Villa du Pont d'Oly

About

The villa of the Pont d'Oly, in Jurançon en Béarn, in the department of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques designates Gallo-Roman remains of the fourth century, located on the left bank of the Neez. The first remains found are undoubtedly thermal baths, the building measuring 38 meters and comprising 16 rooms, half of which are mosaics. On the left bank of the Neez were found the remains of a spa with a room mosaïque with figurative motifs including a Neptune surrounded by marine animals, and on the right bank a building including a gallery in the hemicycle from which parts were heated on the ground decorated with polychrome mosaics.

The spa could have been built to satisfy the chiefs of the military camp built at the Gindalos site. However, if these remains were in a good state of conservation in 1850, they were subsequently severely damaged. The villa was discovered around 1770, at a time when preventive archaeology did not exist.

Indeed, the rush with which the excavations carried out by the English Bradshaw and Hodgson and the cantoners of the city in 1850 were carried out caused invaluable damage...