Gallo-Roman Temple of Tours

The Gallo-Roman temple of Tours is an ancient religious building of the fanum type, dated to the late 1st century CE. It was located in the city center of the ancient settlement of Caesarodunum, which also corresponds to the heart of the contemporary city of Tours, in the Indre-et-Loire department. It most likely succeeded an earlier sanctuary built in the first half of the 1st century at the same location. The temple belongs to the relatively small group of urban Celtic-inspired temples with a circular sanctuary, such as the Tower of Vesunna in Périgueux. Its cella probably measured over thirty meters in external diameter and stood at least twenty meters high. It was preceded to the east by a pronaos in classical Roman style, topped with a triangular pediment, and the entire structure was enclosed within a peribolus of about 0.7 hectares. The temple appears as the result of the merging of two religious and architectural cultures, although the reasons for choosing such a unique design remain unknown. Many elements of its architecture, decor, and surroundings remain undiscovered. Furthermore, historians and archaeologists know nothing about the dates of the temple’s abandonment and destruction, nor the identity of the deity or deities it was dedicated to. Nevertheless, from the Early Middle Ages onward, a necropolis occupied the site of this ancient monument, and a 15th-century

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