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Origin and history

The ancient remains of Riez are the traces of an ancient Gallo-Roman and medieval city, located in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence. Prior to the Roman conquest, Riez was considered the capital of the Reii, a Gallic people settled on the hill of Saint-Maxime. The Romans then founded the Colonia Julia Augusta Apolloinarium Reiorum, a colony under Latin law that became a strategic center of Narbonnaise, connected by Roman roads to Aix, Fréjus and Digne. Its importance continued thanks to its position at the crossroads of three valleys and its episcopal seat, attested as early as the fifth century with Saint Maximus, the first known bishop.

The excavations revealed a Roman thermal complex discovered in 1842 and studied from 1970 onwards, as well as an octagonal Baptistery of the fifth century, built using ancient materials. The latter, comparable to that of Fréjus, had a baptismal tank surrounded by eight Corinthian columns. The four granite columns still standing, 5.90 m high and surmounted by marble capitals, are the remains of a temple probably dedicated to Apollo, dated from the end of the first century. These elements, classified in 1840, illustrate urban continuity between Antiquity and the Middle Ages.

In the Lower Empire, Riez became a major religious center with his bishopric, before the floods of the Colostre caused the population to settle on Saint-Maxime Hill. The plain was not occupied until the 12th century. The remains, including the thermal baths (classified in 1983) and the Baptistery, bear witness to this turbulent history, marked by topographical adaptations and architectural reuse.

The city owes its ancient radiance to its fertile alluvial plain and its sources, as well as to its role as a crossroads between the Alps and Lower Provence. Two necropolises have been identified, and two others are assumed, confirming the demographic importance of the city. The Roman routes, like the one leading to Aix via the Verdon, strengthened its status as an economic and religious pole until medieval times.

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