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THE METAMORPHOSES OF A MONUMENT The two parts of the forum still standing owe their preservation to almost constant re-use over 2000 years.The forum arches became part of the maison forte des Canaux (canal stronghold) created in the Middle Ages. They thus became foundations of the Tour d'Orange (Orange Tower) named after a prince of Orange who was said to have been imprisoned there (?). In 1566 the "maison des Canaux" housed the consuls of Vienne who administered the city and it fulfilled this function till 1771. Then, the archaeologist, P. Schneyder, built a theatre in part of the fortress. Next, the ground floor of the tower was demolished around 1806 to 1807, partially uncovering the arches. It wasn't until the 1930s, when the adjoining Saint-Paul's hospital was demolished, that the arches were finally uncovered. The Temple was turned into a church probably from the Vth Century, under the name of Sainte-Marie-la-Vieille or Notre-Dame-de-la-Vie. The existence if this church which became a parish church is confirmed by texts of the beginning of the XIth Century. The re-use of the building meant that the cella was destroyed and the archways walled up. Doors and windows were made in these walls in the course of the church's history. At the time of the Revolution, the church was secularised and successively transformed into a Temple of Reason, a Commercial and Magistrates' Court, then, from 1822, a Museum and Library. The monument was restored between 1853 and 1870. The proposal to restore the Roman temple by destroying all the medieval alterations and reconstructing the cella was chosen from among the three projects put forward by C. Questel, the Historic Monuments architec. |