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Origin and history

The Chenevières Amphitheatre, located 1 km north of Montbouy (Loiret), is part of a Gallo-Roman thermal and cultural complex developed in the I and II centuries. Adjacent to a hillside near the Loing, it combines the characteristics of a theatre (semi-circular cave at 135°) and an amphitheatre (elliptic arena of 50.70 m × 34.20 m). Built in small stone-cut apparatus, its full structure, consisting of embankments, was limited by side walls, a podium, and a high peripheral wall. No trace of stone or wood stands was confirmed; the cellara was probably on earth, arranged in the nineteenth century in terraced gardens. Ranked a Historic Monument in 1862, it illustrates the architectural hybridization typical of the secondary agglomerations of Lyon Gaul.

The site was a major vicus of the Senons, at the border of their territory with that of the Carnuts, integrating a sanctuary of quadrilateral source surrounded by a gallery. The latter housed an octagonal circular basin, replacing the classic cella, where wooden ex-votos and coarsely carved statues were discovered in trunks. Halfway between the amphitheatre and the sanctuary, thermal baths (partly destroyed by the excavation of the Briare Canal in the 19th century) revealed a mosaic with unique rectangular motifs, resting on a local pink concrete. A fanum (small temple), a well, and cellars complete the whole, connected by a Roman aqueduct whose sections were exhumed near the church and the Loing. The site, abandoned in the fourth century, remained known as "Circus of the Saracens" in the Middle Ages.

The amphitheatre was cited in the 17th century and studied in 1836 by J.-B. Lollois, before intermittent excavations in the 19th and 20th centuries. Nine monetary treasures were discovered, confirming his role as a place of passage and pilgrimage. The floods of the Loing and the Simon Ru, as well as the proximity of the river loop enclosing the sanctuary, explain the absence of sustainable housing on the site. At 1.5 km upstream, Merovingian sarcophagi attest to a later occupation, while Roman remains (foundations, walls) suggested to 19th-century archaeologists "the entire ground of a destroyed city". The ensemble reflects the cultural and social organization of Gallo-Roman civitates, where theatres and amphitheatres served as places of assembly and worship.

The archaeological site also includes ex-votos comparable to those found near the sources of the Seine, highlighting religious practices shared in Roman Gaul. The rare wooden statues and coins (studded by Pierre Bastien in 1959) reveal a cult linked to the sources, typical of rural shrines. Aqueduct, probably feeding the thermal baths, shows advanced hydraulic control. Despite its early abandonment, the site remained a topographical landmark, mentioned in the gesture song Garin le Lorrain. The 19th century excavations, though partial, documented a complex where theatre, thermal baths and temple formed a coherent whole, characteristic of Gallo-Roman urbanization in rural areas.

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