Some Historical and Natural
Sights in one Corner of Provence
Part 4: Nimes and its Temple of Diana
The previous page showed, in one photo, where the Temple of Diana is located in the Fountain Gardens park of Nimes.
The structure is definitely a temple, but to whom it was dedicated is not really known. Since it sits where the waters came forth from the ground (and were supplemented with aqueduct water, see next page), the inference is that it was part of an attempt to convince the gods to favor the city with plentiful water.
So here it stands today:
The facade is placarded to warn against danger of falling rock inside:
The temple grounds are nicely decorated and maintained:
The sunset gave a supernatural veneer to the setting, outside and in:
Inside, the temple is somewhat complex in structure, and I have no idea what the different rooms and passages mean:
This ceiling detail is original, no doubt, and the following photo shows its location on the ceiling just inside a main doorway:
Outside, a trail allows taking pictures of the considerable length of the building and the foundations of its accessory buildings:
As we move further back, there are foundations for accessory buildings, the function of which was once known, but not anymore.
All in all, it is a very striking structure and fits well into this park.
The next adventure takes you to a small portion of the aqueduct that brought Nimes water from the Uzes area, about 40 kilometers to the north.
Climbing a mountain near Glanum
Springs at Fontaine de Vaucluse
Go back to Nimes and its Arena
Go back to Nimes and its Roman tower
Go back to Nimes and its Fountain Gardens park
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