SITE GALLO-ROMAIN DE LA CROIX GUILLAUME

Excavated in the 1960s and again from 1994 to 1999, the Croix Guillaume archaeological site concentrates all the functions of a Gallo-Roman hamlet on a single plateau: housing, economic activities, sanctuary and necropolis. It provides a remarkable illustration of the occupation of the Vosges heights during the Gallo-Roman period, from the ^1st to the ^3rd century. Inhabitants had built terraces on the slopes for farming, but the main activity was stone quarrying, cutting and carving in the sandstone quarries that cut into the plateau. A number of houses, whose stone basements remain, opened onto a stone esplanade where bas-reliefs and statues of Gallo-Roman divinities (Jupiter with anguiped and eagle, Rosmerta, Mercury...) were erected. A reproduction of the sculpted group of Jupiter with eagle, created by sculptor Denis Mellinger, is displayed on the site. The central part of the plateau was occupied by a necropolis of 80 cremation burials, several of whose monuments are still standing.

Like all the hamlets in the Vosges Piedmont, Croix Guillaume was deserted at the end of the ^3rd century, although it is not known why the Gallo-Roman population left. A visit to the Musée du Pays de Sarrebourg, which preserves all the objects unearthed during the excavations, is an essential complement to your discovery of the site.

An explanatory booklet is on sale for €5 from ARAPS, at the Saint-Quirin grocery store and at the Musée du Pays de Sarrebourg. ARAPS offers guided tours ([email protected])

You can also take a guided tour of a new archaeological site discovered near Saint-Quirin: the Sauvageon site.