Roman Festival Augusta Raurica

21 August 2023

On the weekend of 26 and 27 August 2023, Augusta Raurica (Augst, Canton Basel-Landschaft) will host Switzerland’s most significant Roman festival for the 26th time.

Visitors can buy Roman products at the Roman Market and learn more about Roman crafts. At that time, the market was an important location to see and to be seen, and visitors established social contacts there.

Visitors can also become active, for example, modelling clay, weaving, felting or working bones. Archaeologists also present their work and methods, and the construction crane shows how (very) heavy objects, e.g. in buildings, were lifted into place in Roman times.

The show Panem et Circensus (Bread and Games) in the Roman theatre, with a replica of a lodge for the emperor and his family, shows Roman performances with dance, music and gladiator fights. On Sunday, alongside a tour of the festival grounds, this show will be simultaneously translated into sign language for people with hearing impairments.

Empress Sabina and her entourage will also report on the life of women in the imperial court; about a hundred legionnaires build a legionary camp; senators meet in the Curia, and legionnaires and gladiators practise in the legionnaires’ or gladiators’ school.

Another highlight is the culinary variety of Roman cuisine. There are 15 stands on the premises. Visitors can also mingle with the Romans by dressing in the appropriate Roman way by wearing available clothes.

(Source and further information: www.roemerfest.ch)