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FORGOTTEN TIMES In the IVth Century AD theatre performances, condemned by the church which judged them immoral, were banned by the emperors. The abandoned buildings were sometimes occupied by refugee populations or were used as fortresses. During the excavation of the ruins of the Vienne theatre some evidence of domestic life was gathered suggesting that the edifice had been lived in temporarily. Almost all the limestone blocks used as facing as well as the marble from the stage rapidly disappeared. Some of them were re-used directly as foundations for new buildings, others were converted into lime. Moreover, traces of lime kilns were found. Only the masonry foundations and the vaulted substructures that supported the terraces remained of the ancient edifice. These remains were progressively buried beneath vegetation and were soon covered by terraced gardens. But the memory of the monument remained in local toponymy : at the end of the Middle Ages, a house built in the area was called the maison des arènes (the house of the arena) and a square at the foot of the Pipet hill was named the place du Cirou (Cirou Square) which became the place du cirque (Circus Square) in the XVIIIth Century. Because of their curved shape, the vaulted terrace substructures which were partially accessible, led people to think that the building had been circular and was an amphitheatre.This opinion was confirmed in the reproduction of the ancient city engraved about 1829 by E. Rey, drawing teacher and curator of the Vienne Museum. |
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