Maison Carrée — Attraction in Nîmes

The early First Century BCE Roman temple, popularly known at the Maison Carée in the ancient Roman city of Nîmes (southern France) is notable not only because it is a fine example of Roman architecture, but also because it is the direct inspiration of two notable Neoclassical buildings, one French and the other American. Dwarfing the "Square House," the L'église Sainte-Marie-Madeleine in Paris copies the design and orders nonetheless. Thomas Jefferson was American minister to France when, in 1785 he saw the temple at Nîmes and received a commission to design a new State House for Virginia. The Jefferson building has changed over the years, notably with the addition of chambers to the right and left, but the central building clearly shows the inspiration of the old Roman temple dedicated to the grandsons of Augustus. Jefferson said of the Maison Carée, "We took for our model what is called the Maison quarree of Nismes [an old spelling of the city], one of the most beautiful, if not the most beautiful and precious morsel of architecture left us by antiquity. It was built by Caius and Lucius Caesar, and repaired by Louis XIV., and has the suffrage of all the judges of architecture, who have seen it, as yielding to no one of the beautiful monuments of Greece, Rome, Palmyra, and Balbec, which late travellers have communicated to us. It is very simple, but it is noble beyond expression...." Jefferson believed in the morality of architecture and said of the prospect of his plan, it has "...as its object is to improve the taste of my countrymen, to increase their reputation, to reconcile to them the respect of the world, and procure them its praise." Well, noble imitators aside, take the Maison Carée on its own. The square is a fine place to spend some time. Move around the building with the sun, taking the shade to rest from all the explorations you are making in...

I wouldn't reccommend it unless you have plenty of time in Nimes.

We went because it was included in the Nimes Pass. We were told that the building just had a theatre inside it, and no museum. The film screening starts every half hour (eg: 10, 10:30, 11). We walked past earlier in the morning, but the line to get in was too long. We walked past at lunch time, but it was closed. In the afternoon, we lined up for 20 minutes to see the film screening. After about 5 minutes, staff members came out and started talking to some of the people in the line. They stopped two couples up from us, and then walked back inside. None of us seemed to know what happened, so we kept lining up. When the earlier screening finished, people started walking in until the line stopped inside the building. People in front of us argued with the staff for five minutes in French, and we didn't know what was going on. Then the staff member started shouting instructions at us in French, continuously, even though it was clean nobody understood, until I asked her (in French) if she spoke English even though she had an English pin on her shirt. It turns out they had let too many people in, and wanted us to walk back and line up, even though our spots had been taken by the people behind us! Everyone was quite frustrated as there had been no communication with the staff. They obviously spoke multiple languages, because they badges said so, but they continued to yell information in French. It would have been a better use of everyone's time if they had counted people as they walked past, and stopped them, before they entered the building, when maximum capacity had...

The building has undergone extensive restoration over the centuries. Until the 19th century, it formed part of a larger complex of adjoining buildings. These were demolished when the Maison Carrée housed what is now the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nîmes (from 1821 to 1907), restoring it to the isolation it would have enjoyed in Roman times. The pronaos was restored in the early part of the 19th century when a new ceiling was provided, designed in the Roman style, the present door was made in 1824.

The Maison Carrée during and after restoration (2006-2011).

It underwent a further restoration between 1988–1992, during which time it was re-roofed and the square around it was cleared, revealing the outlines of the forum. Sir Norman Foster was commissioned to build a modern art gallery and public library, known as the Carré d'Art, on the far side of the square, to replace the city theater of Nîmes, which had burnt down in 1952. This provides a startling contrast to the Maison Carrée but renders many of its features, such as the portico and columns, in steel and glass. The contrast of its modernity is thus muted by the physical resemblance between the two buildings, representing architectural styles 2000 years apart.

The Maison Carrée inspired the neoclassical Église de la Madeleine in Paris, St. 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...