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Key figures

Origin and history

The Bavay Ancient Forum, classified as the Musée de France and the Historical Monument, is an archaeological site of national importance for the Hauts-de-France. It is a Roman tripartite forum of the 2nd century, the largest ever discovered in Gaul. In the Gallo-Roman era, Bavay (Bagacum) was the capital of the city of the Nervens, a territory extending to Brussels. The excavations, initiated in the eighteenth century, revealed nearly 60,000 objects, mainly after 1906, when Maurice Henault, archivist of Valenciennes, founded the first museum with the Société des amis de Bavay.

In 1976, a new museum was built near the site to house these discoveries. The collections, first municipal (1906-1936), became national after that date. Among the treasures exhibited, the Treasure of Bronzes (370 objects discovered in 1969) stands out: statuettes of gods, fragments of statues and everyday objects. These parts were thoroughly analysed (X-fluorescence, tomography, 3D scanning) in 2017, revealing new information about their manufacturing and chronology.

The site now proposes a 3D restitution of the forum in augmented reality, offering an immersion in this central place of Gallo-Roman political and social life. The studies carried out, notably with the C2RMF and the laboratory of Archaeology of the Metals of Nancy, have allowed to renew the understanding of this exceptional heritage, symbol of the radiation of Bagacum in Antiquity.

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