Hauts LieuxChapels, sanctuaries & legends

Hauts Lieux›All places›Bouches-du-Rhône

Ancient monumentBouches-du-Rhône

Glanum, la ville gréco-romaine de Saint-Rémy

Saint-Rémy-de-Provence

Dimensions
One kilometre south of Saint-Rémy, on the road to Les Baux, at the entrance to a defile of the Alpilles that climbs towards Mont Gaussier; the town occupies the bottom of the valley, the Antiques are on the other side of the road
Period
Sanctuary and town of the Glanici, a people of the confederation of the Salyes, from the 6th century BC; town of Greek appearance in the 2nd–1st centuries BC; oppidum of Latin right and monumental adornment under Augustus; abandoned after the invasions around 260–270; excavations from 1921 (Jules Formigé, Pierre de Brun) and then by Henri Rolland from 1941 to 1969; forum reconstituted in 2008
What stands there
A whole town brought out of the alluvium, from the spring of the god Glan to the temples of Augustus

Before Rome, there was here a spring, and a god, Glan, whose water the Glanici, a people of the Salyan confederation, honoured from the 6th century before our era. Marseille, the Greek neighbour, gave the town its peristyle houses, its stepped wells and its Hellenistic look in the 2nd and 1st centuries; Rome, after the wars against the Salyes, gave it Latin right and, under Augustus, a forum, twin temples, a basilica, baths. Agrippa himself, it is said, came to treat his leg here and had a small temple built in thanks to Valetudo, Health; the gods most often invoked in the inscriptions are nonetheless Hercules and Silvanus, in whom one no doubt recognises the Gaulish Sucellus under a Latin name. That is what Romanisation is: the same spring, the same worshippers, a god renamed and a forum. The town was sacked around 260–270 and never recovered; its inhabitants went down to found Saint-Rémy, and the alluvium of the Alpilles covered everything, except the two monuments which, at the roadside, made the place famous long before the excavations: the cenotaph of the Julii, a family of notables who had become Roman citizens, and the arch, the oldest in Narbonensis. The excavations begun in 1921 by Jules Formigé and Pierre de Brun, continued by Henri Rolland from 1941 to 1969, have given back the whole town, from the gate to the sanctuary.

Wikipédia — Glanum ↗

Further reading

Getting there : By the D 5 from Saint-Rémy-de-Provence towards Les Baux; car park at the entrance to the site. The archaeological site is managed by the Centre des monuments nationaux: paid entry, closed on Mondays out of season, hours varying by month. The cenotaph of the Julii and the arch, the "Antiques", are at the roadside, freely accessible at any hour. Allow two hours for the town, going up as far as the spring. The finds from the excavations are displayed at the Hôtel de Sade, in the centre of Saint-Rémy.

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

See it on the map OpenStreetMap Directions

Ambient sound

Glanum, la ville gréco-romaine de Saint-Rémy
Daniel VILLAFRUELA. · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Nearby

This place in the great stories

In the same department

All places — Bouches-du-Rhône (22).