A roughly 20-meter wall beneath Paris’s Hôtel-Dieu hospital on Île de la Cité may be part of Lutetia’s ramparts, supporting the island—not Nanterre—as the ancient city’s original site. The culture ministry says its function and date still need verification.
Charred traces on the stone-and-wood structure were estimated by carbon dating to be from 10–200 BC, a range that includes the 52 BC Battle of Lutetia. The culture ministry said the fire damage may correspond to Julius Caesar’s account that the Gauls burned their town before the battle.
