The vestiges of the Gallo-Roman period are rare in Paris, but few remains are still visible.
Les Arènes de Lutèce
These arenas, whose construction dates from 200, served as both circus and theater. They were largely destroyed during the barbaric invasions in 285, when the Parisian people built a wall around the Ile de la Cité with the stones of the amphitheater. The monument was then abandoned, and 15 meters of earth covered him. It has been discovered in 1869, when the Rue Monge was drilled during the Haussmann works.
Les Thermes de Cluny
Built just a few years after the Arènes de Lutèce, the Thermes de Cluny date from the beginning of the 3rd century, about 215. Also destroyed during the barbaric invasions in 285, then those of the Normans in the ninth century, it seems to have been made by the Nautes, a rich corporation which had the privilege of Seine’s.
Its rehabilitation is due to Louis XVIII, who ordered in 1819 to clear the land that covered the ruins and demolish the buildings bordering them. In 1843, the city of Paris ceded the Thermes to the State when it created the museum of the Middle Ages.
Many questions remain about the history of this monument, which is still the subject of work, excavations, and research.
La rue Saint-Jacques
The cardo maximus was a north-south axis that crossed all the Roman cities. The current Saint-Jacques street follows the route of the former Paris’ cardo maximus. If this is not a vestige properly spoken, this axis, which exactly follows the ancient Roman road, has not moved for more than 20 centuries!
