Roman Switzerland

Aventicum, beside the modern town of Avenches, was the capital of the Civitas Helvetiorum, the Roman territory of the Helvetii, and in the 1st to 3rd centuries AD the largest town on what is now Swiss soil. Vespasian, who had grown up there, raised it to a colonia in AD 72. Finds from its excavations are shown in the Roman museum in the tower over the amphitheatre’s main entrance.

On the south bank of the Rhine east of Basel, Augusta Raurica was the oldest known Roman colony on the river. Its remains, spread over the villages of Augst and Kaiseraugst, are now an archaeological site and open-air museum. Between the Aare and the Reuss, the legionary camp of Vindonissa, at today’s Windisch, housed three legions in turn between AD 14 and 101. In the Valais, Forum Claudii Vallensium, now Martigny, has a small amphitheatre built early in the 2nd century, which today hosts open-air cinema in summer and cow fights.

Around 300 Rome moved its northern frontier back to the Rhine. Augusta Raurica became a border town, guarded by the new Castrum Rauracense, and a chain of forts and watchtowers ran along the river. At Wallbach the foundations of one of them, the burgus at Stelli, have been fully excavated, conserved and partly rebuilt. The pages below begin with the places where the most is still there to see.