Vindonissa
Vindonissa is an important archaeological site located in modern-day Switzerland, originally established as a Roman legionary camp during the reign of Augustus. Situated near the confluence of the Aare, Reuss, and Limmat rivers, it served as a strategic military outpost due to its location at the intersection of four roads. Over time, Vindonissa evolved from a military stronghold into a civilian settlement, housing a vicus and canabae as it developed. Significant reconstructions of the fortifications occurred around AD 260 in response to threats from the Alamanni tribes.
Excavations have revealed extensive remains, including walls, towers, and various buildings such as administrative headquarters, barracks, and recreational facilities, as well as an amphitheater and forum. Notably, artifacts from a refuse dump dating back to the early Roman period are preserved in the Vindonissa museum at Brugg, providing insight into daily life during that era. By the fourth century, the military presence diminished, but the civilian community continued to thrive, with later fortifications and numerous tombs from the late imperial period discovered at the site. Vindonissa reflects the complex transition from a military garrison to a vibrant civilian center within the Roman Empire.
Vindonissa
(Windisch)
A Roman legionary camp in Upper Germany (now Switzerland), nine miles south of the river Rhenus (Rhine), at the confluence of the Aare, Reuss and Limmat. Its name indicates the presence of a pre-Roman town. Standing at a point where four roads met, Vindonissa housed a small Roman fort under Augustus, and was garrisoned by a legion from the reign of Tiberius (shortly after AD 16), which was replaced by another from 45/46 to 69 and then by a third until 101.
Thereafter, since the frontier had by this time been moved northward, only a legionary detachment remained, and the settlement assumed a civilian character, comprising a pair of communities (a vicus and canabae) that had grown up to the west and southeast of the camp respectively; for the protection of these two expanding centers the fortress was reconstructed c 260, under pressure from attacks by the Alamanni. In the later empire Vindonissa belonged to the province of Maxima Sequanorum. During the fourth century a smaller fortress was constructed just west of the earlier stronghold, on the spur between the Aare and the Reuss. The Notitia Galliarum describes this Castrum Vindonissense as a suffragan episcopal see (it later became a full bishopric). At this period, c 401, the garrison departed. But the civilian settlement continued to flourish.
The existence of a military center as early as the time of Augustus has been confirmed by recent excavations. Because of the nature of the ground, the subsequent legionary camp was of irregular, heptagonal shape. After two earlier periods of wooden construction, it was rebuilt in stone in 45/46–69. The remains of the ten-foot-thick walls, which were equipped with six towers, mostly date from after c 260, although one of the two main gates goes back to the later second century. These fortifications were flanked by double ditches. The rectangular principia (administrative headquarters), erected in 47 at an angle between the main streets, consists of two open courts divided by a wall. A basilica, barracks, officers' quarters, granary, storehouses and bathing establishment—adorned with wall paintings and floor mosaics—have also been located, as well as other buildings of which the identification is less certain. Outside the walls were a forum and amphitheater. From an adjoining refuse dump, employed by the garrison from c 30 to 100, materials such as wood, leather, ink and plants have survived in a good state of preservation (and can now be seen in the Vindonissa museum at Brugg). Thereafter, few new buildings dating from before the later empire are to be seen. The fourth-century fortress was surrounded by three concentric ditches, twenty-five feet in width. Numerous tombs of late imperial date, belonging to its occupants, have been found at Windisch-Oberburg.