Roman Villa of Chiragan

One of the largest and most luxurious Roman villas in Gaul, located on the Garonne riverbank near Martres-Tolosane, roughly 60 km southwest of Toulouse. Occupied from the 1st to 4th century AD, the walled estate covered approximately 16 hectares, with the residential section alone spanning nearly 20,000 m2. Exposed by a storm in May 1826, excavations yielded the most substantial marble sculpture collection ever found in France, spanning four centuries and including imperial portrait busts, mythological figures, and architectural elements. The villa featured thermal baths covering 760-1,360 m2, peristyles, cryptoporticos, and multiple courtyards. Leon Joulin's meticulous late 19th-century excavations pioneered methodical stratigraphy-based archaeology.