Maison Carrée, Nîmes, France - SpottingHistory.com

The Maison Carrée is one of the best preserved Roman temple façades to be found in the territory of the former Roman Empire. In about 4-7 AD, the Maison carrée was dedicated or rededicated to Gaius Caesar and Lucius Caesar, grandsons and adopted heirs of Augustus who both died young. The building has undergone extensive restoration over the centuries.

The Maison Carrée is an example of Vitruvian architecture. Raised on a 2.85 m high podium, the temple dominated the forum of the Roman city, forming a rectangle almost twice as long as it is wide, measuring 26.42 m by 13.54 m. The façade is dominated by a deep portico almost a third of the building's length. It is a hexastyle design with six Corinthian columns under the pediment at either end, and pseudoperipteral in that twenty engaged columns are embedded along the walls of the cella. Above the columns, the architrave is divided by two recessed rows of petrified water drips into three levels. Egg-and-dart decoration divides the architrave from the frieze. On three sides the frieze is decorated with fine ornamental relief carvings of rosettes and acanthus leaves beneath a row of very fine dentils.

A large door (6.87 m high by 3.27 m wide) leads to the surprisingly small and windowless interior, where the shrine was originally housed. This is now used to house a tourist oriented film on the Roman history of Nîmes. No ancient decoration remains inside the cella.

Until the 19th century, it formed part of a larger complex of adjoining buildings. These were demolished when the Maison Carrée housed what is now the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nîmes (from 1821 to 1907), restoring it to the isolation it would have enjoyed in Roman times. The pronaos was restored in the early part of the 19th century when a new ceiling was provided, designed in the Roman style. The present door was made in 1824.

References:

Wikipedia

User Reviews

Ondřej Pekárek (7 months ago)
A touch of ancient Rome in 21st century. A lot of corithian temple pillars. You can buy one ticket for temple and amphitheatre

Levon Alyanakian (Levon's Travel's) (8 months ago)
Beautiful , well preserved temple. The history is presented and explained in depth inside. We bought the combined ticket with the Arena. 100% worth the visit and a must do in Nîmes.

Bart Eekhaut (8 months ago)
This roman temple in the, by emperor Augustus founded, city of Nimes is a true treasure. Where other roman buildings where often used as stone quarry or got striped of their ornaments in order to decorate new buildings, the Maison Carrée has been preserved in it's original state for more that 2000 years. It has been used for many different functions during it's history namely a city hall, a church, a prefecture, a museum, a house and even a tomb for the son of the duchess of Uzès. The more recent restauration of 2011 let it shine brightly white.

Bertrand Legendre (9 months ago)
Beautifully maintained Roman temple. The area is very clean and opened which helps to go around the temple and enjoy the architecture.

Beat A. Schwendimann (2 years ago)
The 'Maison Carée' is considered one of the best preserved Roman temples in the world. Originally a temple dedicated to the grandchildren of emperor Augustus, the building has also been a church, a warehouse, a private residence, and a museum. Today, you can watch a 23-min movie about the history of Nimes. Starts every half hour on the hour. Cost €6.

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Monte d'Accoddi

Monte d"Accoddi is a Neolithic archaeological site in northern Sardinia, located in the territory of Sassari. The site consists of a massive raised stone platform thought to have been an altar. It was constructed by the Ozieri culture or earlier, with the oldest parts dated to around 4,000–3,650 BC.

The site was discovered in 1954 in a field owned by the Segni family. No chambers or entrances to the mound have been found, leading to the presumption it was an altar, a temple or a step pyramid. It may have also served an observational function, as its square plan is coordinated with the cardinal points of the compass.

The initial Ozieri structure was abandoned or destroyed around 3000 BC, with traces of fire found in the archeological evidence. Around 2800 BC the remains of the original structure were completely covered with a layered mixture of earth and stone, and large blocks of limestone were then applied to establish a second platform, truncated by a step pyramid (36 m × 29 m, about 10 m in height), accessible by means of a second ramp, 42 m long, built over the older one. This second temple resembles contemporary Mesopotamian ziggurats, and is attributed to the Abealzu-Filigosa culture.

Archeological excavations from the chalcolithic Abealzu-Filigosa layers indicate the Monte d"Accoddi was used for animal sacrifice, with the remains of sheep, cattle, and swine recovered in near equal proportions. It is among the earliest known sacrificial sites in Western Europe.

The site appears to have been abandoned again around 1800 BC, at the onset of the Nuragic age.

The monument was partially reconstructed during the 1980s. It is open to the public and accessible by the old route of SS131 highway, near the hamlet of Ottava. It is 14,9 km from Sassari and 45 km from Alghero. There is no public transportation to the site. The opening times vary throughout the year.

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