Cryptoporticus of Reims - Underground Roman Galleries

Hidden beneath Reims' city center, these 3rd-century underground galleries were part of the Roman forum. Walk through barrel-vaulted passageways where Roman merchants stored goods - including wine. Above ground, these same cellars now age Champagne.

What to do there

4 things to do

1. 1 Descend Into the Forum Where Roman Governors Walked History · Free

   Six meters underground, the barrel-vaulted passages of a 2,000-year-old Roman forum gallery lie perfectly intact beneath modern Reims.

   Where: 6 Place du Forum, 51100 Reims — look for the entrance steps descending from the square. Free entry, no booking required. Open May–October, Wed–Mon 14:00–18:00.

   What: You are standing inside Durocortorum — the capital of all Gallia Belgica, a city of up to 100,000 people, larger than Paris, the hub where four Roman roads crossed. This cryptoportique is a U-shaped gallery: two parallel passages 60 metres long connected by a 100-metre corridor, the whole thing supporting the floor of the forum above. Roman governors walked here. Merchants stored grain in these chalk-walled chambers between the colonnaded shops. The walls still show traces of colored stucco decoration. Here is what nobody tells you: only five cryptoportici survive in the entire Roman world. You're standing in one of them, and it's free. The chalk your hands are touching right now is the same Cretaceous chalk stratum — laid down 65 million years ago by a shallow sea — that Champagne house cellars are still carved from today. The Romans didn't just build a forum. They accidentally invented the perfect geology for the greatest wine on Earth.

   How: Give yourself 30–45 minutes. Walk the full eastern gallery open to the public. Look for the small museum case with objects excavated during the 1982 dig by Champagne Archaeological Society volunteers. Touch the pillar bases — the same mortar technique the Romans used at the Pont du Gard. Then stand at the far end and imagine the forum above: 65 metres wide, 250 metres long, surrounded by columns.

   Backup: If closed (winter or Tuesday), walk the perimeter of Place du Forum — the square's outline traces the exact footprint of the ancient forum. Look down through the grate near the north end for a glimpse of the vault below.

   Log Memory
2. 2 Find the Widest Arch Rome Ever Built History · Free

   An 8-minute walk from the cryptoportique, the Porte de Mars has stood for 1,800 years — predating the cathedral, predating France, predating Champagne.

   Where: Place de la République, 51100 Reims. Walk northwest from Place du Forum for about 8 minutes along Rue du Forum, then Rue Carnot, until the arch fills your view.

   What: The Romans built four gates around Durocortorum. Three are gone. This one — the Porte de Mars — survived everything: Attila the Hun (who sacked Reims in 451 AD), the French Revolution, the near-total destruction of WWI (when German artillery leveled 80% of the city). It is 32 metres wide and 13 metres high, with three arched passages, eight Corinthian columns, and carved reliefs you can still read: Romulus and Remus suckled by the wolf on the ceiling of the central arch. Leda and the Swan. Farm workers harvesting grain. It was the widest arch Rome ever built — wider than the Arch of Constantine, wider than the Arch of Titus. Here is the thing that stops people: this arch was standing when Julius Caesar was conquering Gaul, and it will be standing when you're long gone. You can walk through all three openings. Nobody stops you. There is no ticket window. The ancient world is just standing there, in the middle of a roundabout, being ancient.

   How: Walk through all three arches. Look up at the carved ceiling reliefs — they are the best-preserved of any Roman arch in France. Count the Corinthian column capitals. Then step back across the Place de la République and look at the arch from a full 40 metres back — this is the scale the Romans intended. At golden hour, the honey-coloured stone turns amber.

   Backup: The arch is always accessible — it's a public monument in the middle of a square. If it's raining, the three archways provide shelter while you study the reliefs at close range, which is actually ideal for detail work.

   Log Memory
3. 3 Go 18 Metres Under Reims Into the Roman Chalk Wine · Price: moderate

   Taittinger's Saint-Nicaise crayères — 18 metres below ground, 3km long — are the same chalk the Romans quarried from this hill. Then they poured it into Champagne.

