Musée Narbo Via

Narbo Via restores the past of Narbonne, capital of the province of Narbonnaise under the name of Narbo Martius, from which almost no visible trace remains today.

The Narbo Via museum building was designed by the international studio for architecture “Foster+Partners” in association with the Adrien Gardère studio for the museography and the Nîmes architect Jean Capia.

The backbone of the museum building is a monumental wall made up of 760 blocks of stone, most of which were taken from the ancient city’s burial sites. It recreates the memory and monumentality of the Roman city and constitutes an open and flexible storage area, thanks to an automated system never before used in a museum.

Spread over 2,600 m², the tour presents the city of Narbo Martius under the Roman Empire, through more than 950 exhibits, including monumental remains and sumptuous decorations from the houses of the Clos de la Lombarde, an archaeological site in Narbonne (mosaics, wall paintings worthy of Pompeii). A real place of life, Narbo Via is equipped with a 192-seat auditorium, a shop, educational workshops, research areas and gardens that can host open-air shows.

In addition to the eponymous museum, Narbo Via is a public establishment for cultural cooperation (EPCC) which brings together two other ancient sites: the Horreum and Amphoralis, which are displayed alongside the Narbo Via museum.  The Horreum is one of the only Roman monuments preserved and open to the public in the centre of Narbonne. Its underground galleries, dating from the 1st century, must have been the foundations of a building. Amphoralis, in Sallèles-d’Aude (20 minutes from Narbonne by car), presents the remains of a Gallo-Roman potter’s workshop where amphorae of the Gaulish 4 type were mass-produced between the 1st and 3rd centuries.