DRAFT

Structures under the Collège Lumière in Vesontio

Contributor: June Dorsch
Published: 2021-04-21
Modified: 2025-06-29

Location

Location Description

The defensibility offered by this unique geography made Caesar hasten to occupy Vesontio in 58 BC. The town came to have all the usual Roman structures– forum, baths, aqueduct, and amphitheater (on the other side of the Doubs, to the northwest.) But the most visible remnant is the Porte Noire (Black Gate) [3], a triumphal arch built by Marcus Aurelius at the southeastern end of the cardo maximus, today Grande Rue and still the center of city life.

Archaeology in a downtown area is always a matter of seizing opportunities as they are presented by new construction, remembering and recording what was found, and coming back years later to complete the picture. A good example of this process is at our second site, [2] on the map. In 1973, the Neptune Mosaic was discovered in rue de Lorraine, one of the largest floor decorations in all Gaul. The extent of the mosaic under nearby buildings made full excavation impossible. More than thirty years later, in 2004, construction of a gymnasium for the Collège Lumière (a middle school) gave archaeologists access to much more of the site, about 3000 square meters, for a salvage excavation. As expected, the continuation of the Neptune mosaic was found; moreover, three other mosaics of high quality, along with columns, sculpted blocks, peristyles, and monumental pools came to light. The results of this excavation have not been published; we are grateful to the excavators for sharing their preliminary results.

Garden

Structures under the Collège Lumière in Vesontio

Keywords

Garden Description

The results of the 2004 excavation at the Collège Lumière are still under study and the data are therefore still partial. This zone, close to the river and the artisinal quarter has, in the past, yielded most of the mosaics recorded for Besançon. The ancient structures discovered on 3000 square meters relate to a Gallo-Roman urbanization extending from the Augustan period to the third century and superimposed on a rather dense Gallic occupation of the first century BC. Two phases of construction from the late Augustan period up through the end of the first century, have thus far not permitted the confirmation of the possible presence of a garden. On the other, later constructions dating from the beginning and last third of the second century are rich in peristyles with open space suitable for a garden.

At the beginning of the second century, in a third phase, a structure of large dimension (at least 2500 m2) but undetermined purpose was built on fill and leveling of the abandoned earlier buildings. It will simplify descriptions to let "north" denote the direction that is actually northeast, the direction towards the river. In these terms, large rooms (the largest reaching 126 sq. m.) and corridors were bordered on the south by an open area, possibly a garden, with porticos on at least the north and west sides, and by one peristyle to the west and by another to the east. The walls of the porticos around these peristyles were decorated with painted plaster. The west peristyle (at least 22 x 20 m) is the most complete. Only one wall, the east wall of the west peristyle, is common to these second century structures and the preceding ones of first century. It may thus represent a property line. Originally, it opened over a large threshold between the largest of the rooms and the western peristyle. It was subsequently first reduced and then completely closed.

The fourth phase, a remodeling at the end of the second century, is the best preserved, but its purpose remains unclear. It has yielded a series of elements that allow us to follow the architectural reasoning of the builders. It kept the basic plan of the third state: a peristyle to the east, one to the west, and a large garden to the south. The rooms, however, are considerably rearranged. Three grand reception rooms (of 200, 85, and 65 m2 ) with floors decorated with luxurious mosaics are organized in a very regular fashion in relation to the two peristyles and garden by corridors or galleries. The floors of these numerous spaces of circulation were a terrazzo in an opus signinum matrix, except for the gallery of garden, which had a mosaic.

The largest of the rooms, decorated by the Neptune mosaic, opened on its north side through a colonnade onto the south of the east peristyle and through another colonnade on the opposite side to the garden on the south. The spacing of the columns was the same (4.6 m) on both colonnades. The excavated part of the east peristyle showed that it was 22.3 meters wide; if it was square, it would have had an area of about 500 square meters. Another large room decorated with the rinceaux mosaic (so called for the bands of scrolled foliage) also opens onto the east peristyle. The gallery that borders the garden was widened into the garden in front of the Neptune room; against the wall of this extension there was a pool at least 1.5 meters wide and probably about 13 meters long. Several paving stones of the bottom have survived. The last room, the one with the Medusa mosaic, would seem to have opened onto the garden. The garden was about .95 meters lower than the house and was reached by descending four steps. The north portico of the west peristyle was enlarged in this final phase; the interval between columns reached 6.7 meters. The presence of the closed wall that may have been a property line obliges us to ask Did this west peristyle really belong to the structure to the east or was it part of a different edifice that may have extended to the west outside the limits of the excavation?

A fragment of a little ornamental stone krater was found in the material that filled the east peristyle after its abandonment. From late antiquity is the foundation of a pool or cistern of about 3.5 by 2.5 meters. Its stones have been removed, and only the opus signinum mortar bearing the imprint of the stones has been found. This structure pierced through all the archaeological levels and into the natural earth.

Plans

Images not available (?)

  • Fig. 1: Plan of the domus, now under the Collège Lumière.

Dates

Gardens: Beginning and last third of second century

Excavation Dates

2004

Bibliography

  • C. Gaston and C. Munier "Une luxueuse domus de la find du IIe siècle à Besançon, college Lumière (Doubs, F)"" in Premières Journées archéologiques frontalières de l'Arc jurassien: Mandeure, sa campagne et ses relations d'Avenches à Luxeuil et d'Augst à Besançon. Ed, Cécile Bélet-Gonda, Presses Univ. Franche-Comté (2007), 103-112.

Places

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