It is via the Chaussée Brunehaut, an ancient and straight Roman road, that one must approach Bavay, the ancient Bagacum, capital of the Nervii, whose bravery Caesar himself admired in his Gallic Wars. Situated like an island in the midst of a star of Roman roads that crisscross all of ancient Belgic Gaul, the city reveals, behind the façade of a peaceful flower-adorned village, the vestiges of one of the largest and richest Roman cities in northern France.
BAGACUM, CAPITAL OF THE NERVII TRIBE
Upon arriving in Bavay, one is struck by the vastness of the forum, the nerve center of the Roman city, spanning over 2.5 hectares and offering a glimpse of the city’s extent and significance during its peak between the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD. Bagacum was founded by Roman armies after the arduous conquest of these lands of Belgic Gaul by Caesar. Perched on a plateau and situated at the crossroads of Roman roads linking Boulogne to Trier or Cambrai to Cologne, Bagacum became the capital of the Nervii tribe, an enormous territory stretching from Cambrai to Antwerp. The forum, unearthed from the 1940s onwards, one of the largest in the Roman world, testifies to the city’s grandeur, a mandatory passage to Germania. One cannot help but be impressed by the scale of its ruins emerging amidst a bed of flowers. Divided into three parts, the forum comprised a basilica, an administrative and judicial place 98 meters long, the largest discovered to date, surpassing even that of Carthage, a public square, and a sacred area surrounding a temple likely dedicated to the imperial deity.
All around, the forum was bordered by colonnaded porticoes on two levels around the sacred area. Today, this is the best-preserved part, and one cannot help but marvel at the state of conservation of the arcades in opus mixtum, alternating rows of bricks and stones reminiscent of the bichrome style of the 16th-century Church of Our Lady of the Assumption, whose bulbous spire watches over the site like a link to the present city.
As you walk along, the remains of windows, painted plasters, and staircases take you on a timeless journey, and one would hardly be surprised to encounter a busy Gallo-Roman in a toga behind a pillar coming to speak to us. The projection of footsteps and Latin-speaking characters enhances this impression.
GENIO CIVITATIS NERVIORUM, “TO THE GENIUS OF THE CITY OF THE NERVII”
The visit to the adjoining museum further elucidates the life of this city, continuing to transform us into archaeologists on the lookout for clues left by history.
There, one finds finely crafted Corinthian capitals, statues of ancient deities, and inscriptions showing how Celts and Romans had become one people. An inscription carved in stone: Genio civitatis nerviorum, “to the genius of the city of the Nervii,” shows how thoroughly this Gallic people had Romanized.
Upstairs, a spectacular bronze treasure is revealed, blending statuettes of deities, ornate handles, surprisingly complex locks and keys, but above all, numerous everyday objects that help us better understand the lives of Bagacum’s inhabitants. Finally, a model and a 3D reconstruction film allow for a better understanding of what the site looked like during its splendor.
But the trace of the Nervii does not stop at the Forum, and one can feel their presence and that of their deities by following the path of the springs that begins at the church of Louvigny-Bavay and meanders under the mysterious cover of the foliage. Water, a divine treasure, seems to be at the heart of Bavay’s history, and one can venture as far as Floursies, over 20 km to the southeast, where the spring that fed ancient Bagacum via an aqueduct emerges. At the foot of the church of Floursies, the spring surfaces in a magnificent Roman basin paved with blue stones, its clear and mysterious water flowing away under the gaze of a statue of Saint Eligius, placed there in the 16th century as if to knight a place whose spiritual power has been unfolding since ancient times.
