Aix-en-Provence on Gardens of the Roman Empire

Aix, Jardins de Grassi, House with the large peristyle

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Province

Province Description

Ancient Roman colony (founded 118 BCE) and senatorial province located in modern southern France, along the Mediterranean. This province had stronger cultural and political ties to Italy than the rest of Gaul.

Location

aix-en-provence
aix-en-provence (Pleiades)

Sublocation

Aix, Jardins de Grassi, House with the large peristyle

House

Aix, Jardins de Grassi, House with the large peristyle

Keywords

House Description

This luxurious residence wrapped around a large (15 x 18 m) peristyle [1] with galleries 3 to 4 meters wide. The center was no doubt a garden. A vast reception room [15], paved with an opus sectile, looked out onto the central axis of the garden. It was flanked by two other handsome rooms; the one to the west [18] also had a marble floor. An exedra [5] with an opus sectile floor opened in the center of the east wing over a wide threshold, embellished on each side by a pilaster and column. Room 14, also with a marble floor, is more withdrawn. The principal reception room opened onto another open space [1], thought to have been 22 meters long by 7 meters wide, delimited at ground level by a stone border. Perhaps treated as a garden, it was made pleasant by two stone basins with water jets placed on the axis of the rooms [18] and [16]. The view was rounded off by the large flattened semicircle of the back (north) wall of the garden.

Plans

Fig 1. House with the large peristyle

Fig 2. House with the large peristyle

Bibliography

Maison 1996, t. II,, p. 30-31
Atlas De Provence-Côte D'azur: 1. Bruxelles: ACTES, 1974, P 62-64 and P261-277.worldcat

Places

Enclos Milhaud, House of the Sea god

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Province

Province Description

Location

aix-en-provence
aix-en-provence (Pleiades)

Sublocation

Enclos Milhaud, House of the Sea god

House

Enclos Milhaud, House of the Sea god

House Description

fiche not translated

Plans

Enclos Milhaud, House of the Sea god

Places

Enclos Milhaud, House with the large peristyle

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Province

Province Description

Location

aix-en-provence
aix-en-provence (Pleiades)

Sublocation

Enclos Milhaud, House with the large peristyle

House

Enclos Milhaud, House with the large peristyle

House Description

fiche not translated

Plans

Fig.1 Enclos Milhaud, House with the large peristyle

Bibliography

Maison 1996, t. II,, P. 32-33
"Aix-en-Provence,"Atlas, P. 62-4, 71.

Places

Enclos Reynaud, Combination of House with the large opus sectile with House of the semicircular bay

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Province

Province Description

Location

aix-en-provence
aix-en-provence (Pleiades)

Sublocation

Enclos Reynaud, House with the semicircular bay, phase I

house

Enclos Reynaud, House with the semicircular bay, phase I

Keywords

House Description

In the second century, to judge by the style of the mosaics, the two preceding houses, NAR6.3 and NAR6.4, were joined without, however, any major change in plan. Fragments of statues have been found. With an area greater than 1500 square meters, pavements of high quality, and statuary, it must have been an imposing home. It was occupied for some two centuries.

Plans

Combination of House with the large opus sectile with House of the semicircular bay

Bibliography

Maison 1996, t. II,, p. 42-43
J, Guyon, Nin N, Rivet L, and Saulnier S. Aix-En-Provence (Bouches-Du-Rhône), 1996, P. 50.
P. Gros, L'architecture Romaine: Du Début Du Iiie Siècle Av. J.-C. À La Fin Du Haut-Empire. Paris: A. et J. Picard, 2011, P. 187-188 (worldcat)

Places

Enclos Reynaud, House of the pool with apses

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Province

Province Description

Location

aix-en-provence
aix-en-provence (Pleiades)

Sublocation

Enclos Reynaud, House of the pool with apses

House

Enclos Reynaud, House of the pool with apses

Keywords

House Description

According to a partial plan, the residence was organized around a large courtyard with peristyle [1] (14.5 x 8.0 m). Although covered with paving stones in the final phase, the courtyard may have been a garden in an earlier phase, for it had a pool in the center. This pool of an unusal, quadrilobe shape, was 9 meters long and covered in gray marble. This marble was reduced practically to chalk when the house burned. The pool was then used as a dump and was found filled with materials from the time of the invasions.

Plans

Enclos Reynaud,House of the pool with apses

Bibliography

Maison 1996, t. II,, P. 32-33
"Aix-en-Provence,"Atlas, P. 62-4, 71.

Places

House under the Pasteur parking lot

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Province

Province Description

Location

Sublocation

House under the Pasteur parking lot

House

House under the Pasteur parking lot

Keywords

House Description

In its first phase, the house formed an L around a trapezoidal courtyard [1] (about 23 x 22 m) that was certainly developed as a garden. On the north and east it was bordered by a portico [2] with pilasters of which the foundation blocks remain. The portico (3.5 m wide) was bordered by two rectangular pools (each about 6.7 x 2.5 m) made of concrete with walls coated with cement. They drained to a collector. To the west of the courtyard is a circular well 4 meters deep lined with dressed hard limestone and without a puteal. It is not certain that it comes from Roman times.

