The roman road Alésia Sombernon
Level : medium difficult
Lasting time : 1 day
Distance : 34 km
Access : location of the Villotte further down from Sombernon
This road goes along several villages to the discovery of outstanding houses. The crossing will allow you to link Sombernon to Alésia on César and Vercingétorix marks bordering the navigable parts of the Saône, Armançon and Seine valleys. The path starts at the level of the Villotte's wash-house in Sombernon and goes then between the Oze and Ozerain's rivers to lead you from village to village and from church to castle. At the end of this path, you will arrive on the vestiges of the gallo-roman city of Alésia.
What is the roman road ?
Sometimes issued from gallo paths, those roman roads have been arranged under August for the circulation of the armies and to organise the taxes lifting. They contributed to make the Gaulle roman. Under Claude (middle of 1st century after JC), they are already registered in the Gallo-roman cartography. In our regions, the most lisible one is " the hérisson ", composed with stones in a vertical way the ones against the others.
Vercingétorix's statue, work from Millet's sculptor
The Vercingétorix high brass silhouette, symbol of the Alésia site battle (52 before JC) looks at the Laumes' plain, further down from Alise-Sainte-Reine. Built in 1865, this statue represents the young chief Arverne just after the Gaulish's defeat against the roman armies who encircled Alésia.
The military borders, Patrick Berger
At the instigation of the Communauty of villages from Alésia and Seine Pays and supported by the France Fondation, the architect Patrick Berger adds to this antic road a modern and symbolic touch thanks to the implantation of those massive stone blocks. Divided into 5 separate places, following different groupments, 11 pieces of a terminal imagined by the artist and shaped in Burgundy give a dimension of a special " site " to those places chosen with some inhabitants of the territory.
