Fanum des Châteliers

About

Le fanum des Châteliers is a Celto-Roman-inspired temple located on the Oppidum des Châteliers in the commune of Amboise in the department of Indre-et-Loire in the Centre-Val de Loire region of France. The fanum appears in the form of a square cella, surrounded by a gallery, the whole taking place in the center of a peribol. The temple is built in the first century but certainly rests on older structures. It is then rearranged before being dismantled to the level of its foundations and elements recovered for other uses. Its remains are listed as historical monuments in 1987, while the land on which it is built and the surrounding areas constitute an archaeological reserve.

The Oppidum des Châteliers occupies the site of a spur formed by the confluence of the Loire and the Amass. This plateau, which rests on turonian limestone, is located at an average altitude of 100 m and dominates the valley of about fifty meters. This strategic geographical site is permanently occupied by Man since Neolithic. At La Tene finale, it is barred east of a rampart of earth. The oppidum thus constituted, a...