About 50 miles east of Orleans on the River Loing, which flows north to join the Seine near Fontainbleu is the village of Montbuoy. A short distance to the north adjacent to route D93 is the Montbuoy amphitheatre, sometimes referred to as the Amphithéâtre de Chennevière. At first sight it has some issues. There is a conventionally shaped oval arena floor surrounded by a low stone wall, and a massive earth banked cavea section on the west side supported by more stone revetment which makes use of the rising bank of the river valley. The odd thing is that this seating occupies only about three quarters of the west side. The entrance passages at either end are about 15 degrees off the principal north south axis, and there is no trace of any other seating, foundations or structure around the remainder. Had the amphitheatre been a ‘complete’ oval it would be reasonable to expect the road to curve around its line but it does not. One possible explanation for this is the 19th century construction of the adjacent navigation Canal du Briare which now sits between the site and the river. This would have probably diverted the road and obliterated anything in its path. Similarly there is no stage as in some dual use arena/theatres so it is possible that the east side was of timber construction having no raised earth to support it. That doesn’t however explain the oddly angled passages or the absence of any substantial population centre anywhere nearby. So what is it and why is it here?

On balance my view is that it is an amphitheatre rather than a theatre. Its location is within the Gallic territory of the forest of the Carnutes, which as any student of Asterix will know, is where Getafix/Panoramix travelled to the annual druids’ reunion and best wizard competition, and was on one occasion unfortunately kidnapped by the Germans in ‘Asterix and the Goths’.

To the south east on the other side of the river are the remains of a ‘spring sanctuary’ a building containing a large basin to collect the waters from a natural spring in which ritual offering statues have been found. Half way between the shrine and the amphitheatre is the site of a substantial bath house largely destroyed during the digging of the canal. Apparently when the water level of the canal is low, a mosaic appears in the slope of the bank about 1 m below the surface.

Other excavations in the vicinity have found sections of aqueduct, foundations of other Roman buildings and lots of coins.

As natural springs were often sacred, both to Romans and Gauls, it is possible that Mountbuoy was a site for ritual, religious retreat and bathing, The function of the amphitheatre was clearly to deliver and show something to large numbers of people, but whether it involved fighting or animals is anyone’s guess. In the post Roman period it became known as the Circus of the Saracens.

To the visitor today the site is not particularly welcoming. An unsurfaced area beside the road contained a solitary lorry driver stopping for his lunch. A neglected and illegible information panel stands beside a gate into the site which is chained shut and carries a sign saying the site is closed to the public. It’s been a while since anyone cut back the grass or weeds. The snowy picture dated from when someone visited to find the gate unlocked and the grass cut.