Maison Carré

The Maison carrée is an ancient Roman temple in Nîmes, southern France; it is one of the best-preserved Roman temples to survive in the territory of the former Roman Empire [1]. It is a mid-sized Augustan provincial temple of the Imperial cult, a caesareum [1]. In about 4–7 AD, the Maison carrée was dedicated or rededicated to Gaius and Lucius Caesar, grandsons and adopted heirs of Augustus who both died young [1]. The inscription dedicating the temple to Gaius and Lucius was removed in medieval times [1]. The Maison carrée is similar to a Tuscan-style Roman temple as described in the writings of Vitruvius, a contemporary Roman writer on architecture, although it uses the Corinthian order [1]. Raised on a 2.85 m high podium, and at 26.42 m by 13.54 m forming a rectangle almost twice as long as it is wide, the temple dominated the forum of the Roman city of Nîmes, in what is now southern France [1].