House with Garden, rue des Capucins
Location
Sublocation Description
Durocortorum was mentioned by Caesar as the center of the Remi, a Celtic tribe that sided with the Romans against the Belgians. It then became a federated city, nominally independent. Under Augustus, it became the capital of Gallia Belgica. Many vestiges indicate that it was densely settled and unusually extensive. A network of water supply and sewers has been found; an aqueduct brought water from 40 kilometers. The cardo and decumanus are still identifiable today by vestiges of four gates with arches, the northern one still standing; they cardo and decumanus intersect at the present Place Royale. Today, the city is known for its magnificent Gothic cathedral and its fine champagnes.
Garden
House with Garden, rue des Capucins
Keywords
Garden Description
A salvage excavation by F. Berthelot in 1987 revealed part of this poorly preserved house covering some 800 square meters in downtown Reims, about 300 meters from the right bank of the Vesle. (Fig 1) It is near an ancient street which is known for a ten meter stretch. The site was occupied in Julio-Claudian times, but the domus seems to date from the end of the first or beginning of the second century. Its total area must have exceeded 1000 square meters. It was divided into two parts. To the northeast were the rooms for daily life organized around a space (14 x 8 m) that would seem to be an atrium; there was a square (3.5 m) structure in the middle, now worn down beyond recognition, and no other indication of the nature of the space. To the southwest, a space free of construction may have been a garden. It was 12 meters wide and at least 20 meters long; its southwest limit is not known exactly. The northwest wall has buttresses on the outside.
BEL 2.1.1: Reims, House with Garden
Maps
None Available
Plans
None Available
Images
None Available
Dates
Unspecified
Bibliography
- F. Berthelot, L'archéologie urbaine à Reims, in L'archéologie en Champagne-Ardenne, 1960-1990, Bulletin de la société archéologique champenoise, t. 85, 1992, 4, p. 283-287.
- A. Balmelle, R. Neiss, Les maisons de l'élite à Durocortorum, in Archéologie urbaine à Reims, Bulletin de la société archéologique champenoise, t. 96, 2003, 4, p. 73. (worldcat)