The north wing of the house had six domestic rooms with concrete floors. The east side had the grand rooms decorated with mosaics and yielding fragments of wall painting, of marble, and of sculptural debris including a statuette and two marble hands belonging to feminine statues of life size. Further east opened a second garden [16], 10 meters wide and abutting the rampart.

Around the year 70, the house was extended to the south. In this Phase 2 form, it was the largest house as yet uncovered in the city. The excavated useful covered surface is 850 square meters, but it is estimated that the entire parcel was about 2847 square meters. It was on two levels; the new level to the south was about a meter below the original level. On its south side, the house was bordered by a domus not yet excavated, and perhaps the rampart was its northeast limit. It was accessed by a dead-end street running east-west and opening, it would seem, onto the cardo maximus. In this second phase, the house was occupied for two centuries.

Four groups of structures lay in a somewhat staggered pattern. All opened onto gardens through porticoes. The original structure on the upper terrace retained its L form with the north-south arm of the L between two gardens, [1 and 16]. The new, lower terrace was roughly square with portico-bordered gardens in the northeast [27] and southwest [17] quadrants and structures in the other two quadrants. The south garden [17], known only in part, included a rectangular pool and 3-meter wide porticoes on at least the north and east sides. The columns had finely sculptured Corinthian capitals [18]. Among the residential rooms should be noted the vast salon [23] for reception of guests. To the east, two other large rooms, [29] and [30] (12 x 7 m) on the axis of the pool were certainly also used for reception. They had a white mosaic with black framing lines and also beautiful mural paintings of high quality. Panels of cinnabar red were set off by inter-panel areas in Egyptian blue with pictures of theatrical masks hung from candelabra.

Plans

House under the Pasteur parking lot_phase1

House under the Pasteur parking lot_phase2

Bibliography

R. Boiron, C. Landure, N. Nin, Les fouilles de l'Aire du Chapitre, actuel parking Pasteur, Documents d'Archéologie aixoise, 2, 1986, P. 13-36(worldcat)
Maison 1996, t. II,, P. 12-15 and fiche n°4, P. 22-23 ; fiche n°5, P. 24-25
J. Guyon, N. Nin, L. Rivet, S. Saulnier, Aix-en-Provence,Atlas, P. 65-68 et P.261-277.

Places

NAR 6.3 Enclos Reynaud, House with the large opus sectile, phase I

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Province

Province Description

Location

aix-en-provence
aix-en-provence (Pleiades)

Sublocation

Enclos Reynaud, House with the large opus sectile, phase I

House

Enclos Reynaud, House with the large opus sectile, phase I

Keywords

Garden Description

This site, the northern part of 5 on the plan of Aix, lay 100 meters from the northern limit of the town. It was uncovered in 1842 by earth movers. It has been only incompletely explored, but 980 square meters of surface are known. Originally, it was thought to have been a public building; but it was, in fact, a house. It shares a common wall with the House with the Semicircular Bay (NAR6.4). A decumanus runs along the north side, where the entry is presumed to have been. To judge from the style of the paved floors, the construction goes back to the first century, and it was occupied for at least a century. An earlier structure has been detected by probes. The known part is organized in three distinct, successive spaces on the same axis running to the south. The first space, [9], is probably a vestibule and was ornamented in its first third by a quadrangular fountain of which a square block topped by a water jet was found. Then comes the principal room [2] (11 x 7 m), embellished by a very luxurious, geometric polychrome opus sectile with cross-ruling bands forming squares with rotated squares inside them, all in violet, green, gray, and red marble. In the central square is inscribed a disk. This room opens onto a portico [1] (13.5 x 12 m) around a courtyard or garden with a rectangular pool (11.2 x 6.8 m). East of the principal room [2] is a space thought to have been a rectangular pool [6] (6.0 x 4.2 m) surrounded on two sides by a portico.

Plans

House with the large opus sectile, phase I

Bibliography

Maison 1996, t. II,, p. 30-31, 38-39.
J, Guyon, Nin N, Rivet L, and Saulnier S. Aix-En-Provence (Bouches-Du-Rhône), 1996, P. 50.

Places

NAR 6.4 Enclos Reynaud, House with the semicircular bay, phase I

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Province

Province Description

Location

aix-en-provence
aix-en-provence (Pleiades)

Sublocation

Enclos Reynaud, House with the semicircular bay, phase I

House

Enclos Reynaud, House with the semicircular bay, phase I

Keywords

Garden Description

On the north side, two rooms [1] and [2] are symmetrically placed on either side of a large axial room [3] (about 6 x 5.3 m) which opened onto the street. Its floor was covered by a white mosaic with black border. On its south side, a semicircular protrusion extended the room across the portico and out into the garden. "At about two thirds of the way from the northern to the southern wall, near the mosaic, the room is crossed by a chain of very hard calcareous stone which seems to have formed a sort of sanctuary or chancel in the part terminated by the rounded bay." (Rouard, 1842). Beyond, to the south, a large square courtyard [4] (about 8.2 meters on a side) was presumably a garden. It must have been surrounded by a portico 1.7 meters wide; but only the floor, with a white mosaic bordered by the same very hard stone, was discovered.

Plans

House with the semicircular bay, phase I

Bibliography

Maison 1996, t. II,, p. 30-31, 38-39.
J, Guyon, Nin N, Rivet L, and Saulnier S. Aix-En-Provence (Bouches-Du-Rhône), 1996, P. 50.