Maison Carrée at Nimes visitor guide

Visit Maison Carrée at Nimes, France

The Maison Carrée is a Roman period temple in the centre of the town of Nimes, in the Gard department of the Occitanie region of France, inscribed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

The name of the temple was adopted in the Middle Ages. Despite the name, the temple clearly is not square but in the French language at that time a rectangle was described as a "long square", hence the name.

Discover the Maison Carrée at Nimes

France This Way review: the Maison Carrée at Nimes is perhaps the most impressive Roman temple we have seen in Europe apart from the pantheon in Rome, and lovingly restored, and we highly recommend you stop to admire the structure as you explore Nimes

The Maison Carrée was constructed in the first century AD and dedicated to Augustus Caesar, adopted son of Julius Caesar. Over the following 200 years the temple has had several different uses, as a place for government officials to meet, a residential house, a church for Augustin monks, a stable and a museum, but it is now restored to simply being a temple.

The temple was built at the southern end of the Place du Forum. Unfortunately the remaining parts of the forum which included a large open place surrounded by galleries and porticoes no longer exist, but inside the Maison Carrée you can see a model of the original buildings, and it would clearly have been a very impressive site.

The architecture was inspired by the Temple Apollo in Rome, which was of the same style but larger. Unfortunately only small fragments remain of the Apollo temple.

The temple is 15 metres wide, 32 metres long and 17 metres high, and in a style called hexastyle corinthian. Hexastyle refers to the six columns across the front of the temple, and Corinthian refers to the style of the decorative elements at the top of the columns (Roman columns are typically doric, ionic or corinthian, with the corinthian having the most decorative elements).

In total the temple has 30 columns, each nine metres tall, and they each have (very restored) carvings of greenery at the top. Above these there is a substantial frieze of greenery on three sides of the building, also carved, around the circumference of the building. The fourth wall, the front, had a carved inscription dedicated to Augustus.

In common with all ancient temples, there is a triangle above the porch area, known as a fronton.

The temple is built on a substantial platform to help accentuate its grandeur. After admiring the Maison Carrée from various places in the square that surrounds the temple, you can climb a series of stone stairs to reach the entrance.

The rear two thirds of the temple is enclosed by stone walls but the front part is open. The ceiling in this open part of the temple is also very beautifully carved.

You can pay to enter the temple. The interior is very basic and of limited interest, but if you have a combined ticket to enter the monuments of Nimes, the Maison Carrée is included in the price. We probably would not pay to enter without this combined ticket.

Inside today there are no original features, but there are a few exhibits showing the history of the temple, and the model of the temple in Roman times referred to above.

Attractions nearby

Elsewhere in Nimes centre there are other Roman monuments, a substantial park and other places of interest. See our guide to Nimes for information about these other highlights and the town centre.

See more Ancient Monuments in France. You can find more travel ideas in the Gard guide and the Languedoc-Roussillon guide.

To make travel arrangements to visit Maison Carrée at Nimes see HERE