Inrap and the town of Rheims, in collaboration with the DRAC (Ministry of Culture), have organised a permanent exhibition showing the results of the Cathedral Mediatheque excavation undertaken in 2000.

Since the 10th January 2006, the visitor to the mediatheque can see a three-dimensional reconstruction of the excavation results, covering the period from the end of the Gallic era to the 4th century A.D.

The Cathedral Mediatheque excavation confirms that this sector was relatively densely occupied from the end of the Gallic era until the present day. The site revealed the fossilisation of land divisions from the end of the Roman Period until the beginning of the 20th century. It took the almost complete destruction of the town, during the First World War, for a new organisation to obliterate a town plan which had its roots in the beginning of the 4th century A.D..

The town of Rheims has changed much since the period of the Gauls. Recent archaeological excavations enlighten us about these urban transformations.

The first protohistoric agglomeration was established in a natural depression formed by the River Vesle. At the end of the Gallic period, the agglomeration boasted fortifications (ditch, an earth embankment reinforced with stones, doubtless crowned with a palisade) and occupied a fairly vast area, at least for the Western Celtic world. In fact a surface of more that 90 hectares was enclosed.

Towards the middle of the first century B.C., Caesar granted to the Remes, a powerful Gallic people, the status of federated city and Augustus, at the beginning of the 1st century A.D., made it the capital of the new province of Gallia Belgica. The town became the seat of a governor at the beginning of the 1st century AD. This probably explains why the agglomeration developed so rapidly; the road network was based on two main axes which crossed at the future site of the forum; houses and workshops testify to an active urban life.

At the beginning of the 1st century AD, Durocortorum, as it was then called, underwent an urban revolution and the town grew to such proportions that it became one of the largest towns north of Rome. In fact, this metropolis extended over an area of nearly 600 hectares. The perimeter was marked by a new enclosure nearly 7,000 metres long. Building techniques improved and the town was given a series of monuments which have left traces such as the Cryptoporticus of the Forum, the Gate of Mars, the public baths on the site of the present cathedral, and a large monument discovered in the Rue Belin.

After the crises of the Roman Empire of the 3rd century A.D., Rheims became the capital of the province of Belgica Secunda. The area of the town was reduced to 55 hectares surrounded by an impressive rampart. There was considerable reconstruction: the excavations show that the baths were renovated by Emperor Constantine (303-337) and that houses were rebuilt. Already during the 4th century the plan of the Early Medieval town was prefigured.

The medieval period is often less well represented in excavations because of the destruction of the relevant archaeological deposits by modern building. Nonetheless the recent excavations and above all that of the Cathedral Mediatheque, have brought to light important remains of this period.