Le Village Gaulois de St Julien (FR)
In 1997, M. Pull and M. Blanchard stood at the origin of the Archéosite Gaulois, the Gaul Village. On retirement from with the Regional Service of the Archaeology of the Midday-Pyrenees and impassioned by the Iron Age, Mr Blanchard got the idea for the project. By now, he is the former chairman of the association.
The two gentlemen financed the project entirely at the beginning and also built the houses themselves. Since then, the municipality assisted with funding for a reception building, car park and the equipment of a large room. The Gaul Village is otherwise independent.
The Village Gaulois is based on three objectives: a scientific vocation which is based on a research in experimental archaeology, secondly a teaching vocation which results in workshops of demonstrations of craft industry and thirdly a tourist vocation intended to attract general public.
The village of 9 hectares has themed areas on for example fishing, weaving, ceramics and forging iron. The number of reconstructed buildings is large. The association executes experiments in particular around the craft industry: bronze, forging mill, weaving, cooking of ceramics, dyeing… They also reconstruct archaeological objects.
Picture by Gabray