One of the largest Roman villas in Gaul, in Auxerre –

Archaeologists have discovered one of the largest Roman villas in Gaul near Exel in central France. The structure is known to exist, and the first remains were discovered in 1966, when a gravel pit was dug at the site. A rough excavation at the time discovered a rectangular building of about 700 square meters (7,535 square feet) with a high slaughter system of ten rooms and bathroom systems. It is considered a huge but moderate country house. New excavations at the site have unearthed a massive structure covering 4,000 square meters (43,055 square feet). This means that the 1966 building is just a secondary annex to a larger, larger villa complex.

The Galo Moman city of Autisiodorum is located at the intersection of the Yonne River and the main Roman road. It began in the first century but became one of the seven capital cities in the Roman Empire province of Lugdunensis Senonia in the early 4th century. With evidence of occupation and modification from the first to fourth centuries, this villa spans the life of the Rome Autonomous Region.

Enclosed by outer walls, the villa features a central square creeping garden and a rectangular basin on the north side, which can be both an attractive decoration and an actual source of water for the house. There is a small fountain on the south side of the garden. It is flanked by a gallery with door porch, with different rooms such as reception room, work space, and probably kitchen. Large hot baths are attached to the east wing of the dome.

A large quadrilateral space, against the western border wall, may correspond to Part of the countryside . The first result shows two stages of the building, but perhaps three mark the history of this rural institution.[…]

The large festival villas in Roman Gaul are characterized by their huge dimensions (the buildings are distributed in several hectares) and have developed with considerable development (pars urbana), that’s it here. They are almost always characterized by the presence of private bathrooms (usually large, directly connected or very close to the latter). We usually use noble materials to find exquisite buildings: marble, mosaic, murals, etc., as well as special arrangements such as basins, fountains, gardens, etc., which can sometimes be developed into several courtyards, small private shelters. These villas form the heart of a vast estate belonging to wealthy landowners, which certainly constitute the political elite of ancient cities. Few of them are widely digging out such a large pars urbana.