Arènes de Lutèce

The Arènes de Lutèce features curved stone tiers rising from a sunken oval floor that once held fifteen thousand spectators. Built in the first century, this amphitheater hosted gladiator combats and theater performances for the residents of Roman Paris, then called Lutetia. During the construction of a street in eighteen sixty-nine, workers uncovered the ruins under a tangle of old buildings. The writer Victor Hugo famously led a public campaign to save the site from complete destruction by developers.