Overall Impact: ***** 5 stars – Less well known than the Arch of Galerius but has the impact of the Pantheon in Rome. A unique survival (and a marvellous surprise to us!)
Access **** 4 stars – Situated a short walk (125m) north of the Arch and, unlike the Arch, in a quiet side street. Recently restored and now open to the public.
Atmosphere *** 3 stars – C5th mosaics only partially remain. Damaged during the Mausoleum’s period as an Ottoman Mosque, they have now been wonderfully restored.
Other ** 2 stars – There is no good guide book on sale at the site – but do check out local book shops for a scholarly exposition which we happened upon. No good post cards available.
The Rotunda of Galerius is north of his Arch: built in AD306, it is usually thought to have been intended as his Mausoleum. However, when in AD311 Galerius died hideously from a disease usually interpreted as gangrene, he was buried at Felix Romuliana (Gamzigrad in Serbia), his birthplace. Therefore it probably never fulfilled its intended function.
The Rotunda’s dome is 30m high and is one of the largest surviving from the Empire. The walls are extremely thick, explaining how it has survived earthquakes through the centuries.
East End Apse added when Mausoleum converted into Church in late C4th
It was empty until Theodosius I had it converted into a church in the late C4th. It was then decorated with some very fine mosaics apparently depicting prominent members of the Thessalonica community, rather than Imperial portraits.
The church was turned into a mosque by the Ottomans in 1590. It was re-opened after extensive restoration in 2015, as a Museum.
Access * 1 star – easy access to Museum, other areas difficult to find
Atmosphere * 1 star – you need to use your imagination to visualise Visigoths
Other *** 3 stars – fascinating subject, but seemingly little local interest
Brief Historical Background
The Visigoths under Alaric sacked Rome in 410, seizing portable treasures. Even Galla Placidia – the sister of Honorius, the Western Augustus – was captured. On Alaric’s death his brother Athaulf succeeded him as leader and spent the years 410 to 415 operating in the Gallic and Spanish provinces, playing competing factions of Germanic and Roman commanders off against each another. He captured Toulouse in 413 and married Galla Placidia in 414 as the Western Imperial Government started to come to terms with the Goths as useful allies. Honorius’ regime used Athaulf to provide Visigothic assistance in regaining nominal Roman control of Hispania from the Vandals, Alans and Suevi.
In 418, Honorius’ regime rewarded his Visigothic allies, now under King Wallia, by giving them land in Gallia Aquitania along the Garonne Valley with Tolosa (Toulouse) as their capital. This is thought legally to have been achieved through hospitalitas – the rules for the billeting of soldiers. At first the Visigoths were not given a large extent of landed estates in Aquitania but they did gain the right to the taxes of the region, so that the Gallic aristocrats, farmers and traders now paid their taxes to the Visigoths instead of to the Western Roman Government.
Settling a barbarian group effectively as a ‘state within a state’ within the boundary of the Empire was a novel and desperate measure, but it was a settlement which the Honorian regime – holed up within the walls of Ravenna, behind protecting marshes – grasped with some relief after Alaric’s sack of Rome in 410 and the chaos of the previous years.
Furthermore the Visigoths, like other barbarian tribes, were Arian Christians having been converted in the mid-Fourth Century when the Arian doctrine of the Trinity was the ‘orthodoxy’ of the Church and Emperor. Arianism is the belief that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, who was begotten by God the Father at a point in time, and is therefore distinct from God the Father and therefore subordinate to the Father. The Emperor Constantine at the Council of Nicaea in 325, and Theodosius at the Council of Constantinople in 381, had strengthened the Nicene formula of the co-essential divinity of the Son, applying to Jesus Christ the term “consubstantial”. The 381 version speaks of the Holy Spirit as worshipped and glorified with the Father and the Son. Thus Arians became heretics in the sight of the Empire.
The Visigothic Kingdom continued in Spain, but not in Toulouse, until the Muslim invasion of 711. Clovis welded together the Frankish Kingdom in the early Sixth Century, and in 507, with Burgundian assistance, he defeated the Visigothic King Alaric II at the Battle of Vouillé (Campus Vogladensis) near Poitiers and went on to capture Aquitania and sack Toulouse. By 508 the Visigoths had lost their their grip on Aquitania and only retained the coastal strip called Septimania stretching from Narbonne and Nîmes.
Tolosa was the Visigothic capital for nearly a century – so can we find the remains of their regime?
