Musée de la Romanité

The Musée de la Romanité is an archaeological museum in Nîmes, a city in the Gard department of southern France's Occitanie region. Opened on 2 June 2018, it stands directly opposite the Arena of Nîmes, the city's ancient Roman amphitheatre. The museum holds the designation of musée de France, conferred by the French Ministry of Culture. Its purpose is to present the archaeological collections of Nîmes across multiple historical periods, from pre-Roman settlement through Roman antiquity and into the medieval era, while exploring the enduring influence of Roman culture on the city across the centuries. The institution functions as both a scientific museum and a broader cultural venue, incorporating a restaurant and Mediterranean garden.

The museum's origins trace to archaeological preventive excavations conducted in 2006-2007 on the allées Jaurès, prior to construction work. These excavations uncovered a Roman domus and two exceptionally well-preserved mosaics named Achille and Penthée, which specialists described as the finest finds since those at Pompeii. This discovery strengthened the resolve of Jean-Paul Fournier, then mayor of Nîmes, to create a new museum capable of displaying these rare works alongside existing collections held in the city's nineteenth-century archaeological museum. An international architectural competition followed, with three finalists, Rudy Ricciotti, Elizabeth de Portzamparc, and Richard Meier, exhibiting their projects in May 2012 at the Carré d'Art. The jury selected Elizabeth de Portzamparc's design. The foundation stone was laid on 11 May 2015, and on 15 December that year, monumental archaeological pieces including the Bellerophon mosaic and milestone stones were transferred by crane from the former museum at the cloître des Jésuites to the construction site. On 2 May 2016, the museum project received the Future Heritage Award, recognizing outstanding contemporary architecture that creates future cultural heritage. After more than five years of studies and construction, the museum opened to the public on 2 June 2018. A restaurant on the second floor opened with a menu created by starred chef Franck Putelat.

The museum's collections span from the pre-Roman period to contemporary times, organized around three major chronological divisions. The pre-Roman section covers the seventh century BCE through the first century BCE, featuring a complete reconstruction of a Gallic house based on discoveries at the Gailhan site. The Roman period, from the first century BCE through the third century CE, forms the core of the collection, with extensive material on urban planning, domestic architecture, daily life, and decorative arts. The medieval section covers the tenth through fifteenth centuries CE, documenting the city's contraction, the burial and reuse of ancient remains, and the transformation of the arena into a---fortified enclosure with housing and a place of worship at its centre. Throughout the permanent exhibition, 65 multimedia devices using augmented reality and audiovisual technologies animate the collections. The visitor route is structured around a monumental double-revolution staircase that transports visitors chronologically through these periods.

Among the museum's most significant pieces are the mosaics discovered during the 2006-2007 excavations. The Penthée mosaic ranks among the most spectacular works in the collection, with specialists having compared its state of preservation to the finest examples from Pompeii. The Achille mosaic, discovered in the same campaign, is equally notable. The Bellerophon mosaic, transferred from the former archaeological museum, constitutes another major monumental piece around which the new museum was conceptually built. The museum also preserves milestone stones, or bornes milliaires, transferred from the cloître des Jésuites. From the medieval period, sculpted blocks of bas-reliefs from the early fourteenth century survive from the destroyed église Saint-Martin, demolished in 1622; these mix profane and religious subjects and were previously held at the Musée lapidaire. The atrium features the remains of a monumental pediment evoking the origins of Nîmes. The museum also includes a reconstruction of the Domus Villa Roma, offering visitors immersion in Roman domestic life.

The museum building was designed by French-Brazilian architect Elizabeth de Portzamparc. Its most distinctive feature is a pleated glass toga, whose glass blades evoke a mosaic pattern. These long bands of opaline glass are not regularly aligned but present curves and offsets that animate the facade. Irregular voids open between the bands, creating elongated curvilinear windows from the interior that frame views of the exterior, particularly the eastern flank of the adjacent arena to which the museum is conceptually linked. The roof terrace offers a 360-degree view of Nîmes' most emblematic sites. The complex integrates multiple functions, scientific museum, restaurant, and Mediterranean garden, within its contemporary architectural envelope. The site faces the bimillennial arena across a broad plaza, placing the new institution in direct dialogue with one of the best-preserved Roman amphitheatres in existence.

The Musée de la Romanité is located in central Nîmes, facing the Arena of Nîmes, in the Gard department of the Occitanie region. Since its opening on 2 June 2018, it has operated as a public institution with the official status of musée de France. The museum maintains an active temporary exhibition programme in a dedicated 600-square-metre space, with past exhibitions including Gladiateurs, héros du Colisée (2018), Pompéi, un récit oublié (2019), Bâtir un Empire. Une exploration virtuelle des mondes romains (2019-2020), L'empereur romain, un mortel parmi les dieux (2021), and Achille et la guerre de Troie (2024-2025). The museum's website is https://museedelaromanite.fr/.