Without consensus found, the Council of State decided. More than 2,000 years after the confrontation between Vercingétorix and Julius Caesar, the highest administrative court validated on Thursday the location of the Battle of Gergovie, contested by a manager of heritage sites.
Historical and archaeological data “are no longer seriously debated today within the scientific community”, notes the Council of State in its decision. The applicants, Kléber Rossillon, manager of heritage sites, and Marie-Jeanne Ettori, contested the perimeter chosen by the State to classify the site of the Battle of Gergovie - which took place in 52 BC.
A decree of August 30, 2022, classifying the site, includes the oppida arvernes of Corent, Gergovie and Gondole and the César camps located in several communes of Puy-de-Dôme. The applicants claimed that the confrontation took place on a separate site, Côtes-de-Clermont, where Kléber Rossillon owns a plot of land.
Request rejected
“The perimeter retained for the classification aims (…) to form a coherent whole including these sites and promoting the landscape reading of these remains, while constituting a belvedere over numerous emblematic elements of the Puy-de-Dôme landscape”, underlines the Board of state.
Therefore, “the site includes several major elements characterizing an interest of a historical and picturesque nature” and “the regulatory authority did not make an error of assessment in establishing the perimeter of the site and in deciding on its classification”.
The request of Rossillon and Ettori is therefore “rejected”. The decree “in no way constitutes an obstacle to new research work being organized on the Côtes-de-Clermont site”, however, specifies the Council of State.