crocodile as their emblem to mark the victory in Egypt, and you’ll still spot crocodiles across Nîmes’ Old Town, from the fountain in Place du Marché to the Hôtel de Ville.
Nîmes was an important way station on the Via Domitia, the road connecting Italy to Spain, and became one of the most important cities in Roman Gaul. After the fall of the Roman Empire, Nîmes followed the familiar pattern of decline followed by medieval revival.
Exploring Nîmes’ Roman Ruins: A Self-Guided Walking Tour
I visited these Nîmes’ Roman sites over two days, but you could fit them into one day if you are short on time:
- Arena of Nîmes
- Musée de la Romanité
- Maison Carrée
- Porte d’Auguste
- Tour Magne
- Temple of Diana
- The Castellum Divisorium
If you like to map it out, here’s one I made earlier, which can be used as a self-guided walking tour of Roman Nîmes. To send it to your phone and for step-by-step directions, click here or on the map itself.
I bought the Romanité Pass from the Tourist Information Office. This covers the Musée de la Romanité, Arena, Maison Carré and Tour Magne, and is valid for three days.
The pricier Nîmes City Pass has more inclusions but is more expensive. When I crunched the numbers, I decided it would not save me money based on my planned itinerary.
I visited Pont du Gard as part of an earlier trip around Provence by train. It is a straightforward half-day trip from Nîmes too.
The Arena of Nîmes
- Location: Boulevard des Arènes
- Opening hours: Open daily. Check seasonal opening hours here.
- Admission: €11 (included in the Romanité Pass and Nîmes City Pass). This includes an ingenious audioguide in the form of a pen that you point at numbered locations on a laminated map.
- Time needed: 1 -2 hours
The Arena (Les Arènes) is the centrepiece of the city’s Roman heritage. Built at the end of the first century AD, it may not be the world’s largest surviving amphitheatre, but it is certainly one of the most complete.
It could accommodate up to 24,000 spectators, divided according to social rank across 34 rows of seating. The numbered seating sections and intricate network of passages, staircases and underground chambers where gladiators and animals waited before performances remain.
Like the more famous amphitheatre in Verona, Italy, Les Arènes is the setting for concerts and festivals. I visited in June when the Festival de Nîmes was in full swing (I could hear the concerts from my hotel room).
Musée de la Romanité
- Location: 16 Boulevard des Arènes
- Opening hours: Check seasonal opening hours here. Closed Tuesdays
- Admission: €9 (included in the Romanité Pass and Nîmes City Pass). An audioguide is available for a small additional charge, but as there is sufficient English language information, I don’t feel this is necessary.
- Time needed: 2-3 hours
Across from the Arena is one of Nîmes’ modern landmark buildings, the curvaceous Musée de la Romanité. Its 5,000+ artefacts trace the city’s history from the Iron Age through the Roman period to the Middle Ages.
What a wonderful, thoughtful collection this is. It includes fine mosaics, statuary, everyday objects and architectural fragments that collectively build a comprehensive picture of life in Roman Nemausus.
Maison Carrée
- Location: Place de la Maison Carrée
- Opening hours: Open daily. Check seasonal opening hours here.
- Admission: €6.50 (included in the Romanité Pass and Nîmes City Pass).
- Time needed: 30 minutes. Try to visit in the late afternoon, when the sun creates a golden glow on the limestone
The Maison Carrée (“Square House”) might be the best-preserved Roman temple anywhere. It was named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2023.
Dedicated to Gaius and Lucius Caesar, adopted sons of Emperor Augustus, this tiny temple has survived over two millennia with its structure intact. Its design follows Vitruvian principles of Roman architecture, with a symmetrical front, Corinthian columns and precise proportions.
Thomas Jefferson admired the Maison Carrée so much during his travels in France, he commissioned a replica—the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond—bringing a piece of Nîmes’ Roman heritage to America.
Porte d’Auguste
- Location: Rue de la Porte d’Auguste
- Opening hours: Always accessible (exterior view only)
- Admission: Free
- Time needed: 5-10 minutes
Porta Augusta was one of the original entrance points to the Roman city. Dating from 15 BC, it once formed part of the 6 km-long city walls that encircled ancient Nemausus.
It consists of four arches, two larger central passages for vehicles flanked by two smaller ones for pedestrians. Above the arches you can still make out the shape of the tower that once topped it. The Latin inscription on the gate records Augustus’s gift of the city walls to the colony.
Tour Magne and Jardins de la Fontaine
- Location: Place Guillaume Apollinaire
- Opening hours: Gardens open daily (dawn to dusk). Tour Magne operates seasonal opening hours.
