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LE VIEIL-EVREUX (Town) NORMANDY,NORTH
Gisacum (Le Vieil-Evreux) Eure, France.
A Roman town 8 km SE of Evreux on a plateau 133 m high and covering an area of
ca. 140 ha in the communes of Le Vieil-Evreux, Miserey, Cierrey, and La Trinite.
The site mentioned in the 9th c. Life of Saint Taurinus, was identified when the
name was found on two inscriptions discovered at Le Vieil-Evreux in 1828 and 1837.
Gallic coins and some strata of Iron Age II found near the sanctuary, baths, and
water tower make it clear that there was a large settlement in pre-Roman times.
From the beginning of the 1st c. A.D. huge monuments were put up, including a
sanctuary which was soon burned down, perhaps at the end of the same century,
and never rebuilt. Gisacum flourished through the 2d c., but in the 4th c. only
a small area near the baths seems to have been occupied. In the Middle Ages the
village of Le Vieil-Evreux grew up around the sanctuary and theater.
The site has been excavated since the early 19th c.: first the theater,
the baths, a large building with mosaics, and the aqueduct were found, then the
sanctuary, which contained two large bronze statues and an inscription on a bronze
tablet. Further excavations in the first half of this century have clarified the
plans of the sanctuary and the baths. In 1934-39 a site thought to be the necropolis
of Le Vieil-Evreux was identified as a spring-sanctuary that became a cemetery
in the Merovingian period. It is a square fanum in a sacred enclosure, a type
common in Normandy; it exhibits two types of construction, the earliest from the
Gallic period. Although close to Gisacum (Cracouville), the fanum is independent
of it.
Gisacum is quadrilateral in shape: three sides have a fairly narrow
(100-200 m) strip of houses around the edge which becomes noticeably wider near
the baths. The E side is ca. 950 m, the N one 1650 m, while the W side, 1250 m
long, abuts on the baths and continues 550 m S. The sanctuary and theater are
aligned on the 1200-in S side, which is backed by the baths. The building known
as the Champ des des is 200 m NE of the baths; part of the site is strewn with
cubes of mosaic. Immediately N of this building aerial photography has revealed
strips of paving in a grid pattern, marking off plots of land; there are no traces
of buildings, but many potsherds and oyster shells. The ground also shows traces
of a huge rectangle. The area may have been a fairground with an esplanade for
public meetings. The center of the quadrilateral shows no signs of occupation,
and the complex of sanctuary, theater, and Champ des des building is isolated
from the residential areas. An aqueduct carried the waters of the Iton river from
ca. 30 km away; it started above ground but ran for the most part underground,
ending near the baths. Here it split into branches which carried water to all
the built-up areas. Ancient roads from Evreux and Lisieux, Rouen, Amiens, Paris,
Sens, Chartres, Le Mans, and Tours met at Gisacum.
The sanctuary (incorrectly called a basilica) was built in a vast
enclosure, incompletely explored, and had a facade 155 m long. It consisted of
three rectangular cella temples facing E, linked by a 35 m wide complex of rooms
and galleries. The temples at the N and S ends are 28 x 20 m, the middle one is
35 x 25 m. The sanctuary seems to have been richly decorated: the ruins have yielded
a mask made of sheet bronze dating from the first half of the 1st c. B.C., some
later (end of 1st c. A.D.) bronze statues of Jupiter and Apollo, and a fragment
of a bronze tablet with an inscription in Latin and Gallic.
The theater, of the theater-amphitheater type, faced E. The facade
was 100 m long, the radius of the cavea 26 m, and that of the orchestra 22 m.
Access was by the axial aisle and six vomitoria. The tiers were apparently made
of earth rather than stone. The baths were 100 m long. In front of the E section
is a porticoed courtyard 75 m square. The building of the Champ des des stretches
over ca. 205 m; it consists of courtyards and rooms of various sizes, some of
them paved with geometric mosaics.
The greater part of Gisacum still awaits excavation: the plan of roads
and aqueducts has not been determined, nor the date and function of the sanctuary.
The unexplored residential area includes several well-constructed buildings apparently
of the 2d c.
During Gallic independence Gisacum was the religious and spiritual
center of the Aulerci Eburovices and the other Aulerci tribes, the Cenomanni and
Diablintes, and as such it probably continued to play an important role for part
of the 1st c. A.D. After the Romans set up an administrative capital at Mediolanum,
pilgrimages provided the only activity at Gisacum. It never really became a city.
M. Le Pesant, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Feb 2006 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
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