In Estavayer, part of Gibloux, a bit to the north-west of the Lac de la Gruyère, a villa with a Gallo-Roman sanctuary was found. Roman remains had already emerged in the second half of the nineteenth century, but systematic excavations began only in 2000. The main house of the villa was identified, with a courtyard surrounded by a porticus with sandstone columns of the Tuscan order. Next to the courtyard bathing rooms were excavated, a block measuring 26.60 x 13.30 m. At least four of the rooms had hypocausts. The rooms were decorated with paintings on white and red backgrounds, of which many fragments were found. The baths were built in the last quarter of the second century.
Plan of the baths. 1, 4: tepidaria; 2: sudatorium; 7, 11: caldaria; 3: service area; 5: porticus of the main house;
6: palaestra; 16, 17: vestibule, apodyterium; 18, 19: frigidaria. Vauthey - Garnerie-Peyrollaz 2004, fig. 4.About 200 meters to the south-east of the baths a Gallo-Roman sanctuary was excavated. A square temple was found measuring 10 x 10 m., with a square cella with sides of 4.75 m. A nearby sandstone slab (2.00 x 1.40 m.) may have been the base of an altar. A small structure on the other side of the temple (2 x 3 m.) will have been a little chapel. A second building (14.50 x 12.00 m.) was erected on top of an older, similar building. It consisted of a porticus and two rooms next to a hall. In one of the rooms a hearth was found, suggesting the presence of a kitchen. The hall will have been used for communal ritual meals. Amongst the finds were terracotta and glass vessels, more than 150 coins, bells, a bracelet, a brooch, glass beads, and keys. The sanctuary was built around 100 AD and used until the second half of the fourth century.
Plan of the sanctuary. 1: temple; 2: subsidiary building (red: hearth; green: older building); 3: aedicula;
4: sandstone slab (base of an altar?); 5: trench (for drainage?); 6: path. Monnier-Vauthey 2006, fig. 3.
View of the subsidiary building, seen from the south-east. The temple is in the background. Photo: Monnier-Vauthey 2006, fig. 1.
Literature
Vauthey 2003; Jahrbuch der Schweizerischen Gesellschaft für Ur- und Frühgeschichte 87 (2004), 387; Vauthey - Garnerie-Peyrollaz 2004; Monnier-Vauthey 2006; Monnier 2011; Mouquin et al. 2019; Franz M. 2020.
[15-Apr-2024]
