Perhaps you don't know: the Romans made Narbonne the capital of a huge region stretching from the Pyrenees to the Alps, and even the second largest port in the western Mediterranean (after Rome, of course)... What if you were to look for traces of Narbonne's Roman past in the present-day city? They are numerous! Narbo (water) Martius (the god of war and agriculture), the ancient name of the city of Narbonne, was founded in the year 118 BC. The famous Via Domitia, which passed through the very centre of Narbonne, linked the city to Italy and the Iberian Peninsula via a network of roads and paths. More than 35,000 inhabitants lived there. It was the Romans who, as wine-growers, planted the Narbonne vineyard over 2,000 years ago, one of the oldest in France. But the rich and glorious past of Narbonne la Romaine has been somewhat forgotten in our history books. Here is why!
A glorious but unknown past..
Unlike the cities of Nîmes or Arles, which still have spectacular open-air remains that allow us to imagine the splendour of the past, in Narbonne, most of the emblematic monuments of the Roman period are no longer visible. It is rather in its underground that the city keeps the traces of its ancient history. So few people are really aware of the glorious past of Narbo Martius. Imagine that the city had an amphitheater as large as those of the other two cities, and that its Capitol was twice as large as the Square House of Nimes. But over the years, Narbonne has suffered the assaults of time, barbarian invasions and other events, which explains why most of the ancient monuments are now reduced to their foundations and buried at 1 or 2 meters, under the current city or in the ponds ... That's not all: one of the most used materials in Narbo Martius, much more than in Nimes or Arles, was marble. Unfortunately, most of its monuments were destroyed and used as quarries to build other buildings or to refloat the docks of its ports.
Archaeological excavations on an unprecedented scale
In 2010, archaeological excavations of an unusual scale began all around the ponds of Narbonne. A titanic site, which has discovered houses Clos de la Lombarde or a section of the Via Domitia in the heart of the city and to clear the remains of the walls. The discoveries made by the archaeologists allow us to reconstruct, with the help of modern digital tools, the riches of the past, from the piers to the frescoes of the period, from the Capitol to the imperial villa.
Narbo Via, an extraordinary cultural centre
A new museum, located on the banks of the Robine Canal, brings back to life Narbonne's past as a Roman capital. It was supposed to open its doors to visitors at the end of 2020; it finally opened, Covid-19 obliges, in spring 2021. Its objective is simple: to revive the prestigious city of Narbo Martius! This cultural centre, consisting of the Narbo Via Museum, the underground galleries of the Horreum and the Amphoralis archaeological site-museum, is intended to become a national reference in terms of archaeological research and ancient history, but also a regional jewel in terms of archaeological and Mediterranean heritage.
- The Narbo Via Museum. Located at the eastern entrance to the city and along the Robine Canal, the Narbo Via Museum offers visitors the opportunity to discover what the city of Narbo Martius looked like under the Roman Empire: societal organization, urban planning and architecture (monumental remains and sumptuous decorations of the houses of the Clos de la Lombarde, the finest collection of Gallo-Roman paintings outside Italy); economic and port life, with an overview of the research and excavations underway in the area. In addition to the permanent exhibition, there will be temporary exhibitions, workshops, film screenings, evening parties, behind-the-scenes tours of the museum's storerooms, and visits to excavation sites in the area. Its gardens, with their open-air events and shows, its bookshop and restaurant complete the vocation of this place of life open to the city. Narbo Via is also a centre for archaeological research, with a restoration workshop (ceramics, mosaics, painted plasterwork, lapidary fragments) and a study room for the collections and archaeological furniture, as well as a 200-seat auditorium that hosts conferences and symposiums. The backbone of the building is a monumental wall made up of 760 stone blocks, most of which were taken from the Roman necropolises of the ancient city, which opens up the collections. This lapidary wall, armed with several large screens, allows visitors to experience the memory and monumentality of the Roman city.
- The Horreum ("warehouse" in Latin), in the heart of the modern city, consists of underground galleries built in the 1st century BC and located 5 metres below the current ground level. It is not known exactly what these galleries were used for: as foundations for buildings? as storage places for foodstuffs sold on the nearby market? These galleries were classified as Historic Monuments in 1961 and then developed and opened to the public in 1976. With the archaeological remains of the Clos de la Lombarde, the Horreum is one of the few Roman monuments visible and visitable in the center of Narbonne. Its bas-reliefs of funerary origin are real treasures evoking ancient monuments that have disappeared: amphitheatre, theatre, thermal baths, temples... The sound and light tour evokes the atmosphere of Roman markets, gladiatorial fights, the forum...
- Amphoralis. The Gallo-Roman potters' museum, located in Sallèles d'Aude, a few kilometres north of Narbonne, is a unique site where the archaeological remains of a potter's village are mixed with a modern museum with high-tech discovery tools, a walk through the reconstructed Roman gardens. In the 1970's, a couple of wine growers discovered by chance, while ploughing deep into one of their plots, many shards of ancient pottery. There is something under the vines! No more digging... For about twenty years, archaeologists patiently unearthed the remains of an ancient pottery factory, including exceptionally well-preserved ovens. It was here that Gallic flat-bottomed amphorae were produced for transporting wine, as well as various building materials (bricks, tiles) and everyday tableware. This craft complex is a retrospective of the way of life of generations of potters for more than three centuries (1st to 3rd century AD). In the park, an outdoor trail leads to the reconstructed kilns and a Gallo-Roman dwelling, built identically to the remains found. Numerous activities are organised there, particularly for children.
The Via Domitia
This great trade route linked Narbonne to Italy on one side and to the Iberian Peninsula on the other in the 2nd century B.C. It was discovered in 1997 quite by chance, on the Place de l'Hôtel-de-Ville, when the municipality was undertaking urban planning work. This road was intended to allow the Roman armies to circulate and to easily set up garrisons to protect the Roman cities. Gradually, merchants also used it to transport their goods. In the cities it passed through, the Via Domitia was paved or paved over. It is therefore enough to imagine the Roman chariots rolling on these polished stones to immerse oneself in the atmosphere of the time. Note that modern roads often still follow the route of the Via Domitia (N85 - N100 - A9...).
The Clos de la Lombarde
This archaeological site is actually an ancient residential area, inhabited at the time by the notables of Roman Narbonne, whether they were civil servants, soldiers or merchants. We can guess their streets, their houses, thermal baths, artisanal workshops and a paleochristian basilica. Located north of Narbonne, along the Domitian Way, it is close to a vast necropolis, occupied by large domus, whose famous fresco paintings are presented in the archaeological museum.
Thanks to the Romans for the good wine!
Since the Roman conquest, the cultivation of the vine, then a privilege of Rome, is authorized in Narbonne. This is how the wine history of the region began. It was the Romans who planted vines in Narbonne, first on the Clape massif and then in the Aude plain. And it was the wine exports that made Narbonne one of the largest Roman ports in the Mediterranean! The wines of Narbonne supplied Gaul but also the camps on the banks of the Rhine and the Danube, Brittany (England) and Rome. Gallic wine amphorae have even been found on the borders of the eastern Mediterranean: Turkey, Egypt, Sudan. Like the Greeks before them, the Romans were fine connoisseurs of viticulture. Olive trees and vines were therefore introduced to Narbonne in the 1st century AD. Planted more than 2,000 years ago by the Romans, the vineyard of Narbonne is one of the oldest in France. From the time of the Romans to the present day, wine production has never stopped. The wine estates you see today are often built on ancient Roman villas.