They are very hard to find. We spent a few days haunting the museums and sites of Toulouse and there are not many traces and very little published information. What remains is generally described as ‘late antique’ rather than Visigothic, and there are few explicit references to the Visigothic period.
This post is about what we found.
Map courtesy of ‘L’ancienne église Sainte-Marie ;a Daurade à Toulouse’ by Quitterie Cazes, published by Musée Saint-Raymond
Health Warnings
Two ‘health warnings’, though, are needed: first, it is not unreasonable to talk about ‘late antiquity’ since any existing buildings of Tolosa would, as part of the Empire, have been made use of by the new Visigothic rulers of the City after 413. Furthermore, it is difficult to distinguish between the Orthodox (Nicene) churches and sarcophagi of the Fifth Century from the Arian ones of the Visigoths.
Secondly, because Alaric is thought in 410 to have carried off from Rome Titus’s booty from the Sack of the Jerusalem Temple, including the Menorah (the seven-branched candelabra), and because in the 13th Century Toulouse went on to become the centre of the Cathars and the Albigensian Crusade, one’s investigations can quickly stray into the misty world of pseudo-history and fictional conspiracy theory. What follows in this blog does not touch on the fate of the Ark of the Covenant, the Priory of Sion – or the novels of Dan Brown!
Sarcophagi in the Musée Saint Raymond
In the museum basement there is a fine collection of late antique sarcophagi from across south-west France. The intriguing question is: are they from the Visigothic period, and are they Orthodox (Nicene) or Arian – and how would you tell?
Model of the Apse of the Daurade Church in Arian Visigothic Days – model was in Musée Saint Raymond early 2017
The Daurade Church
One of the most tragic losses is the Daurade or ‘golden’ Church. It seems likely that this was the Arian Church, close to the Visigothic Palace. The church consisted of nave based on the classical Roman Temple of Apollo, a probably Fifth Century apse, and later additions. It was demolished for a grand but conventional French classical church of 1761. Frustratingly, we are left just with drawings of the impressive apse made before its destruction. One can only think, for a parallel, of the mosaics at San Appolinare Nuovo in Ravenna.
Surviving early column and capital (or replica?) in a Chapel of the current Daurade Church
The demolition of a classical Temple with late antique mosaics puts one in mind of Charles V’s comment when he learned that the stunning mosque at Córdoba had had a standard C16th church inserted at its core. He reputedly said: “You have built here what you or anyone might have built anywhere else, but you have destroyed what was unique in the world.”
Only remaining piece of Daurade mosaics now in Avignon
All that survives are the late antique columns that were given away after the demolition in the C18th and a small fragment of mosaic with gold tesserae.
Model of the Remains of the Visigothic Palace revealed in 1989 before their destruction. Model was in Musée Saint Raymond early 2017.
The Visigothic Palace
This was discovered in 1989 adjoining the Roman city walls on the bank of the River Garonne, near the site of the NW gate of the Roman City. Although the site was excavated and photographed, there seems to have been no detailed recording made of this unique site and the ruins were not preserved. An undistinguished development of 1990s apartments is no substitute.
Saint Pierre-des-Cuisines
This Church just outside the Roman Walls opposite the Palace and near the Garonne dates from the C5th and was built around a necropolis. Its core is early and would date to the Visigothic period.
Wall in Jardin des Plantes
There is also a small surviving section of late antique wall in the south of the city in the Jardin des Plantes
Reconstruction of Wall, Palace and Dourade area of Visigothic Tolosa courtesy of ‘L’ancienne église Sainte-Marie ;a Daurade à Toulouse’ by Quitterie Cazes, published by Musée Saint-Raymond
Toulouse under the Visigoths
Under the Visigoths, Toulouse appears to have prospered more than cities that remained at that time under imperial Roman rule. Given the dominance of the Garonne Valley down to Bordeaux, and the conquest of Hispania and the Gallic Mediterranean sea-board, Tolosa – unlike many late antique cities – appears to have maintained its population levels. It was the centre of an expansionist, although barbarian, Arian kingdom, one which was dedicated to preserving the civilisation that had laid the golden eggs.
