Interesting Sites Nearby
User Reviews
The St. Agnes Beguinage in Sint-Truiden was built in the mid-13th century. Beguinage is an architectural complex which was created to house beguines: lay religious women who lived in community without taking vows or retiring from the world. In its heyday there were more than 200 beguines. Most houses were built during the 17th or 18th century when the original half-timbered houses were replaced due great fire.
The Romanesque-Gothic church of Beguinage has an impressive series of murals and paintings on pillars dating from the 13th to the 17th century. They witness unique religious belief in the Middle Ages. The organ (1644) is considered the most homogeneous and most complete in Belgium.
The Amphitheatre of the Three Gauls was part of the federal sanctuary of the three Gauls dedicated to the cult of Rome and Augustus celebrated by the 60 Gallic tribes when they gathered at Lugdunum (Lyon). The amphitheatre was built at the foot of the La Croix-Rousse hill at what was then the confluence of the Rhône and Saône.
Excavations have revealed a basement of three elliptical walls linked by cross-walls and a channel surrounding the oval central arena. The arena was slightly sloped, with the building"s south part supported by a now-vanished vault. The arena"s dimensions are 67,6m by 42m. This phase of the amphitheatre housed games which accompanied the imperial cult, with its low capacity (1,800 seats) being enough for delegations from the 60 Gallic tribes.
The amphitheatre was expanded at the start of the 2nd century. Two galleries were added around the old amphitheatre, raising its width from 25 metres to 105 metres and its capacity to about 20,000 seats. In so doing it made it a building open to the whole population of Lugdunum and its environs.