Excavations beneath the Hôtel-Dieu hospital, next to Notre-Dame cathedral on the Île de la Cité, have uncovered a wall 20 metres long. The stone and timber structure was found in July and presented to the public at the end of September.
Archaeologists believe it is the remains of a fortification dating from the time when Paris was called Lutetia, before its conquest by Julius Caesar’s troops in 52 BC. The structure is thought to be around 2,000 years old.
The French Ministry of Culture described the find as a “major breakthrough”. For the first time, there is evidence that Gallic Lutetia was located on the Île de la Cité, in the city centre, and not in Nanterre, in the western suburbs, as had been assumed.
