Switzerland Attractions

Venue: Augusta Raurica    When: Daily

In its heyday, 1800 years ago, 20,000 people lived in the Roman town of Augusta Raurica, 15km from Basle. Many of the traces left behind by the native Celtic inhabitants and the Roman conquerors have now been excavated and are accessible to the public in the largest open-air archaeological museum in north-west Switzerland.

The archaeological complex offers many places of interest. The theatre in the centre of the original town, the best preserved north of the Alps, served both as a playhouse and a fighting arena. It was not until around 200 AD that the town inhabitants could afford a bigger 6000-seat scenic amphitheatre, a large oval arena on the south-western edge of town.

The Roman House, a replica of an ancient domus, was built in 1955. With its carefully reconstructed residential quarters, the workshops for artisans and the public bar, the building gives visitors a taste of the way people lived and worked in Roman times, and was one of the first examples of Roman archaeological reconstruction in Europe.

In addition to finds from the excavations, the site's Roman Museum also boasts the Silver Treasure, found in 1962, an extremely rich table service which apparently once belonged to the fortress commander.