The Most Impressive Amphitheatres in Europe
7 places in 4 countries · updated 5 October 2026
In short: By our ranking, the most impressive amphitheatres in Europe are Colosseum (Italy), Arena of Nîmes (France) and Arles Amphitheatre (France). The list covers 7 amphitheatres in 4 countries. France has the most, with 2. Last updated 5 October 2026.
The amphitheatre was a Roman invention, and Europe holds the finest examples because it was the heartland of the Roman Empire. Wherever Rome founded or rebuilt a city, an elliptical arena for gladiatorial games and animal hunts followed, built of stone on a system of arches and vaults so solid that many still stand two thousand years later. Several were reused as fortresses, villages or quarries in the Middle Ages, and a few are still used for spectacles today.
The Colosseum in Rome, completed in 80 AD under the emperor Titus, was the largest amphitheatre ever built and could hold tens of thousands of spectators. In southern France, the arenas of Nîmes and Arles were both built around the end of the first century; Arles was turned into a fortified town in the Middle Ages and still keeps towers added in that period. The Verona Arena has hosted an opera festival since 1913, and the Pula Arena in Croatia is the only surviving Roman amphitheatre with all four of its side towers preserved.
Tarragona's amphitheatre in Spain sits right beside the Mediterranean, and the remains of a church built inside its arena commemorate Christian martyrs executed there in the third century. The Plaza de toros de la Real Maestranza in Seville carries the arena form into a later age: a baroque bullring begun in the eighteenth century, with an oval ring and arcaded stands in white and ochre.
In this list
| # | Place | Type | Country | UNESCO |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Colosseum | Archaeological site | Italy | |
| 2 | Arena of Nîmes | Amphitheatre | France | |
| 3 | Arles Amphitheatre | Amphitheatre | France | ✓ |
| 4 | Tarragona Amphitheatre | Amphitheatre | Spain | ✓ |
| 5 | Verona Arena | Amphitheatre | Italy | |
| 6 | Pula Arena | Amphitheatre | Croatia | |
| 7 | Plaza de toros de la Real Maestranza, Seville | Amphitheatre | Spain |
01 Colosseum
Colosseo
Italy · 1.2 km from Rome41.890° N 12.492° E
Image by MARTINOPHUC from Pixabay The building's origin story is stranger than the finished monument suggests. Vespasian began construction around 72 AD on the drained site of an artificial lake that had belonged to Nero's private pleasure palace, the Domus Aurea — reclaiming land the tyrant had taken for himself and handing it back to the public as an entertainment venue, a deliberate political statement. Tradition holds that the project was financed largely with the spoils of the Jewish–Roman War. His son Titus dedicated the finished building in 80 AD, with inaugural games said to have run a hundred days; the further underground works are credited to Domitian shortly after.
Did you know? According to ancient accounts, more than 9,000 wild animals were killed during the inaugural games held under Titus.
02 Arena of Nîmes
Arènes de Nîmes
France · 0.9 km from Nîmes43.835° N 4.360° E
Krzysztof Golik · CC BY-SA 4.0 The building owes its survival to the fact that it was lived in. As the Roman city shrank from the fourth century, the arches were walled up and the arena became a fortress, sheltering the townspeople through sieges. A whole neighbourhood grew inside it, with two churches of its own, and even in the eighteenth century some 150 houses were packed into the oval. Francis I had wanted the monument returned to its ancient appearance, but clearance only began in earnest in 1786. Two blocked arches with medieval windows were kept, opposite the Palace of Justice, as a reminder of the walled-town centuries, and the architect Henri Revoil completed the restoration in the mid-nineteenth century.
Did you know? In the 12th century the fortified arena became a residential quarter with its own churches of St Peter and St Martin.
03 Arles Amphitheatre
Arènes d'Arles
France · 28.3 km from Nîmes43.678° N 4.631° E
- UNESCO World Heritage
PierreSelim · CC BY 3.0 The games continued for centuries: an emperor staged them here in 255, Constantine celebrated the birth of a son with hunts and fights, and as late as 539 a Frankish king had the ancient spectacles revived for his visit. Then insecurity turned the building into a fortress. Four towers were added, and inside the ring grew a small town of more than two hundred houses with two chapels and a square in the middle of the arena.
Did you know? At 136 metres long it is larger than its famous neighbour at Nîmes, built slightly later, though the Nîmes arena survives in better condition.
