Maison Carrée

About this place

The Maison carrée is an ancient Roman temple in Nîmes, southern France; it is one of the best-preserved Roman temples to survive in the territory of the former Roman Empire. It is a mid-sized Augustan provincial temple of the Imperial cult, a caesareum. The Maison carrée inspired the neoclassical Église de la Madeleine in Paris, Saint Marcellinus Church in Rogalin, Poland, and in the United States the Virginia State Capitol, which was designed by Thomas Jefferson, who had a stucco model made of the Maison carrée while he was minister to France in 1785. In September 2023, the Maison carrée of Nîmes was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Read the surviving remains as parts of a larger setting rather than isolated objects. Their positions, scale and materials can help you picture the activities that once took place here and distinguish ancient fabric from later reconstruction.