Trifter

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The historical capital of Saintonge is one of the richest historical art cities of France. Its architecture offers many testimonies from Antiquity to the Middles Ages and the XVIIIth  century. The town was a crossroad for pilgrims to Santiago de Compostella. In the reign of Augustus, Agrippa, Governor of Gaul, founds a city called Mediolanum  Santonum, from the name of the Gallic people living here on the banks of the Charente. Civilization here is brilliant and we are going to visit the splendid vestiges of this glorious period.

Amphitheater.

The Gallo-Roman Amphitheater was begun in the reign of Tiberus and completed around 40 AD under Claudius. It measures 126 m x 102 m and could welcome 12 000 to 15 000 spectators for the bloody and violent fights with gladiators and beasts. Its particular structure, the “cavea” or tiers is characteristic. The amphitheater was used in the Middle-Ages as a quarry. It was excavated and restored in the XIXth century.

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Arch of Germanicus.

The exceptional Arch of Germanicus was built in 18 AD. It is a triumphal arch and a gate to the city. It was erected at the entrance of the old bridge and commemorated the achievement of the road from Lyon to Saintes. When the bridge was destroyed in 1843, the arch was saved by Prosper Mérimée and  moved to the right bank of the Charente. It was restored in 1851. It is 16 m long and 15 m high and was offered by a rich citizen of Saintes whose name is on the entablature. It is dedicated to Emperor Tiberius as well as his two adoptive sons Drusus Caesar and Germanicus. A series of large horizontal cornices separates the various levels of the monument. Three pairs of elegant fluted pilasters crowned with Corinthian capitals decorate both faces. The vaults level comprises fluted columns in the angles.  

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Thermae of Saint-Saloine.

The vestiges found down the hillside of Saint-Vivien at the end of the XIXth century no doubt date from the third quarter of the Ist century AD. The excavations enabled to reveal the “caldarium” or heated rooms of the thermae. They were fringed with a retaining wall reinforced by niches with culs-de-four. From the IIIrd century, this sector was abandoned and occupied by a necropolis. Many sarcophagi were found. A small Palaeo-Christian sanctuary, dedicated to Saint-Saloine was installed in the old thermae, it was damaged in the XVIth century and destroyed at an undetermined period.   

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Archeological Museum.

Created in 1815, the Archeological Museum gathers a very important lapidary collection from the excavations made during the XIXth century on the ramparts erected in the IVth century. Remarkable Gallo-Roman statues, columns, capitals, divinities, amphorae and even metallic fragments of a Roman charriot and pieces of the old aqueduct can be seen. The antique aspect of the museum is the work of the archeologist Charles Dangibeaud. The colonnade comes from antique monuments destroyed in the IIIrd century. Since 2008, a permanent exhibition shows the daily life in Gallo-Roman Period.

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