- Admission: Gardens free, Tour Magne €4 (included in the Romanité Pass and Nîmes City Pass).
- Time needed: 1 – 2 hours ( for both the gardens and the tower)
Crowning Mont Cavalier, Tour Magne is the sole surviving tower of the ancient Roman walls that once encircled Nîmes. Standing 32 metres high and positioned at the city’s highest point, it was the ideal watchtower.
Climbing the spiral staircase takes some effort, but the view from the top makes up for it. From here I could see the whole layout of the city, from the Arena and Maison Carrée to the newer districts beyond.
I liked wandering through the surrounding Jardins de la Fontaine, laid out in the 18th century around the spring that gave Nîmes its name, with canals, fountains and statues.
Temple of Diana
- Location: Jardins de la Fontaine
- Opening hours: Always accessible as part of the gardens
- Admission: Free
- Time needed: 30 minutes
Inside the gardens you’ll also find the Temple of Diana.
Archaeologists still debate its original purpose. Some think it was a library or hall attached to the nearby Augustan baths, others believe it was a temple to Diana or another deity.
Huguenot mobs destroyed much of it, so it’s not in great condition, but the half-arches and ruined walls give you a sense of what it once looked like.
Insider tip: there’s a small café next to the temple, a good spot for a coffee.
The Castellum Divisorium
- Location: Rue de la Lampèze
- Opening hours: Always accessible, exterior viewing only
- Admission: Free
- Time needed: 10-15 minutes
The Castellum Divisorium is one of the most important yet often overlooked Roman ruins in Nîmes.
This unassuming circular basin played a key role in the Roman city’s water distribution system. Built around 50 CE, the Castellum marked the endpoint of the magnificent aqueduct system that began at the Pont du Gard.
It was the engineering marvel of its time. Water flowing from the aqueduct entered this distribution tank, where it was channelled through ten apertures into lead pipes that supplied various neighbourhoods of Roman Nemausus.
Pont du Gard
- Location: 400 Route du Pont du Gard, Vers-Pont-du-Gard (about 25km from Nîmes)
- Getting there: 30 minutes by car from Nîmes, bus line 121 from Nîmes bus station, or a guided tour from the tourist office.
- Opening hours: Check seasonal opening hours here.
- Admission: Free. Charge applies to the educational areas (e.g. museum).
- Time needed: Half a day
The UNESCO-listed Pont du Gard aqueduct is Roman engineering at its best.
Rising 49 metres above the Gardon River, the Pont du Gard was part of a 50 km system that supplied water to Nîmes. Built without mortar from stones weighing up to six tonnes each, it has stood for two thousand years.
Beyond the engineering, Pont du Gard is a beautiful structure, from the proportions of its arches to the honey-coloured limestone and the way it fits into the landscape around it.
Insider tip: arrive early morning or late afternoon to avoid the crowds and get better light for photos.
Planning Your Visit
Getting there and getting around
There are excellent high-speed rail services to Nîmes. Paris is three hours by TGV, and there are also direct trains from Lyon (1h 15mins) and Marseille (1h). The train station is an easy 10-minute walk from the historic centre.
The closest airport is Nîmes-Alès-Camargue-Cévennes Airport, 9km from the city, but there are more international connections from Montpellier Airport or Marseille Airport.
The city centre is compact and easy to explore on foot. Most of the Roman sites lie within a 15-minute walk of each other.
Where to stay
I loved my stay at Appart’City Collection Nîmes Arènes. The apartment was modern and spacious, staff were friendly, and its location opposite the arena couldn’t have been better.
If this doesn’t meet your needs, take a look at Maison Albar L’Imperator, a 5-star hotel in an Art Deco building with a pool and garden, or Margaret – Hôtel Chouleur, a gorgeous 4-star hotel in the centre of town.
Book well ahead if you’re visiting in summer or during the Feria de Nîmes in May.
Why Nîmes Is Worth Adding to Your Itinerary
Nîmes is the south of France without the beach crowds. It’s a confident, friendly city where everyday French life carries on around some of the best Roman ruins in Europe.
I paired it with other Languedoc stops on my France solo trip: Albi with its imposing red-brick cathedral, the Pink City of Toulouse, and the medieval citadel of Carcassonne, and a relaxing weekend in Collioure.
If you want Roman history without the crowds of Rome, Nîmes is hard to beat.
Happy travels!
About Bridget
Bridget Coleman has been a passionate traveller for more than 30 years. She has visited 70+ countries, most as a solo traveller.
Articles on this site reflect her first-hand experiences.
To get in touch, email her at hello@theflashpacker.net or follow her on social media.