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Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Gallo-Roman thermal baths of Montoulieu-Saint-Bernard, discovered in 1957 by Jean Nazac, reveal a thermal complex of the 4th century AD. Composed of a colonnade vestibule, a 18,000-litre swimming pool and three rooms (caldarium, tepidarium, frigidarium), the site illustrates Roman engineering with its hypocauste and tegulae mammatae for hot air circulation. The excavations, led by archaeologist Jean Boube and volunteers, revealed coins, amphoras and ceramics confirming his late occupation.

The swimming pool, accessible by a staircase with three unequal steps, served more for relaxation than swimming, with a maximum depth of 1.26 m. Powered by the Pelet source, the site probably belonged to an agricultural villa in the Chiragan furrow, testifying to the Roman colonization between Toulouse and Saint-Bertrand-de-Cominges (Novempopulania). The presence of tiles (tegulae and imbrex) and a wall of enclosure on the nearby hill suggests a strategic or religious occupation.

Ranked a historic monument in 1960, the site preserves remarkable remains such as the brick pilettes of the hypocauste and fragments of grey marble of Saint-Béat. His interpretation evokes a place of sociability linked to a Roman path leading to the Gers, in a context of advanced Romanization of the Aquitaine Gaul. Abbé Algans, scholar priest of Aurignac, and Jean Boube played a key role in the preservation and study of these thermal baths, today referenced in the Mérimée and Digital Atlas of the Roman Empire bases.

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