Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Gallo-Roman site of Embourie, located in Paizay-Nadouin-Embourie (Charente, Nouvelle-Aquitaine), is a collection of ancient vestiges dominating a steep valley. It is mainly a villa urban pars, occupied with several changes between the first and the beginning of the fifth century. The excavations, carried out from 1968 to 2003, revealed an evolutionary architecture, from a wooden and earth structure (augusto-Tiberian era) to an imposing U-village of the Upper Empire, and then a reconstruction of the Lower Empire. The site has been listed as a Historic Monument since 1983.

The Upper Empire villa was distinguished by rooms organized around a courtyard, including an apsal hall in the east, stone walls, and a hydraulic system including a central basin. The wall decorations, dated between 30 and 70 A.D., used vivid pigments (ocre, burgundy red, green, blue), reflecting the high status of the occupants. After a fire in the fifth century, no evidence of Merovingian occupation was identified.

The remains cover more than two hectares at the place called Les Châteliers, at the edge of the Charente and Deux-Sèvres departments. Their discovery in 1968 allowed us to study a continuous occupation, marked by coatings painted at all times, although some coarse fragments remain untold. The site illustrates the architectural and social evolution of local Gallo-Roman elites, between Roman tradition and regional adaptations.

The hypothesis of an ancient secondary agglomeration in Embouria, suggested by the extent of the remains, was not confirmed. The excavations revealed emptied soil, column bases, and re-use of earlier bases. The 1983 classification protects the substructions (cadastre ZB 38), highlighting their heritage value to understand Gallo-Roman rural habitat in Aquitaine.

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