   Where: Champagne Taittinger, 9 Place Saint-Nicaise, 51100 Reims (a 20-minute walk or 5-minute taxi from Place du Forum). Book in advance at champagne-taittinger.com — from €40 per person for the Instant Rosé tour.

   What: Here is the through-line of the entire day: In the cryptoportique this morning, you touched chalk walls quarried by Romans in the 1st century to build Durocortorum. The Taittinger crayères are carved from that same chalk hill, just 1,800 years later. The Gallo-Romans dug this particular hill for construction stone. Then a Benedictine abbey was built on top of it in 1229. Then the Revolution came, the abbey was torn down, but the tunnels survived. The Taittinger family moved in and started aging Champagne in chalk chambers that are 18 metres deep and 3 kilometres long — a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2015. When your guide says 'former Gallo-Roman chalk quarries,' they mean the people who built the forum you visited this morning cut the stone from under this hill. The wine aging in the dark around you has been shaped by Roman quarrying decisions made two millennia ago.

   How: The guided group tour (10–12 people, ~90 minutes) descends the spiral staircase into the galleries. Ask the guide specifically which gallery sections are original Gallo-Roman quarry versus later extensions. The older sections have irregular, hand-hewn walls — you can tell by the chisel marks. The tasting at the end: if the Comtes de Champagne blanc de blancs is on offer, order it. It's the wine that tastes like chalk — like cold stone and brioche and everything this hill is made of.

   Backup: If Taittinger is fully booked, Ruinart at 4 Rue des Crayères offers the same Roman geology story (€90/adult) with crayères that soar 38 metres high — identical to the height of the Reims Cathedral nave. The parallel is almost too perfect to be coincidence.

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4. 4 Toast the Romans at the Table Above Their Forum Wine · Price: low

   Le Wine Bar by Le Vintage sits directly on Place du Forum — the exact ground above the Roman gallery you descended into. Four hundred champagnes by the glass, including grower cuvées the big houses don't want you to know about.

   Where: Le Wine Bar by Le Vintage, 16 Place du Forum, 51100 Reims — the terrace faces the square directly above the cryptoportique. Open Tue–Thu 18:00–00:30, Fri–Sat 18:00–01:30. Champagne from €5.50/glass.

   What: You have now spent a full day underground — Roman gallery, Gallo-Roman chalk quarry, Taittinger crayères. Every glass of Champagne in this region is, at some level, a product of that chalk. The final step is the most direct: sit on this terrace, on the exact footprint of the Roman forum, and drink a glass of wine from the hill you just visited underground. Le Wine Bar won Gold for Best Sparkling Wine List in France 2024. The Papavero family has 400 champagnes on the menu, organized by region — first grower wines (mostly biodynamic), then the maisons. They stock cuvées from producers who don't export, whose wine you'll never see in an airport duty-free. This is layer 3 Champagne.

   How: Tell whoever is behind the bar that you spent the day at the cryptoportique and Taittinger. Ask them what they'd drink to connect those two things — the chalk and the wine. They'll know exactly what you mean. If they suggest a grower Blanc de Blancs from the Côte des Blancs, say yes. Hold the glass up to the evening light. The color is the color of the crayères by torchlight. Order a cheese board — the aged Chaource pairs with the bubbles the way the Romans would have wanted.

   Backup: If the terrace is full, Les Caves du Forum (lescavesduforum.com, call ahead to reserve) is a 16th-century vaulted chalk cellar 9 metres underground, 400 metres of chalk tunnel filled with 4,000 wine references. Even more underground. Even more appropriate.

   Log Memory

Insider tips

• Tours available at Reims tourism office - limited hours so check ahead

• The galleries were rediscovered in 19th century during Champagne house expansions

• Combine with Place du Forum above - the ancient Roman city center

• Some galleries connect to modern Champagne cellars