Villa of Nort-sur-Erdre (La Motte Saint-Georges)
About
The villa above the Erdre valley at Nort-sur-Erdre yielded the first completely mapped residential plan of any Roman country house in western France. Its residential quarter spread across roughly 6,400 square meters, arranged around a central courtyard with a double gallery built in a Mediterranean style rare so far from the Mediterranean itself. Archaeologists excavated the site over the winter of 2005-2006 ahead of new development, though the mounds had been noted since the 19th century. The estate's working life ran from the 1st through the 3rd century, meaning its courtyard house already stood above the Erdre valley in 117 CE.
What happened here
A working estate with a comfortable house attached, and the proportions vary with how rich the owner is and how often he visits. The farm side has presses for oil and wine, threshing floors, storage sunk into the ground, stables and quarters for the workforce. The residential side has baths, dining rooms sited for the view, mosaics, and a garden with water in it. A manager runs the place year-round and reports; the owner arrives for the vintage and for the summer. Produce goes to market or to the owner's town house, and the accounts are kept in detail. Some villas are pure retreat with no farm at all, built on a cliff or a lake specifically to be looked at from a boat.
Sources
Nearby
Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →