Event: Switzerland

Augusta Raurica

When:	Daily
Where:	Augusta Raurica
Costs:	Site free; Roman Museum SFr7; concessions SFr5
Opening Hours:	Roman Museum: Mon 1pm-5pm; Tue-Sun 10am-5pm (Nov-Feb closed 12pm-1.30pm) Parkland daily 10am-5pm

In its heyday, 1800 years ago, 20,000 people lived in the Roman town of Augusta Raurica. Many of the traces left behind by the native Celtic inhabitants and Roman conquerors have been excavated and are now accessible to the public.

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.