Augusta Raurica

Augusta Raurica was a Roman town on the upper Rhine, founded in the first century BC and grown into a settlement of several thousand people before it faded and its stone was carted off for later building. What survives is spread across fields and orchards on the edge of two modern villages: a large open theatre facing the foundations of a temple, stretches of street, baths, a sewer you can walk into, and the outline of an amphitheatre. The museum holds the ordinary things people left behind, along with a hoard of late Roman silver found on the site, and a reconstructed Roman house is furnished room by room.

What you actually see

• The theatre - the largest surviving Roman theatre in the country, still used for performances.
• The Roman house - a full reconstruction furnished with kitchen, beds and painted walls.
• The silver treasure - the late Roman hoard of plates, spoons and ingots in the museum.
• The scattered ruins - baths, sewer, temple foundations and amphitheatre spread through the fields.

When to go

Spring to autumn, since almost everything is outdoors and the walk between the scattered ruins takes an hour or more. Weekday mornings are quietest, as school groups fill the museum and the reconstructed house later in the day. The theatre hosts events in summer, which can close it for rehearsals.

Honest expectations

Most of the site is foundations at knee height, and without the map or an audio guide the fields look like fields. The ruins are separated by roads, a rail line and a working village, so the walk is not a stroll through a preserved town. The museum is good but small, and the theatre is the only piece that reads clearly as Roman at first glance.

Nearby

Basel with its minster and old town is a short train ride west along the Rhine.