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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The Gallo-Roman villa of Valentine, located in the municipality of the same name in Haute-Garonne (Occitanie), was built in the fourth century under Emperor Constantine, as attests a mile discovered on site. Belonging to a certain Nymfius — whose epitaph is preserved at the Musée Saint-Raymond in Toulouse — this aristocratic estate occupied a terrace overlooking the Garonne, sheltered from the floods. A secondary road connected the villa to the main Roman road crossing the Pyrenean hills, confirming its integration into the communication networks of the time.

The villa's architecture reflects a remarkable luxury for the Roman Gaul. Organized around a 52-metre-long honorary courtyard, it included a semicircular marble nymph (14.20 m wide), probably used as a water reserve and decorative element. The main house, centered on a peristyle, housed rooms heated by hypocaustes, including a radiant system fed by two fireplaces, among the most sophisticated in southern Gaul. The local materials — limestone rubble, Saint-Béat marbles — and the presence of a dome on the reception room underline its exceptional status.

The villa was supplied with water by an aqueduct collecting the nearby thermal springs (Labarthe-Rivière), crossing the courtyard to the nymph. The excavations revealed vestiges of daily life: a cistern, an oyster pool, and separate dwellings for domestic servants and the owner family. In the vicinity, a medieval priory (12th century) was later built, attesting to continued occupation of the site. Major damage occurred in 1924 when a canal was built for a hydraulic power plant.

The excavations, carried out by archaeologist Georges Fouet (also discoverer of the villa of Montmaurin), allowed to document this major site. Exhumed artifacts include a mosaic saved in 1979, tools such as a weaving pin, and elements of the adjacent Gallo-Roman sanctuary. Ranked a Historical Monument in 1979, Valentine's villa illustrates the opulence of late rural elites, between Roman tradition and local adaptations.

Today, the site — owned by the municipality — retains traces of its prestigious past, albeit partially altered. His study shed light on the economic and social dynamics of the Gaul of the Lower Empire, where the villæ played a central role in the organization of the territory and agricultural production.

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