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This district was the most important part of town in Roman times, containing the praetorium (court-house), theatre, temples and shops. A broad road runs from the theatre to the main gate.

The House of the Messii must once have been the home of one of the town’s most important families. Re-erected columns and foundations of an atrium, baths, temple to household gods, dining room and living rooms can still be seen.

The theatre is a dazzling display of Roman building skill, with 34 semi-circular rows of stone benches ascending to a columned portico.

The Nymphaeum was a rectangular sacred pool and fountain, covered by a roof supported by four columns. Traces of the building still remain, as does the sacred spring which provided the water supply. The area is now used as an open-air theatre.

The impressive portico built by the family of Caesar’s great rival Pompey is a massive, 65-m (210-ft) array of columns which originally surrounded an inner garden. Built around AD 20, it was demolished during the 5th century. Copies of statues found on the site now stand in niches – the originals are preserved in the nearby museum.

A muscular, life-size marble nude of the Emperor Hadrian, a statue of his empress Sabina, a gorgeous silver bust found at the Villasse site, and a six-seater public latrine are among the more interesting archaeological finds in this excellent museum.

The House with the Dolphin was named after the marble statue of Cupid riding a dolphin which once stood here – it is now in the museum. The 2nd-century villa had a façade supported by 18 columns.

Also named for a statue found here and now on show in the museum, the ruins of this once gracious villa, with its mosaic floors and paved hallway, are enhanced by copies of statues found here and elsewhere on the site.

Vaison’s 2,000-year-old Roman bridge connects the upper town on the south bank with the north bank of the Ouvèze. The prettily restored old quarter, with its 17th-century town houses, courtyards and fountains, is ringed by ramparts and entered through a massive, 14th-century stone gateway.

At the highest point of the old town stands a dramatic, part-ruined castle, built in 1160 by the Count of Toulouse. Three main wings and a formidable keep tower surround an inner courtyard.