Ancient Roman sites

Cigognier Sanctuary

The building of the Cigognier, the largest sanctuary on the site (35m x 17m) began in the year 98 AD. Analysis of the wooden stakes beneath the building"s foundations allowed this date to be established. The plans, technology and materials used are inspired by Rome. It was a rectangular building with a courtyard framed with porticos. Only the priests had access to the room that contained the worshipped statue. The fa ...
Founded: 98 AD | Location: Avenches, Switzerland

Corseul Roman Ruins

Corseul was called Fanum Martis ('Temple of Mars') in Latin and was the capital of the Gallo-Roman province of Coriosolites. It was founded in 10 BC. In the 3rd and 4th centuries, like many other cities, Fanum Martis was renamed for its people, the Curiosolitae. This name change occurred as the Roman Empire weakened and paralleled a revival of the ancient Gallic gods in local religious sculptures and dedicatory ...
Founded: 10 BC | Location: Corseul, France

Ad Quintum

Ad Quintum was an ancient Roman city in Illyricum, on the Via Egnatia connecting Dyrrhachium with Byzantium. The settlement was probably founded in the late 2nd or in the early 3rd century AD, and continued to be populated until the 4th century AD. Its well preserved ruins can be seen near the present-day village Bradashesh, right next to the SH7 road. The site was extensively excavated around 1968 which uncovered a fine ...
Founded: 2nd century AD | Location: Bradashesh, Albania

Gisacum

In the 2nd century AD, the city-sanctuary of Gisacum extended near Saint-Aubin, which was gradually abandoned until disappearing in 5th century. In the 1801 archaeological excavations uncovered this important Gallo-Roman site; but in reality at the time the town covered an area of 250 ha. The interpretation centre has a permanent exhibition tracing the history of Gisacum, and the archaeological garden offers an original d ...
Founded: 0 - 100 AD | Location: Le Vieil-Évreux, France

Veliki Brijun Roman Villa

On the western coast of Brijuni, along Verige Bay, stands a magnificent Roman villa rustica. Its construction began in the 1st century BC, and it achieved its greatest splendor in the 1st century AD. Certain parts of the villa were used until the 6th century. It consisted of several buildings for various purposes situated at carefully chosen sites in different parts of the bay. On the southern side of the bay stood a su ...
Founded: 100-0 BCE | Location: Pula, Croatia

Jajce Mithraeum

The Jajce Mithraeum is a temple dedicated to the Persian invisible sun god, Mithra. It was rediscovered in an archaeological dig in 1931. The temple dates to the early 4th century AD, although it could be as ancient as the 2nd century AD with repairs undertaken during the early 4th century AD. This particular Mithraeum is one of the best preserved sites in Europe. Mithra was worshipped throughout the Roman era, from the ...
Founded: 4th century AD | Location: Jajce, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Lillebonne Roman Amphitheatre

Lillebonne is located on the north banks of the Seine River. From the first to the third centuries AD the town, then called Juliobona by the Romans – a homage to Julius Cesar, was a very prosperous port. The relatively well preserved Roman amphitheatre (capable of holding 3,000 persons) and baths are all that remains from these times. Many Roman and Gallic relics, notably a bronze statue of a woman and two fine mosaics, ...
Founded: 0 - 200 AD | Location: Lillebonne, France

Vizula

Vižula is an archaeological site near Medulin, confirmed to be populated from the Neolithic to the Early Middle Ages. Remains of a Neolithic settlement were found including wicker cottages glued together by soil and mud, as well as parts of the ceramics and some dishes. However, the most significant is the Roman villa, which has undergone systematic research, dating back to the 1st and the 2nd centuries. It was found tha ...
Founded: 0-100 AD | Location: Medulin, Croatia

Grand Roman Amphitheatre

The Gallo-Roman amphitheater in Grand, Vosges, was one of the largest amphitheaters in the Roman Empire with 17,000 seats. Located on the outskirts of the town, the amphitheater was built outside the ramparts of Grand in the 1st century AD. The builders of the day took advantage of the natural slopes of the valley when constructing this semi-elliptical theater. We were able to have a real sense of what the Grand Amphithea ...
Founded: 1st century AD | Location: Grand, France

Burnum

Burnum was a Roman Legion camp and town. It is located 2.5 km north of Kistanje. The remains include a praetorium, the foundations of several rooms, the amphitheatre and the aqueduct. It is assumed that Burnum originates from the year 33 BC, but it is more likely that it was established a few decades later. Several Roman legions were located there in succession, and the first one was Legio XX Valeria Victrix from the beg ...
Founded: 1st century BCE | Location: Kistanje, Croatia

Fréjus Roman Aqueduct

The aqueduct of Fréjus was built in the middle of the first century after the ramparts were in place. It functioned for 450 years until the 5th century. It is 42 km long, with a difference in altitude between the highest spring of Neïssoun and the castellum aquae in the city of 481 m. The aqueduct runs mostly in a covered conduit for 36.4 km and for 1.8 km on bridges and 500 m on walls. Large parts of the aqueduct are s ...
Founded: c. 50 AD | Location: Fréjus, France

