Timeline

Heritage classified

Origin and history

The building at 27 Aspic Street in Nîmes includes a remarkable Roman vestige: a stone bas-relief with an eagle with a mutilated head. This fragment, resulting from the ruins of an imperial-era settlement (II century), was re-used in the masonry of the façade. His iconography, typical of provincial Roman art, probably evokes a military or religious symbol, although its original context remains uncertain.

Ranked Historic Monument by order of 6 December 1949, bas-relief is the only protected element of the building. The protection concerns exclusively this sculptural fragment, witness to the systematic reuse of ancient materials in medieval and modern constructions in Nîmes. The precise location of the building, noted as "passable" (note 5/10), corresponds to the historical address recorded in the Merimée base.

The Nîmes region, an ancient Roman colonia named Nemaususus, was a major economic and cultural crossroads in Narbonnaise. The sculpted reliefs, such as that of the eagle, often adorned public buildings (therms, forums) or funeral monuments. Their subsequent re-use in medieval walls illustrates the permanence of the ancient heritage in the urban landscape, despite the successive transformations of the city.

No information is available on the original Roman building from which the bas-relief originates or on the circumstances of its discovery. The eagle, an imperial symbol par excellence, could come from an altar, an arc of triumph or an administrative building. Its fragmentary state and mutilated head suggest damage that occurred before or during its reuse.

The current building, although not open to the visit, retains this material testimony of antiquity thanks to its protection under the Historical Monuments. The Creative Commons license associated with relief photography (credit: Finoskov) allows its diffusion, contributing to the knowledge of the Nîmes heritage. No other archaeological elements are mentioned in connection with this site.

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