MuséoParc Alésia

What you will see

Start in the museum, where more than 600 objects, films and models follow the site from prehistory to the present day. From the roof terrace you look out over the plain and Mont Auxois. Outside, a stretch of the Roman double fortifications has been rebuilt with towers, ditches, sharpened stakes and siege engines. Then drive 3 km up to the hilltop to walk among the foundations of the Gallo-Roman town, with its theatre, forum and craft quarter, and on to the statue.

History

Caesar trapped about 80,000 Gaulish foot soldiers on the plateau. His legions built two rings of earthworks: an inner line of about 15 km to hold the besieged, and an outer line of about 21 km against the Gaulish relief army. After about two months, Vercingetorix surrendered. The town was not destroyed. In the 1st century AD a prosperous Gallo-Roman town grew up on the hill, known for its bronze workers, and it lasted until the 5th century.

Napoleon III, an admirer of Caesar, ordered excavations here in the 1860s. In 1865 a copper statue of Vercingetorix by Aimé Millet, 6.60 metres tall, was raised on the western tip of the hill, on a pedestal designed by Viollet-le-Duc. The MuséoParc opened in March 2012. Its circular building is by the architect Bernard Tschumi, whose larch lattice recalls the Roman fortifications. Since 2021 it has also displayed a larger selection of finds from the hill.