Mosaic depicting Hercules and Antaeus from a residence in the city. Dated to the mid-3rd century CE. Musée Romain.
Mosaic depicting Hercules and Antaeus from a residence in the city. Dated to the mid-3rd century CE. Musée Romain.

Continued From Aventicum, Gallia Belgica – Part I

In the 11th century, a fortified tower was constructed over the monumental eastern entry to the amphitheater. It was embellished in later periods, but now houses the archaeological finds from Aventicum in the Musée Romain. Accessible from the upper level of the amphitheater. In the summer (April through September) the museum is open Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 to 17:00. In February, March, and October it is open Tuesday to Sunday from 14:00 to 17:00. November through January, the museum is open Wednesday to Sunday from 14:00 to 17:00. It is closed Mondays year round. Entrance to the museum is free.

The museum is not especially big, it’s effectively three levels, but each level is about the size of a large room. The upper two floors are mostly small finds. A few inscriptions, statue busts, some nice smaller mosaics. The museum has a decent collection of small bronze figures. Some reliefs, including the previously mentioned Romulus and Remus being suckled by the she-wolf. Some of the other particularly interesting objects in the upper floors were a fragment of wall painting with incised graffiti of a hunting scene, a folding knife with a carved ivory handle depicting gladiators, and a bronze bust of Venus, or perhaps a local Celtic deity. It should be noted that the gold bust of Marcus Aurelius here is a copy (as are the two on display in Lusaunne; the real one is typically never on display in Switzerland apparently due to security concerns). There are no information cards for the objects in the upper two floors, but there is a small booklet (available in various languages, including English) that explains each object as well general information for each floor.

Folding knife with an ivory handle depicting gladiators. Found near the Sanctuaire du Cigognier. Dated to the 3rd century CE. Musée Romain.
Folding knife with an ivory handle depicting gladiators. Found near the Sanctuaire du Cigognier. Dated to the 3rd century CE. Musée Romain.

The lower floor contains the bulk of the lapidary collection with a number of inscriptions and reliefs found at Aventicum. There are also several mosaics, including a large mosaic with a central panel depicting Hercules and Antaeus from a private house in the city. Large segments of wall painting from a home are also here. Unlike the top floors, this one doesn’t have an associated book, but rather has the traditional set up of information cards adjacent to the objects. These are all in French, though. It took me a little more than an hour to go through the museum. It’s slick and very well presented, particularly the top two floors. Despite the fact that it’s in an ancient tower, it feels fairly modern. The price point is obviously great too (given how expensive things can be in Switzerland for a foreign tourist).

The road that runs along the south side of the amphitheater of Aventicum and museum is Avenue Jomini. Past the museum it curves north, and following this to its termination at the roundabout leads to the next site. On the east side of the road is the so-called Temple de la Grange des Dîmes. Located here are the remains of a temple dated to the late 1st or early 2nd century CE. It seems to have replaced a Gallic-style fanum from earlier in the 1st century CE. It is believed to have been dedicated to Mercury Cissonius, with other connections possibly the Gallic deity Lugoves (who was also associated with Mercury) and Jupiter-Ammon. It has also been theorized to have been associated with the imperial cult. What remains here is the foundations of the southern part of the temple portico as well as the foundations of the staircase that lead to the temple. The remains of the altar are visible at the foot of the staircase in addition to a well and a statue podium south of the staircase. There is no direct access to the temple, as it is fenced, but is otherwise surrounded by public space and can be viewed at any time. North of the temple, the footprint of the structure as it continues to the north is marked out on the pavement of the road and sidewalk.

Sanctuaire du Cigognier. Aventicum.
Sanctuaire du Cigognier.

Across the street (to the east) from the temple is a small parking area off the street with a path that leads about 50 meters to the next archaeological area, the so-called Sanctuaire du Cigognier. This area is not fenced and is completely open access at any time. Here is the remains of a large sanctuary that seems to have begun construction about 98 CE and finished up sometime around 140 CE. It is believed that this functioned as a space dedicated to the imperial cult, perhaps not just for Aventicum, but for the whole of the territory of the Helvetii. It was here that the golden bust of Marcus Aurelius was found.

The rear of this sanctuary faces to the approach from the northwest. And it is essentially the northwest podium of the portico that enclosed a courtyard in front of the temple that is visible today. It is believed that the form of this sanctuary may have intended to emulate the Templum Pacis in Rome. The larger of the two remaining columns visible (the smaller was reconstructed) was part of the portico in front of the actual temple. The core of the stairway that led up from the courtyard to the temple remains in front of this column, but anything of the actual temple itself is no longer remaining/visible. About 32 meters in front of the stairway is an excavated patch of stone that made up the base of a statue group. A little to the north of this are the foundations of the wall that enclosed the eastern side of the sanctuary. A sign in English, French, and German explains the monument and provides illustrations and diagrams on the form.

