The Roman temple of Château-Bas is a Roman ruin located to the east of Vernègues, in the park of the “Château-Bas” wine estate located along the road connecting Vernègues and Cazan. It dates from the late 1st century BC.
The temple, located in the center of a semicircular sacred enclosure, is today reduced to a few ruins. A large fluted column is surmounted by a capital with acanthus leaves. A smooth pilaster is located at the corner of the cella (closed part of the temple) and surmounted by a square capital with acanthus leaves.
A Romanesque chapel of modest dimensions (Saint-Cézaire chapel in Château-Bas) leans against the eastern wall of the Roman temple, partially reusing it.
References:Saint-Georges de Boscherville Abbey is a former Benedictine abbey. It was founded in about 1113 by Guillaume de Tancarville on the site of an earlier establishment of secular canons and settled by monks from the Abbey of Saint-Evroul. The abbey church made of Caumont stone was erected from 1113 to 1140. The Norman builders aimed to have very well-lit naves and they did this by means of tall, large windows, initially made possible by a wooden ceiling, which prevented uplift, although this was replaced by a Gothic vault in the 13th century. The chapter room was built after the abbey church and dates from the last quarter of the 12th century.
The arrival of the Maurist monks in 1659, after the disasters of the Wars of Religion, helped to get the abbey back on a firmer spiritual, architectural and economic footing. They erected a large monastic building one wing of which fitted tightly around the chapter house (which was otherwise left as it was).