The Alyscamps — from the Latin Elysii Campi, the Elysian Fields — is one of the most atmospheric sites in Arles. A long avenue of Roman and early Christian sarcophagi leads through poplar trees to the ruined church of Saint-Honorat. The remains are fragmentary; many of the best sarcophagi were given as diplomatic gifts in the 16th century and ended up in Paris, but what remains is still striking.
This was one of the most important burial grounds in the Roman world, and through the early Christian period it accumulated an extraordinary concentration of tombs. Van Gogh and Gauguin painted the avenue together during their brief, volatile partnership in Arles in the autumn of 1888. The paintings — autumn light filtering through the trees onto the ancient stones — are in museums in Moscow and Amsterdam.