Avenches, Switzerland

If a tourist were to look for sites with Roman history, they might think of visiting Italy for entire Roman towns, or going to the south of France for arenas still used for bull fights, or seeing Hadrian’s wall in England, but few think to come to Switzerland to see Roman ruins. Two other cities in Switzerland are known for having extensive Roman presence, Kaiseraugst and Brugg. All of them were along the tree route from Italy to the Rhine and passed though the valley in between the Alps and Pre-Alps.

First called Aventicum by the Romans, the French-speaking inhabitants later named the place Avenches and built the town on top of a hill not far from where the Romans first built their structures. From the surface, two temples, a Roman bath, a large amphitheatre, and a theatre still stands. In a distance, a few hundred meters of the original city wall still stands, showing the width of roman roads and pedestrian paths.

In the “new town” constructed later from the 13th century onwards, several towers still stands from its defensive systems. What I found most striking of its urban area were the porticos along the main road, seemingly Italian but built in French-style. Perhaps an influence from its Roman past?