Theater. Aventicum.
Theater.

From here, another path leads about 180 meters to the next monument, which the sanctuary faced; the theater. Like the sanctuary, Aventicum’s theater is open access at all times. The theater appears to have been constructed in the early 2nd century CE. It was built with 50 rows of seating, partly employing a slope in the landscape to support it, and is estimated to have had a capacity of about 12,000 spectators. It underwent several renovations over the next 200 years until the late 3rd century CE, when it seems to have been turned into some sort of fortified position with a defensive ditch. It functioned in this way until the middle of the 4th century CE, when it was effectively abandoned.

The theater is pretty much open with very few restrictions. The southern end of the theater was somewhat restricted because of ongoing restoration works, similar to what had been done on the north end with shoring up the retaining wall. By now I believe that these restoration works have mostly been finished, though. None of the original seating remains, that which is present seems to be all modern reconstruction, but a fair amount of the substructure is present. Though the original structure would have had a much higher seating area than what is present now. Some of the internal vomitoria have been preserved or reconstructed. The foundations of the stage buildings are also visible.

Tepidarium of the Thermes du Forum. Aventicum.
Tepidarium of the Thermes du Forum.

Retracing back to the road between the temple and the sanctuary, Route du Faubourg, if one follows that road to the north for about 600 meters, it leads to a small street that runs to the southeast. A short distance down this street are the Thermes du Forum, the Forum Baths. The remains here are fenced off with no direct access, but are essentially accessible at any time. These public baths were constructed just to the north of Aventicum’s forum, starting in 77 CE as part of the urban development following the colonial status. It seems to have been financed by the Camilli, an important family in Aventicum.

What is visible now, at the northeast end of the excavations is part of the frigidarium; the water channel running through it brought water supply to adjacent cisterns. To the south of that is part of the tepidarium with bases and short stacks of pilae in place to illustrate the hypocaust system. A small portion of the reconstructed hypocaust system is present at one corner. A very small bit of the caldarium is visible at the far end of the archaeological remains, but most of it seems to either be covered or does not survive. The conspicuous concrete slab to the south of the archaeological area seems to suggest the former.

Section of the city walls along Route de Donatyre.
Section of the city walls along Route de Donatyre.

The last few things are not terribly far from the baths and are theoretically accessible by continuing on down the Route du Faubourg (which has become the Route de Berne) another 500 meters. On the west side of the road is the Route Industreille, which has some remains of the city walls running most of the length along the north side.  Directly across from this is a path that theoretically leads up to the east gate. I did not take this way, I instead drove to the east gate, which requires approaching from the opposite direction and taking a much longer route the Route de Donatyre, which essentially runs along the course of the city walls and affords at least one opportunity to see a small portion of the walls along the way.

Interior of the east gate.
Interior of the east gate.

The stretch of the walls at the east gate was part of the walls of Aventicum constructed not long after the colonia status was given to the city. Some elements have been reconstructed to some degree, but the form of the gate with remains of the two flanking towers are visible as well as the interesting internal corridors inside the gate. A fairly decent stretch of the city walls continues on to the northwest with the foundations of some towers as well as the only remaining tower from the 73 along the course of the walls, the Tornallaz. It, of course, isn’t as it stood in antiquity, it was added on to and reconstructed several times in later periods. The Roman period remains are pretty visually distinctive at the bottom, with the small yellow limestone blocks. The top of the tower is accessible and affords nice views over the landscape and the adjacent remaining wall.

Temple de la Grange des Dîmes.
Temple de la Grange des Dîmes.

Aventicum is a pretty good half day trip, it took me about 4.5 hours to see everything. Notably, though, I did drive to the Forum Baths, the east gate, and the other bits of the wall near the train station. Doing so probably cut at least an hour or more of walking that would be required without your own vehicle. One of the best things is that everything except the museum is essentially open access, and the museum itself is free. So other than the museum hours, there’s a lot of flexibility for seeing what is probably one of the more extensively presented Roman settlements in Switzerland.

Sources:

Grant, Michael. A Guide to the Ancient World: A Dictionary of Classical Place Names.  New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997.

Levick, Barbara. Vespasian. New York: Routledge, 1999.

Smith, William. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. Walton & Murray, 1870.

Stillwell, Richard, William L. MacDonald, and Marian Holland. McAllister. The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites. Princeton, NJ: Princeton U Press, 1976.

Suetonius. De Vita Caesarum Vespasian, 1.

Tacitus. Historiae, 1.67-70.