Barbarian Gold in southern France

Toulouse, Musée St. Raymond

In the centre of Toulouse in the place St. Sernin, is the St. Raymond useum, open every day and free on the first Sunday of every month.

The museum is on four floors; the basement contains a Roman brick oven, plus a pillar from the 5th century along with sereral sarcophages - stone coffins.  Oh - the museum never mentions "Visigoths."  they just talk about "antiquity tardive" which usually covers the years 400 to 750AD - Visigothic times! 

The tomb is decoaratedin the "Aquitaine school" style, 5th and 6th century, and the marble pillars came from the La Daurade church, called "daurade" because of its gold mosaics.  This church, built by the Visigoths around 440AD, was one of the first in Gaule, but as it was Arian Christian, and not Roman Catholic, the French refer to it as a "temple."   The Visigoths lived in Toulouse between 414 and507, during this time it was their capital.

  But naturally, you can still admire the magnificent Roman remains!

Bacchus, Julius Caesar,  amphores, and Livia, the mothe of Tiberius.

This model of the capitol shows us that this capitol was the same design  as the one in Narbonne, where Alaric II and his family lived, but at Toulouse the Visigoths built, in addition, their own palace.  Part of this still remains and can be seen in the Jardin des Plantes at Toulouse.