We have Roman ruins at home

(But I'll still go see the ones in Italy)

A couple summers in high school, I had a part-time job doing random administrative tasks at my uncle’s office outside Basel. Every morning, we rode his moped about 20 minutes to Augst, a town I remember as one main street near the Rhine. I recall almost none of the tasks I did, only that I spent most of my lunch breaks reading by the river. One year, I went to lunch at IKEA with a colleague. The next year, I spent a lunch break at the public pool with a different colleague.

Had I worked one more summer, I might have dedicated a lunch break to Augusta Raurica, the largest, open-air archeological park in Switzerland. Another superlative its management touts is that it’s “one of the best-preserved Roman towns north of the Alps.” 

The town was founded in 44 BCE and built beginning in 15 BCE. At its height, Augusta Raurica had about 15,000 inhabitants. Following wars, epidemics, and crop failures, the town began to decline, until around 300 AD, when the remaining residents moved to a fort on the Rhine. As Basel developed in the 7th century, Augusta Raurica became a fishing village. 

Even before the town’s population withdrew to the Rhine, people repurposed stones from Augusta Raurica to construct city walls and new buildings. I wonder how much of Basel contains Augusta Raurica stone. 

The park’s website credits Basilus Amerbach, a Renaissance humanist and collector, with leading the earliest research excavations at Augusta Raurica. Interest in the site picked up again in the early 1700s. After people stopped removing architectural remains to decorate private parks in Basel, Augusta Raurica came under heritage protection in the early 20th century. 

The museum at Augusta Raurica opened in 1957. In 2000 and 2001, I worked within a 15-minute walk of the park (shorter than the 20 minute walk to the pool). My family rode the train through Kaiseraugst, the closest train stop to the park, at least once every time we visited Switzerland, because it’s on the way to Obermumpf, where all my grandmother’s family lives. Then, the highlight of that train ride was the castle that is the Feldschlosschen brewery. I only became aware of Augusta Raurica within the last 10 years. The park and museum have ramped up marketing efforts since the early 2000s. Now there’s a sign at the Kaiseraugst train station, wayfinding signs along the streets, and posters in Basel advertising the Roman festival in August. 

Gabe and I followed the arrows to the park last Monday and walked around a portion of the ruins. We visited the non-ruined snack stand, where we bought ice cream to eat while we walked around the Roman theater. Plaques, most of which are in German, French, and English, state the theater held 10,000 people.

Does this look like it holds 10,000 people? 

The theater is still in use today for events like an “international urban dance battle” and the aforementioned Roman Festival. It appears to have been a concert venue until at least 2022 – Sinead O’Connor performed there in 2015.   

There’s also an underground well house, built around 80 AD. It was redesigned around 100 AD, when the neighboring baths were built. A walkway guides you past the remains of the baths, where you can see the top of the well. Then you walk around the site’s perimeter, go down a staircase, and walk through a dark tunnel into the well house. From there, you can look up the well shaft. This was my favorite part. 

The well as seen from above

It’s fascinating to see these structures and try to imagine the people in them, picture the Roman theater filled with toga-toting men. Still, after walking around the main sites for about an hour, we headed back to the train, skipping the amphitheater and animal park, both a further walk away from the train station. 

“Want to check out the museum?”

“Eh…”

“Yeah.”¹

Turns out the Roman Empire is not my Roman Empire. 

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Sources
https://www.augustaraurica.ch/en

https://www.theartnewspaper.com/1991/04/01/the-amerbach-kunstkabinett-lives-again-as-one-of-the-greatest-renaissance-collections-reunites-for-three-months

1. Although now I do want to go to the museum, because it has objects from the excavations — the things that make archeology interesting to me, like jewelry, tools, and this decorative mouse.