04 Tarragona Amphitheatre
Anfiteatro de Tarraco
Spain · 1 km from Tarragona41.115° N 1.259° E
- UNESCO World Heritage
Image by makamuki0 from Pixabay Gladiator fights, wild-animal hunts and executions were staged here. Under the arena, pits held lifts worked by pulleys, counterweights and winches to raise cages, fighters and scenery to the sand; a small chapel down in the pits was dedicated to Nemesis, protector of gladiators, and its fresco is now in the National Archaeological Museum of Tarragona. In the early third century, under Emperor Elagabalus, the arena was refurbished, and a monumental inscription crowned the podium; many fragments of it survive.
Did you know? In 1780 the ruins were turned into a prison for convicts put to work building Tarragona's port.
05 Verona Arena
Arena di Verona
Italy · 0.4 km from Verona45.439° N 10.994° E
Claconvr · CC BY-SA 4.0 What visitors see today is really the inner shell. The building once had a taller outer ring of arches, and the earthquake of January 1117 brought most of it down; later builders carted the fallen stone away for other works. A single fragment of that outer skin, known as the Ala ("the wing"), still stands, and it is the most eloquent thing on the site: a sliver showing how much higher and grander the original façade was. Inside, the cavea of stone steps is almost complete, and from its upper rows the view runs across the roofs of the old town toward the hills.
Did you know? A city statute of 1276 allowed prostitutes to live only in the Arena's arcades; they were turned out in 1537 and the arcades let to artisans and merchants.
06 Pula Arena
Amfiteatar u Puli
Croatia · 0.5 km from Pula44.873° N 13.850° E
Image by alexman89 from Pixabay Look closely at the shell and you can read how the builders handled the site. The arena stands on a slope, so the side facing the sea rises in three storeys of arches while the uphill side needs only two. The walls are of local limestone, pale and warm in the late afternoon. Four towers are set into the outer ring, and each once held cisterns: water, reportedly perfumed, fed fountains or was sprayed over the crowd. What is missing is almost everything inside — the stone seating was carried off over the centuries, and after the Middle Ages the interior served for grazing, fairs and tournaments, while its stone went into other buildings in the town.
Did you know? The word arena comes from the Latin harena, the sand that once covered the fighting floor of buildings like this one.
07 Plaza de toros de la Real Maestranza, Seville
Plaza de toros de la Real Maestranza
Spain · 2.7 km from Seville37.386° N 5.998° W
José Luiz · CC BY-SA 3.0 Its most unusual feature is its shape. The first builders intended a perfect circle, but neighbouring houses stood in the way, and the ring was continued as a slightly flattened curve — in plan a polygon of some thirty sides rather than a true round. The asymmetry is barely noticeable at first, and then impossible to un-see. The stands, two-thirds stone and one-third wood, are ringed by an upper arcade of arches that frames the sand like a cloister. Above the royal box, the Palco del Príncipe finished in 1765 with sculpture by Cayetano de Acosta, sits a small dome faced with blue and white tiles.
Did you know? Stone construction began in 1754 and the final phase ran from 1876 to 1881, so the ring took well over a century to finish.
How this list is ranked
Places are chosen for how they look, not for how famous they are: each one has its own description and a photograph credited to its author. The order is a single world ranking that weighs the beauty of the place in curated photography together with how widely it is documented — the number of language editions of its encyclopedia article and how often that article is read in a year. The list is rebuilt as places are added, so the order and the counts on this page are always current.
Questions people ask
- What are the most impressive amphitheatres in Europe?
- On our list, Colosseum (Italy) ranks first, followed by Arena of Nîmes (France) and Arles Amphitheatre (France).
- Which country has the most amphitheatres in Europe?
- In our collection, the most come from France (2), Italy (2) and Spain (2).
- How many people did the Colosseum hold?
- Estimates usually range from about 50,000 to 80,000 spectators. It was the largest amphitheatre in the Roman world.
- What is the best-preserved Roman amphitheatre?
- The arena of Nîmes in France is often described as the best-preserved Roman amphitheatre, with its two-storey outer facade almost intact. Pula in Croatia is the only one whose four side towers survive.
- Is the Verona Arena still used?
- Yes. The Verona Arena has hosted a summer opera festival since 1913, when Verdi's Aida was staged there to mark the centenary of the composer's birth.
- How many amphitheatres are on this list in Europe?
- The list covers 7 amphitheatres in 4 countries. France has the most, with 2.