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# A wall more than two thousand years old found in the centre of Paris
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/v-tsentre-parizha-nashli-stenu-drevnee-dvukh-tysiach-let/
- Published: 2026-09-26T12:15:55.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-01T05:25:03.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Paris, Archaeology, Architecture

On the Île de la Cité in the centre of Paris, archaeologists have discovered a section of ancient wall about 20 metres long. The researchers suppose that this wall formed part of the fortifications of Lutetia, the settlement of the Gallic tribe of the Parisii from which Paris later grew. The Île de la Cité, in the middle of the Seine and home to the cathedral of Notre-Dame, was in Roman times the centre of Roman Lutetia.

The wall came to light beneath the Hôtel-Dieu hospital, not far from the cathedral. Since February 2026 the Paris municipal archaeological service, together with the National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research, has been conducting excavations in two courtyards of the hospital ahead of its reconstruction.

The wall bears clear traces of a fierce fire. It has been established that it was built in a manner typical of the Gallic fortifications of the Late Iron Age. The large blocks and the system of interlocking timbers at once suggested to the archaeologists a Gallic wall. Radiocarbon analysis of the charred material showed that the wall burned down between 200 and 10 BC. Behind the wall the archaeologists found an artificial platform of imported sand and gravel almost two metres thick.

In 53 BC Caesar convened an assembly of representatives of the Gallic tribes, but three tribes failed to appear. Caesar then moved the assembly to Lutetia, the chief town of the Parisii, because their lands bordered on those of one of the rebellious tribes. In his account of this event Lutetia is mentioned for the first time in a written source. According to Caesar, when the Romans approached the town, the Gauls burned Lutetia and destroyed the bridges. Caesar wrote that Lutetia stood on an island in the middle of the Seine, but this description remained vague.

Until now historians have linked Lutetia with the Île de la Cité only on the strength of the name and this description, since there were almost no archaeological traces of a pre-Gallic or Gallic settlement on the island. After archaeologists found in 2003 the remains of a large Gallic settlement on the site of present-day Nanterre, some researchers suggested that Lutetia had in fact stood there.

The wall is cautiously described as one of the most important finds for understanding Gallic Lutetia