Maison carrée
Maison carrée | |
---|---|
General information | |
Type | Roman temple |
Architectural style | Roman |
Town or city | Nîmes |
Country | France |
Coordinates | 43°50′18″N 4°21′22″E / 43.83833°N 4.35611°E |
Completed | 2 A.D (2022 years ago) |
Inaugurated | 4–7 AD |
Height | 17.1m |
Europe |
The Maison carrée (French pronunciation:
The Maison carrée inspired the neoclassical Église de la Madeleine in Paris, St. Marcellinus Church in Rogalin, Poland, and in the United States the Virginia State Capitol,[3] which was designed by Thomas Jefferson, who had a stucco model made of the Maison carrée while he was minister to France in 1785.[4]
In September 2023, the Maison carrée of Nîmes was inscribed on the
History
In about 4–7 AD,
Architecture
The Maison carrée is similar to a Tuscan style Roman temple as described in the writings of
It is a
A large door (6.87 m high by 3.27 m wide) leads to the small and windowless interior, where the shrine was originally housed. This is now used to house a tourist oriented
Restorations
The building has undergone extensive restoration over the centuries. 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.
It underwent a further restoration between 1988 and 1992, during which time it was re-roofed and the square around it was cleared, revealing the outlines of the forum. Sir Norman Foster was commissioned to build a modern art gallery and public library, known as the Carré d'Art, on the far side of the square, to replace the city theater of Nîmes, which had burnt down in 1952.[11] This provides a startling contrast to the Maison carrée but renders many of its features, such as the portico and columns, in steel and glass. The contrast of its modernity is thus muted by the physical resemblance between the two buildings, representing architectural styles 2000 years apart.
See also
Notes
- ^ "The Maison Carrée of Nîmes". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Retrieved 2023-09-24.
- ^ Brouwers, Josho (15 May 2019). "The Square House in Nîmes - A temple dedicated to the heirs of Augustus". Ancient World Magazine. Retrieved 26 March 2024.
- ISBN 0-06-430158-3.
- ^ J.-C. Balty, Études sur la Maison carrée de Nîmes (Brussels) 1960.
- ^ 1569 UNESCO listing
- ^ "Thinking About The Roman Empire? Meet France's New UNESCO Temple, Maison carrée In Nîmes". Forbes. 20 September 2023.
- ^ The date is based on an unrecorded tour of the province by Augustus in 16 BC. James C. Anderson, Jr., "Anachronism in the Roman Architecture of Gaul: The Date of the Maison carrée at Nîmes" The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, 60.1 (March 2001), pp. 68-79.
- ^ Séguier's reconstruction was published in CIL, xii. 3156, and, slightly revised, was confirmed in Robert Amy and Pierre Gros, La Maison carrée de Nîmes (Paris, 1979), the standard modern comprehensive monograph; anomalies in the reconstructions, which cast doubt on the temple's date and therefore on the chronology of much Gallo-Roman architecture dated by comparisons, are presented in Anderson 2001; Anderson suggests a date for the present rebuilt temple in the first half of the 2nd century AD.
- ^ A comparable podium temple of the Augustan period, "strikingly similar in decoration and in proportions" (Anderson 2001:72) still stands at Vienne.
- ^ The colonnade is returned at either side, so that beneath the portico there are ten columns in all.
- ^ Pierre Pinon, "Le projet de Norman Foster pour la médiathèque de Nîmes face à la Maison carrée", Archaeology, 1985.
References
- ISBN 0-500-20021-1.
- Stierlin, Henri (2002). The Roman Empire: From the Etruscans to the Decline of the Roman Empire. Taschen.
External links
- Media related to Maison carrée at Wikimedia Commons
- Official Website of Maison carrée (English)
- Website made by the City of Nîmes - Architecture and history (French)
- Photos and brief text
- Detailed photographs