Athena Review Image Archive ™
Nîmes: The Maison Carrée
The Maison Carrée at Nîmes (photo: Athena Review).
One
of the most intact and well-proportioned temples remaining from the
ancient world, the Maison Carrée ("square house") was built at the end
of the first century BC. It contains a 16 BC dedication to Rome and the
emperior Augustus, and another dating from 1 AD to the grandsons of
Augustus, Lucius and Gaius.
Measuring 86 by 43 feet, and similar
in form to the Temple of Augustus and Livia in Vienne, the Maison
Carrée has slender columns 30 ft high with Corinthian capitals. The
architrave over the columns has fine relief carvings of rosettes and
acanthus leaves.
The Maison Carrée served in the Middle
Ages as a canon's house, and as the town hall of Nîmes for a period
after 1823. Today it is still used occasionally for art
exhibitions.
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