Bâtisseurs de basilique

Frédéric Rossi and Pierre André

French, Roman Museum of Nyon, Exhibition handbook (28p.), 1995.

To take an interest in the construction of this great public monument – the basilica in the forum of the Colonia Iulia Equestris – is to reflect on what was certainly one of the most considerable “major projects” in Roman Helvetia. The construction of a public building is the expression of a political will, the making available of large-scale finance, a complex organisation in the service of a gigantic economic undertaking and the testing of very different types of expertise; it also involves – perhaps to an even more considerable extent – a great deal of sweat (a cold sweat for some …), a diabolical amount of noise and problems of coordination among the innumerable trades and very different people coexisting on more or less acceptable terms.

Price: 10.-