CULTURE In Nîmes, water traces the city’s history at the Old Nîmes Museum

From April 9 to November 22, 2026, the City of Nîmes dedicates a cultural season to water. Museums, sciences, art, urban history and environmental issues intersect over a series of exhibitions. At the Vieux Nîmes museum, Lisa Laborie-Barrière, curator of the Vieux Nîmes and Taurine Cultures museums, presents the exhibition “Resurgences, water in Nîmes”. Here, water is not just a resource. She founded the city, crossed it, organized it, sometimes disappeared underground, then returned to the surface during rainy periods.

Résurgences

The title already says a lot. “Resurgences” refers to the source of the Fontaine gardens, the mythical founding place of Nîmes by the Volques, but also to this often invisible Nîmes water, linked to the water table, to the Gifts, to the Vistre and to underground networks.

In the museum rooms, mediation devices were created by students of the Unîmes Design degree, including relief maps, a model of the Jardins de la Fontaine and an animation around the model of the Agau canal. The first piece lays the geographical and geological foundations. Understanding water in Nîmes means first looking at the relief, the scrubland, the Alès and Uzès valleys, the Vistre, the Vistrenque. The exhibition reminds us that the city was born near the source of the Fountain, where a first habitat was structured as early as the 5th century BC. The Volcan population established a sanctuary there. Later, the Romans developed this site and developed hydraulic town planning, from the sanctuary of the Fountain to the aqueduct from Uzès, of which the Pont du Gard remains the most famous monument.

The Agau canal

The second piece moves forward a few centuries in time. After the aqueduct stopped, from the 6th century, the source of La Fontaine and the water table ensured the city’s supply. Water becomes an issue of power, use and sharing. The centerpiece of the exhibition is the model of rue de l’Agau. The canal, covered 150 years ago, flowed in the open air along the entire length of the street and structured part of Nîmes economic life. Thanks to the animation designed by the students, the visitor understands the role of the canal in textile activity, the dyers’ workshops, the mills, the smells, the nuisances, but also the social organization of a street where artisans and notables coexisted.

Then the exhibition focuses on the Fountain and its gardens. The main source of water supply, it occupies a central place in the Nîmois imagination. The route shows the evolution of the site, from the ancient sanctuary to the walking area. In the 18th century, growing needs, shortages and hydraulic works led to a profound transformation of the place. The ancient remains brought to light modify the project, which gradually becomes a pleasure garden. The graphic works, engravings, paintings and photographs also allow us to locate the points of view in the current gardens.

The Pradier fountain

The last room leads to the Pradier fountain. The inlaid pedestal table representing the Esplanade and the fountain opens the view onto this monument which has become an urban marker. In the middle of the 19th century, opposite the station, the city wanted a monumental entrance. A competition is launched. The architect Charles Questel won among 27 proposals. James Pradier will then create the sculptures, based on Questel’s initial drawing. The exhibition also presents the winning drawing of the competition, the posture tests of the preparatory statuettes of Nemausa and Era, and technical elements linked to the hydraulic functioning of the fountain, which was irrigated at the time by the resurgence of the Fountain. Finally, a photo exhibition shows the floods, the construction sites and the sometimes invisible networks which continue to structure the city today. After 1988, Nîmes rethought its rainwater management.

Practical information

“Resurgences, water in Nîmes”, Old Nîmes Museum, Place Mère-Teresa. Until November 22, 2026. Open Tuesday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Closed on Mondays and public holidays of November 1st and 11th.