Roman sites in Switzerland

Roman Remains in Nyon

Little remains of Nyon’s Roman past. Apart from the Roman museum, a few Roman items can be seen around Nyon. Some decorative stones were used in later buildings but the most visual are the pillars erected above Parc du Bourg-de-Rive. These three pillars (well two and a third pillars) were discovered buried horizontally in old town Nyon and moved to overlook Lake Geneva in 1958. Here, they can easily be seen by travelers ...
Founded: 45 BC | Location: Nyon, Switzerland

Avenches Amphitheatre

Avenches (earlier known as Aventicum) became the capital of the Roman Helvetia province around 15-13 BC. The heyday of the city was in the 2nd century AD when it had over 20,000 inhabitants. The amphitheatre was also erected in the early 2th century. Today it is Switzerland's best preserved amphitheatre.
Founded: 2th century AD | Location: Avenches, Switzerland

Augusta Raurica

Augusta Raurica is a Roman archaeological site and an open-air museum in Switzerland located on the south bank of the Rhine river about 20 km east of Basel near the villages of Augst and Kaiseraugst. It is the oldest known Roman colony on the Rhine. Ancient history Augusta Raurica was founded by Lucius Munatius Plancus around 44 BC in the vicinity of a local Gallic tribe, the Rauraci, relatives of ...
Founded: 44 BC | Location: Augst, Switzerland

Lausanne-Vidy Roman Ruins

Lousonna was a Gallo-Roman port during Roman times. The port town was important for commerce with links on Lake Geneva to Roman towns such as the present-day Geneva, Nyon, and Villeneuve. However, during Roman times, Lausanne was never of political or military importance. Although borders shifted, Lausanne was mostly a backwater at the southern most parts of Germania, ruled from Mainz. Political and military power in the ...
Founded: 15 BC | Location: Lausanne, Switzerland

Chur Roman Ruins

Several prehistoric settlements and remains of a Roman road station have been discovered in Welschdörfli, the old town district in Chur. You can visit the excavations and discoveries on the Ackermann grounds on Seilerbahnweg. The protective structures covering the archaeological sites from the Roman era were built in 1986 according to designs by local architect Peter Zumthor. They do not only protect the finds, they are ...
Founded: 15 BCE | Location: Chur, Switzerland

Windisch Roman Amphitheatre

The Roman amphitheatre in Windisch was built in the first half of the 1st century AD in the immediate vicinity of the Roman legion camp Vindonissa. It is the largest ancient amphitheatre in Switzerland. During the reign of Emperor Tiberius (14 to 37 AD), when the Legio XIII Gemina was stationed in Vindonissa, a first wooden amphitheatre was built. It was destroyed by fire around 45 AD. The camp was rebuilt of st ...
Founded: c. 50 AD | Location: Windisch, Switzerland

Selley Roman Theatre

Built at the beginning of the 2nd century AD, the Selley Theatre could accommodate around 12,000 spectators, making it one of the largest buildings of its kind. It was modified in the Gallo-Roman age. Both the orchestra and the cavea (tiered seating) are more than semicircular, the rather modestly sized stage building was built onto the exterior of the linear façade wall, and the actual stage consists of a simple wooden ...
Founded: 2nd century AD | Location: Avenches, Switzerland

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

Gallo-Roman Villa of Orbe-Boscéaz

Orbe-Boscéaz, also named Boscéay, is an archaeological site located at the territory of the town of Orbe (Vaud). On the site of Boscéaz, five pavilions protect the largest site of Roman mosaic in Switzerland. These mosaics decorated a vast Roman villa built between the first and the third century AD, including private baths and a temple dedicated to Mithra. The first known mosaics are discovered in 1841. Between 1986 ...
Founded: 1st century AD | Location: Orbe, Switzerland

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

Irgenhausen Castrum

Irgenhausen Castrum is a Roman fort situated on Pfäffikersee lake shore. It was a square fort, measuring 60 metres in square, with four corner towers and three additional towers. The remains of a stone wall in the interior were probably a spa. In the Roman era, there was a Roman road from Centum Prata (Kempraten) on Obersee–Lake Zürich via Vitudurum (Oberwinterthur) to Tasgetium (Eschenz) on the Rhin ...
Founded: 294-375 AD | Location: Pfäffikon, Switzerland

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

Featured Historic Landmarks, Sites & Buildings

Historic Site of the week

Spisskà Kapitula

Spišskà Kapitula, a unique fortified ecclesiastical ensemble, began as a small fortified settlement overlooking Spišské Podhradie in the 12th century. It was the site of the residence of the Provost of the castle, in the no longer extant St Martin"s monastery, and later became a capitulary. This was destroyed in by Tatars in 1241-1243, but the pilgrim"s chapel, in rotunda form and dedicated to the Virgin, survived until the 18th century and the monastery until the 15th century.

The complex of buildings there is based on the Cathedral of St Martin, where building began in 1285 as a three-aisled Romanesque basilica with a chancel at the west end and a double spire. It owes its present form to successive remodellings and additions in the Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque styles.

The Provost's residence was completed in 1281 and further religious buildings were added. Frequent raids by marauding Bulgars and others led to its being fortified in the 14th century. The cathedral was rebuilt in the later 14th century. In 1776 it became the residence of the Bishop and four years later a seminary was established. In 1819 the first teacher training centre in Hungary was founded there.

The Bishop's Palace is largely Baroque, with some excellent interior decorations, like many of the religious buildings in the group. The oval ground plan of the centre of the town is due to its having been fortified in the 14th century. The various religious buildings had defensive functions in this early period. New monastery buildings were erected when the provost"s residence was rebuilt and the whole area fortified. The earlier central fortifications were removed in the 18th century.

Spišské Kapitula is part of the UNESCO World Heritage site Levoča, Spiš Castle and the associated cultural monuments.