Hadrian The Pictish War
6, 7 and 8 May 2022
Exactly 1900 years ago, in 122 AD, the emperor Hadrian came to Nîmes to honour his mother, the empress Plotine, a native of the city of the Antonines. He had just returned from the island of Brittany (modern-day England) where he had defeated the barbarian Picts. In order to ensure Roman peace, he built a rampart, which became the largest fortification in the known world and which still bears his name: Hadrian's Wall.
To celebrate this fantastic heritage, on the occasion of its 1900th anniversary, more than 500 re-enactors, horsemen and stuntmen from all over Europe will follow in the footsteps of their prestigious ancestors. Mixed with the imposing decorations, they will bring these historical episodes to life in the most beautiful of settings: the Nîmes arenas, to make the whole city vibrate in Roman times in May 2022.
For this large-scale historical re-enactment,
the CPPP Company designs, manufactures and produces the sets that will take place in the heart of the Nîmes Arena.
Hadrian's Wall
The creation of the set elements is based on illustrations made internally, according to the staging imagined in collaboration with the historian Eric Teyssier.
The greatest challenge for the CPPP Company is to bring this imagination to life.
This is why, since October 2021, in our workshops located in Quissac, in the south of France, each member of the team has been working to build a Hadrian's wall that is both majestic and faithful to the original.
The mechanically welded structure, which includes nearly 600 metal sections, is covered with 250 sheets of plywood to be finished with fake polystyrene stones.
The 100 linear metre long set is made up of 32 modules resting on 130 castors, whose system will facilitate handling during the show that will take place in May 2022 in the Nîmes Arena.
Spina
The Spina, placed in the heart of the Nîmes Arena, is composed of 16 modules with characteristics similar to those of Hadrian's Wall. A central element during the chariot races, it will be decorated with various ornaments, obelisks, columns and statues of Roman divinities.
