The roman ruins of Montcaret

the church of St Pierre ès Liens - the tower on the left is 11th century
 but the rest of the church destroyed and then rebuilt much later

Spent a Sunday afternoon at a local church, or more correctly, investigating the roman ruins on which this church was built.

Adam and Eve

St Peter and St Paul

you can see the original roman walls beneath the church

This extensive villa complex was started in 1^st century AD and inhabited until the 5^th century. 

old grave stone

tranquil setting

Benedictine monks came along in the 11^th century and built a church on the site using materials from the abandoned villa and some of the original walls as foundations. There are even a few medieval burial sites in the walls and floors of the old villa.

medieval burials

Some of these medieval burial plots were made almost directly onto the old Roman tile floors when it was turned into a medieval cemetery. When more recent excavations were made they found the tombs and remains sitting on the tiled floors as seen in the photo below.

 Because of this the church takes up a large space in the centre of the complex so there is much of the roman ruins that cannot be accessed. The church was partly destroyed during the wars of religion in the 16^th century ( this area was deeply protestant) and later rebuilt.

sea creatures

now this is a bath !

shield design

fishscale design

knot design

There are remains of cold and thermal baths, colonnades, a gallery and the rooms of the villa itself. The mosaics are made of local limestone and terracotta and use various motifs including fish, flowers, fish scales and knots. The colours are not as bright as they would have been, but then they have been underground for fifteen hundred years. You can also see the watercourses built underneath the floors for heating. The buildings are on a gentle slope facing south so I can imagine the villa having views to the river Dordogne and across the valley.

the inside of the villa - those are two skeletons discovered buried in the mosaics

magnificent mosaic floors

underfloor drainage

and yet more mosaic

seems a shame to disturb his sleep

A mosaic was first discovered during local building works in 1827. Then again in 1873 more objects were unearthed during more building activity. Pierre-Martial Tauziac, who collected finds from here as a child, later led the excavations in 1921 working with the Archaeological Society of Bordeaux. The site was listed as an historic monument in 1926. 

Montcaret is only ten minutes from our home, and roman ruins have also been found in Sainte Foy la Grande. Unfortunately, most have been lost over the centuries, but it does show that there has been a settlement of some sort here for at least two thousand years.

roman ruins at Ste Foy have been relocated to a lovely terrace overlooking the river

See, everyone who comes here loves the Dordogne.

Très bonne semaine à tous mes amis