MONTMAURIN
Haute-Garonne, France.
From 1947 to 1960 a rich Gallo-Roman villa on the left
bank of the Save has been excavated and restored. Its
presence at the center of a vast agricultural domain probably goes back to the middle of the 1st c. A.D. In the
time of Constantine it was transformed into a luxurious
rural residence which combined the pursuit of comfort
with the opulence of adornment with marbles and
mosaics.
One km downstream on the same side of the Save, a
sanctuary of the waters was built around the deified
spring of La Hillère. It had cult sites, a caravansary, and
a market. The sacred character of the place lasted into
the Christian period and until the present.
The villa is open to the public, as is a small museum
in the village of Montmaurin.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
G. Fouet,
La villa gallo-romaine de
Montmaurin, Gallia suppl. XX (1969), rev, by O. Brogan
in
AJA 75.4 (1971) 457. For La Hillère: M. Labrousse
in
Gallia 13 (1955) 207 & fig. 8; 22 (1964) 440-42 & fig.
8; 24 (1966) 420-21
P; 26 (1968) 526-28 & figs. 10-11;
28 (1970) 407.
M. LABROUSSE
