| Maison carrée | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Maison carrée in 2019 | |
 Interactive map of the Maison carrée area | |
| General information | |
| Type | Roman temple |
| Architectural style | Roman |
| Location | Nîmes, France |
| Coordinates | 43°50′18″N4°21′22″E / 43.83833°N 4.35611°E /43.83833; 4.35611 |
| Completed | 2 A.D (2024 years ago) |
| Inaugurated | 4–7 AD |
| Height | 17.1m |
| Official name | The Maison Carrée of Nîmes |
| Type | Cultural |
| Criteria | iv |
| Designated | 2023(45thsession) |
| Reference no. | 1569[1] |
| UNESCO region | Europe |
TheMaison carrée (French pronunciation:[mɛzɔ̃kaʁe]; French for "square house") is an ancientRoman temple inNîmes, southernFrance; it is one of the best-preserved Roman temples to survive in the territory of the formerRoman Empire. It is a mid-sizedAugustan provincial temple of theImperial cult,[2] acaesareum.
The Maison carrée inspired theneoclassicalÉglise de la Madeleine inParis, St. Marcellinus Church inRogalin,Poland, and in the United States theVirginia State Capitol,[3] which was designed byThomas Jefferson, who had astucco 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 theUNESCO World Heritage List.[5][6]
In about 4–7 AD,[7] the Maison carrée was dedicated or rededicated toGaius andLucius Caesar, grandsons and adopted heirs ofAugustus who both died young. The inscription dedicating the temple to Gaius and Lucius was removed inmedieval times. However, a local scholar,Jean-François Séguier, was able to reconstruct the inscription in 1758 from the order and number of the holes on the frontfrieze andarchitrave, to which the bronze letters had been affixed by projecting tines. According to Séguier's reconstruction, the text of the dedication read (in translation): "To Gaius Caesar, son of Augustus, Consul; to Lucius Caesar, son of Augustus, Consul designate; to the princes of youth."[8] Another inscription was found nearby but is now lost.[9] During the 19th century the temple slowly began to recover its original splendour, due to the efforts of Victor Grangent.
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The Maison carrée is similar to a Tuscan style Roman temple as described in the writings ofVitruvius, a contemporary Roman writer on architecture,[10] although it uses theCorinthian order. Raised on a 2.85 m high podium, and at 26.42 m by 13.54 m forming a rectangle almost twice as long as it is wide, the temple dominated theforum of the Roman city of Nîmes, in what is now southern France. Thefacade contains a deepportico orpronaos that is almost a third of the building's length and is richly decorated in terms of its columns and capitals. This deep porch emphasizes thetemple front, and distinguishes the layout from ancient Greek temples.
It is ahexastyle design with sixCorinthian columns under thepediment at either end,[11] andpseudoperipteral in that twentyengaged columns are embedded along the walls of thecella. Above the columns, the architrave is divided into three levels with ratios of 1:2:3.Egg-and-dart decoration divides the architrave from the frieze. On three sides the frieze is decorated with fine ornamental relief carvings of rosettes andacanthus leaves beneath a row of very finedentils. However, the refinement of the decorative carvings on the building is not nearly as precise and mathematically perfect as the decoration on the Parthenon or other Greek temples.
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 orientedfilm on the Roman history of Nîmes. No ancient decoration remains inside the cella.
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 theMusée 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 theCarré d'Art, on the far side of the square, to replace the city theater of Nîmes, which had burnt down in 1952.[12]
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