Bordeaux Métropole
The Gallo-Roman Bordeaux
From the Roman cemetery to the amphitheater of the Palais Gallien: thanks to your guide who will evoke architecture, history and legend... escape to the Gallo-Roman traces of Burdigala.
The Roman cemetery
Antiquity is present through the remains of this first Christian necropolis, used for nearly fourteen centuries. A part of it is still visible in an underground space, which presents the first excavations carried out in 1910 and again in the 1960s. The excavations brought to light stone structures, funerary enclosures, mausoleums, frescoes, amphorae -diverted from their function-, burials under tiles as well as sarcophagi in limestone and marble from the Pyrenees.
In addition to the scientific interest of these excavations, there is also the attraction of the golden legend since it is in this necropolis that the hearts of Charlemagne's valiant knights would have been buried.
The Gallien Palace
What if the ruins of this building were not those of a palace? Remains of the amphitheatre of Burdigala, the Gallian Palace has long been a source of mystery and questioning. Why this name? What were the circumstances of its destruction? How has it survived the centuries? Successively associated with Charlemagne or with a place of witchcraft, then used as a stone quarry, this place has not yet finished revealing its secrets.
As the only ancient monument visible today, it is worth a visit!