page_title: Temple of Janus (Autun)
section_title: The sanctuary (cella and gallery)
hierarchical_section_title: Temple of Janus (Autun) / Architecture / The sanctuary (cella and gallery)
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Autun Saône-et-Loire Temple de Janus (Empire romain)English: Autun Burgundy France Temple of Janus (Roman Empire) This building is indexed in the Base Mérimée, a database of architectural heritage maintained by the French Ministry of Culture,&#160;under the reference PA00113101 . беларуская (тарашкевіца)‎&#160;| বাংলা&#160;| brezhoneg&#160;| català&#160;| Deutsch&#160;| Ελληνικά&#160;| English&#160;| Esperanto&#160;| español&#160;| euskara&#160;| suomi&#160;| français&#160;| magyar&#160;| italiano&#160;| 日本語&#160;| македонски&#160;| Nederlands&#160;| português&#160;| português do Brasil&#160;| română&#160;| русский&#160;| sicilianu&#160;| svenska&#160;| українська&#160;| +/−
context_page_description: The "Temple of Janus" is a Romano-Celtic religious structure located in Autun, Saône-et-Loire, France, to the North-West of the ancient city of Augustodunum.
  The temple lies in the center of a vast sanctuary, whose extent and complexity was revealed by excavations conducted between 2013 and 2016. The site's history dates back to Neolithic times and underwent an important phase of monumental construction in the 1st century CE. The temple was abandoned at the onset of the Early Middle Ages, and its structures were later reused in the fashioning of a Medieval defensive work. The temple has retained two sides of its square cella at a height of over 20 meters, as well as vestiges of its ambulatory and side structure foundations. The temple's supposed dedication to the Roman god Janus is not based on any archaeological or historic fact, and the deity that was venerated in the temple is unknown.
  The Temple of Janus was included on the first list of protected historical French monuments, established in 1840.
context_section_description: The cella was built with a nearly square footprint (16.80 x 16.35 m) and its elevation reaches up to around 24 meters, a record for Gaul. The walls have a thickness of 2.2 meters, built in small, meticulous stonework. The entryway must have been formed by one of the missing walls, probably on the East side. 
  Two walls (South and West) are fully preserved, and the initial construction of the other two walls is still visible. The surface of the walls is entirely made up of small, square sandstone rubble with no terracotta inclusions, and the putlog holes that had supported the scaffolding are still visible. The core of the wall is composed of blockage and rubble mortared in Roman concrete. The wall was probably opened by the cella's front door, a common placement in Romano-Celtic temples. The exterior of the walls featured four rectangular niches and three small openings crowned with stone discharging arches 13 meters above ground, which illuminated the interior of the cella. The interior side of the wall was hollowed by four large, arched niches, 3 meters wide and 5.6 meters tall, but breaches in the wall now give them the appearance of large picture windows. The Western wall features a semi-dome in its center, which, facing the entry, may have housed the statue of the divinity to which the temple was consecrated. The cella floor was inlaid with opus sectile, fragments of which have been retrieved, and the base of an aedicula which was installed at the cella's center is still in place. The cella would have been covered by a four-sided roof.
  Holes from the joists on the exterior side of the walls 9 meters above the ground, and bases parallel and 5.4 meters away from the walls, prove the existence of a covered gallery (ambulatory) which went around the cella, in accordance with the Gallo-Roman temple model observed at Périgueux with the tower of Vésone. This gallery was probably composed of columns built on the peripteros wall and supporting a sloping roof.
caption: Interior view showing niches found on the cella's walls.
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