Narbonne is only 30 minutes by train from Carcassonne. We’ve been there several times, usually with friends, since it’s an easy day trip that gets us to another French city for even more culture, food, and history. There’s plenty of that last item given that the Romans founded the colony as Narbo Martius in 118 BC to provide a Mediterranean coast stronghold that could provide ample amounts of olive oil and wine for the empire. About a 25-minute walk from the train station, the city recently opened a large archeological museum with 6,000 artifacts from the Roman era, including sculptures, mosaics, and everyday objects found locally. Right in the heart of downtown, however, is another reminder of those ancient times, L’Horreum, that we went to see underground.

Despite the scary sound, at least in English, of L’Horreum, in its original Latin form it meant “warehouse” that could store a variety of items including grain, oil, and wine. Being located 5 meters (16 feet) below the surface without windows ensured that the products remained cool and in the dark. Small oil lamps were the only illumination and it was helpful to see replicas of those in the gift shop area to judge their size (some small enough to fit in one hand) and function. On our visit, a few electric lamps gave us just enough brightness to see the path without distracting from the underground ambiance.

There are 3 main wings in the shape of the letter “c”—north, south, and west—that cover about 200 square meters (2150 square feet). Each corridor is lined with small, individual stone rooms that would have allowed for storage of different types of products individually. Excavations began in 1938 and even today archaeologists can only confirm that L’Horreum was indeed a warehouse for some type of multistoried building above, perhaps a market or even a private villa.

Returning to the ground floor we had a look at the displays of pottery that were in use by the Romans 2000 years ago and then went to the outside courtyard to see stone carvings including a plaque that begins with Emperor Caesar’s name. Continuing with that theme, we left the museum to see a portion of the original road from 118 BC, Via Domitia, that connected Rome with the Iberian Peninsula of Spain and Portugal. With the weather being so beautiful we wandered from there around town, revisiting some favorite spots that you can see in the gallery below.

If you go: Our entrance tickets were 5€ each and they also sold combination tickets to visit other members of the Narbo Via museum group in Narbonne. We arrived at their 10 AM opening, looked around for 45 minutes, and had the museum to ourselves.

Photo notes: That’s the long, central gallery in the featured photo across today’s post and in the first paragraph are the stairs to descend into the warehouse.