Ruffenhofen Roman Park

Ruffenhofen Roman Park is an archaeological park covering an area of about 40 hectares. The ancient fortification lies around 2.2 km from the Upper Germanic-Rhaetian Limes. Roman fort of Ruffenhofen Castle as well as large elements of the associated civilian settlement have survived underground and have not been built over.
Founded: 100-200 AD | Location: Gerolfingen, Germany

Vitudurum

Vitudurum is the name of a Roman Vicus, those remains are located in Oberwinterthur, a locality of the municipality of Winterthur. The majority of the remains of commercial, residential, religious and public buildings are situated around the St. Arbogast church. Vitudurum was established nearby productive resources and a prehistorican route from Lake Geneva to Lake Constance in the late first century BC or early f ...
Founded: around 4 BC | Location: Winterthur, Switzerland

Aqua Alexandrina

The Aqua Alexandrina was a Roman aqueduct located in the city of Rome. The 22.4 km long aqueduct carried water from Pantano Borghese to the Baths of Alexander on the Campus Martius. It remained in use from the 3rd to the 8th century AD. The aqueduct was constructed in AD 226 as the last of the eleven ancient aqueducts of Rome. It was built under the reign of Emperor Alexander Severus to supply his enlargement of the  ...
Founded: 226 AD | Location: Rome, Italy

Nemetacum

Arras was founded on the hill of Baudimont by the Celtic tribe of the Atrebates, who named it Nemetacum or Nemetocena in reference to a nemeton (sacred grove) that probably existed there. It was later renamed Atrebatum by the Romans, under whom it became an important garrison town. The archaeological site Nemetacum in Arras is one of the rare sanctuaries devoted to the oriental god Attis in France.
Founded: 15 BC | Location: Arras, France

Torreparedones

Located in Baena, the Torreparedones Archaeological Park, also known as Torre de las Vírgenes and Castro el Viejo, is one of the most important archaeological places in the province of Cordoba from an archaeological viewpoint. Since the Modern Age it has been known for the casual appearance of notable remains that reflect the category it once had in antiquity. It is located in the heart the Cordoba countryside and is pa ...
Founded: 1st century BCE | Location: Baena, Spain

Engehalbinsel Roman Vicus

A sanctuary with three fana (Gallo-Roman temples), a small bath building, an amphitheatre, several necropolis and remains of buildings where discovered in 1763 and excavated in 1956 near Bern. It has an ellipsis shape arena, whose axis are 28 x 26 metres, two walls which could be an entry at one end, and a niche at the other end. Its blenches were probably wooden made. Long regarded as an amphitheatre (it would one of th ...
Founded: 1st century BCE | Location: Bern, Switzerland

Roman Villa of Paturro

The Roman Villa of Paturro is an archaeological site of a large Roman villa located in the mining Sierra de Cartagena-La Unión , in the vicinity of the town of Portmán. The excavations since 1969 have revealed the existence, in terraced sectors, of two well differentiated parts: One part, decorated with great luxury of materials, is dedicated to housing and another part dedicated to industrial exploitation. The town o ...
Founded: 1st century BCE | Location: Portmán, Spain

Brijuni Kastrum

The richest site by its strata on the Brijuni stretches on an area somewhat greater than 1 hectare. Finds from the period of the Roman Republic and Empire, Late Antiquity, Eastern Goths, Byzantium, Carolingian period and Venice testify to the long time settlement. The first villa in Dobrika Bay was built in the 1st century BC.  During Augustus" rule, partly on the site of the first villa, a new villa rustica was er ...
Founded: 100-0 BCE | Location: Pula, Croatia

Aqueduct of Diocletian

The Aqueduct of Diocletian is an ancient Roman aqueduct near Split, constructed during the Roman Empire to supply water to the palace of the emperor Diocletian. The Aqueduct of Diocletian was constructed between the end of 3rd and beginning of the 4th century AD, at the same time as the palace. The aqueduct took water from the river Jadro, 9 kilometres northeast of Diocletian"s Palace, today Split"s city centr ...
Founded: 4th century AD | Location: Split, Croatia

Featured Historic Landmarks, Sites & Buildings

Historic Site of the week

Krickenbeck Castle

Krickenbeck moated castle is one of the oldest on the lower Rhine. Its history dates back to the year 1104, when the castle was first mentioned. It is unclear why the old castle, which was certainly inhabited by Count Reginar, was abandoned or destroyed. In the mid-13th century the castle was moved to the current location. At the end of the 14th century the new castle belonged to the Counts of Kleve.

Johann Friedrich II of Schesaberg converted the castle into a Baroque mansion between 1708-1721. On September 7, 1902, a fire destroyed the entire mansion. From 1903 to 1904, a three-winged castle was built in the Neo-Renaissance style. Today Krickenbeck is a conference center.