Overall ***** 5 stars – original building and superb mosiacs
Display 3 – very good guide books available, little on site
Access 4 – open and accessible on UNESCO trail
Other Marks the re-imposition of Roman orthodoxy
San Vitale was begun in 526 under Ostrogothic rule, by the Orthodox (Roman) Bishop Ecclesius. It was finished under Bishop Maximian who was sent out from Constantinople after the reconquest by Belisarius. It was paid for by Julius Argentarius. Maximian is definitely depicted in the courtiers behind Justinian in the mosaic in the apse, as Julian may be.
San Vitale is octagonal in plan, preceded by a narthex, flanked by two towers and appears to be heavily influenced by contemporary architecture in Constantinople, where Ecclesius had long resided. The apse is as usual semi-circular on the inside and polygonal on the outside. Above the main body of the Church is a polygonal lantern. It is supposedly is of the same design as the Imperial Audience Chamber in Constantinople. There are no parallels of this design in Italy.
On entering S. Vitale on a sunny day you are struck by the varied play of light and dark, with shafts of sun-light slanting down and illuminating the columns, capitals and above all causing the mosaics to shine and sparkle.
The main glory of S. Vitale are the magnificent mosaics, which testify to the brilliance of the artists and craftsmen of 6th Century Ravenna. It is tempting to describe them but no words can do them justice, nor indeed photos or professional portraits. You just have to see them!
The Presbytery mosaics are all about the Sacrifice of the Eucharist. Thus the triumphal arch leading into the Presbytery is decorated with 15 busts of Christ, the Apostles and Ss. Gervais and Protassius, said to be the sons of S. Vitale. In the ceiling at the centre stands the Mystic Lamb supported by four praying angels. On the side walls next to figures of the evangelists, prophets and Moses are scenes of sacrifice from the Book of Genesis – the Hospitality of Abraham and the Sacrifice of Issac, and the Offered Sacrifces of Abel and Melchizedek.
In the Apse the figure of Christ sits on a blue globe flanked by two angels. The right hand angel offers the crown of martyrdom to S. Vitalis and the left hand offers a scroll to Bishop Ecclesius, the Church founder who carries a model of the Church itself. Interestingly Christ wears the Imperial purple and the angels traditional Roman dress.
Perhaps the most famous mosaics, are the panels facing each other on the side walls of the apse. On the right is the Emperor Justinian in purple with a golden halo, surrounded by court officials, Bishop Maximian is named and speculatively one of the men is Julius Argentarius the patron, and possibly on his right General Belisarius, who re-conquered Ravenna in 540. Palatine Guards with chi-rho symbol on their shields are also shown. Opposite is the Empress Theodora with her court ladies. In typical Byzantine fashion the Emperor and Empress are shown face on looking impassively forward. Showing the Imperial Family in the same way as saints, prophets and angels expresses the authority of both the Emperor and the Church and inextricably links them. This is something first seen in the now lost mosaics of St John the Evangelist.
Display 2 limited information for visitors, hard to use QR codes
Access 3 open and accessible but not on UNESCO trail
Other Hugely significant but heavily restored and bombed!
St John the Evangelist was founded by the Augusta Galla Placidia after 425, when she and her children survived a storm on the passage back from exile in Constantinople to Ravenna, and made a vow to the Evnagelist that if they survived she would build a Church to him.
Alas not much survives from the original structure although the columns, capitals and bases, re-used from a 3rd Century are part of Galla’s building. The magnificent mosaics on the apse were destroyed in 1568, but a detailed description was made before that date.
The mosaics centred on an enthroned figure of Christ with a passage from Matthew 5.7. There were also two panels showing the storm at sea, and representations of the Imperial Family. In medallions above were inages of 10 of Galla Placidia’s relatives going back to Constantine and probably including her deceased son by Athaulf, Theodosius. Beneath the enthroned Christ was a large scale image of the then Bishop of Ravenna, Peter Chrysologus, with his hands in prayer. Peter was flanked by images of Theodosius II, Emperor of the Eastern Empire and Eudocia and their children Arcadius and Eudocia, who was married to Valentinian III, Galla’s son. This was a startling mixture of Christ, the Imperial Family and the Bishop of Ravenna. A combination that was to be followed in Ravenna mosaics in the future at S. Vitale and S. Apollinare in Classe.
An interesting post-script to St John the Evangelist is that the floor from c1215 was excavated following the serious bomb damage of 1944, and panels line the walls. Interestingly and possibly uniquely in the West, these celebrate the sack of Constantinople by the 4th Crusade in 1204, the Crusaders having been lead astray by the Doge of Venice.
Roman Sites 