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Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The ancient site of Drevant, located on the right bank of Cher in the department of the same name, includes constructions dated from the 1st to the 3rd century. It includes a well-preserved theatre, a sanctuary with a fanum temple, two thermal establishments, and residential areas. These remains bear witness to a Gallo-Roman secondary agglomeration linked to river navigation and an inland waterway along the river. The site, classified as a historic monument in 1840, covers an area of 20 to 25 hectares and was served by road and river infrastructures.

Gallo-Roman theatre, of "rural" type, combines characteristics of amphitheater and theatre, with a cellara of 85 m in diameter and a circular arena of 27 m. Adjacent to a slope, it was probably used for circus shows, as evidenced by the height of its wall-podium (2.60 m). An engraving from the 17th century shows the building in ruins, with a dilapidated building in the centre of the arena. Its dimensions are comparable to those of the Sanxay theatre, suggesting a capacity of over 6,000 people.

The sanctuary, originally interpreted as a "forum", is a large enclosure (116 × 89 m) housing a square fanum of 8.60 m side, surrounded by a peripheral gallery. Built under Auguste, it suffered a fire around 80 AD, then was rebuilt and enlarged under Claude or Tiberius. An inner peribol, a monumental threshold and an octagonal building (perhaps a biidental) mark its architectural evolutions. In the third or fourth century, indeterminate buildings were added, but its sacred use seemed to be abandoned.

The two thermal plants, discovered in 1835, were 35 × 29 m and 42 × 33 m, respectively. Organized according to the classical Roman model (tepidarium, caldarium), they were probably reserved for separate audiences (men/women). A 5 km aqueduct may have fed the thermal baths, although a second aqueduct, discovered in 1988, does not appear to be connected to it. The remains, re-encrusted after excavations, are partly located under the current communal school.

The residential areas, developed at the end of the 1st or 2nd century, include islets delimited by streets, private seasides and buildings interpreted as hotels or workshops. A building called "basilica" when it was discovered in 1834 could be a caravanseral. These residential areas were gradually abandoned between the middle of the third and fourth centuries, during the crisis of the third century. The theatre, for its part, is reused as a workshop for the manufacture of deer wood objects.

The first excavations, conducted in 1834 by François Alexandre Hazé (conservative of the historical monuments of Cher), reveal the sanctuary, the thermal baths and the theatre. Prosper Mérimée stressed the importance of the site in 1838, leading to its ranking among the first French historical monuments. Research resumed in the 20th and 21st centuries, with excavations on the sanctuary (1989–1985) and theatre (1970–2005). Myriam Fincker conducted theatre surveys between 1999 and 2005, while Frédéric Métnier studied the sanctuary in 2007–2008.

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