DRAFT

Palatial House in Insula 7 in Aventicum

Contributor: June Dorsch
Published: 2021-04-21
Modified: 2025-06-29

Location

Location Description

The town was established in the Augustan period as the civitas capital of the Helvetii. At this time the orthogonal street grid was laid out. Most probably in AD 71, it became Colonia Pia Flavia Constans Emerita Helvetiorum Foederata. The town was destroyed or badly damaged around AD 260, and it was progressively abandoned thereafter.

Garden

Palatial House in Insula 7 in Aventicum

Keywords

Garden Description

The remains of a palatial house (Palais de Derrière la Tour) were recently uncovered in excavations on the western edge of the city in an area characterized by luxurious domestic dwellings (Fig. 1). The house in its final state, from the Severan period to the middle of the 3rd century, had a peristyle courtyard measuring 42 x 69 meters. North of the courtyard was a reception room 12 x 18 meters in plan with a mosaic floor.

The courtyard was on two levels, divided on the north by a terrace wall with two small exedrae, possibly pools. An axially arranged central pathway between the reception room on the north and an apsed triclinium on the south further divided the courtyard into an eastern and a western half. Steps led up to the triclinium and to the northern wing of the house. A ground level gutter ran around the courtyard, and a covered drain crossed it beneath the central path. It can reasonably be assumed that the courtyard was designed as a garden (G in Fig. 1) with garden elements such as the path and the exedral pools. With the addition on the northeast of another wing terminating in a bath complex, the building ultimately had a length of around 200 meters. The excavators believe that the building in its latest phase had official character.

Plans

Fig. 1: Plan of the courtyard house or palace on the western fringe of Insula 7, with a garden courtyard (G) with two small apsidal pools on one side.
Credit: Plan adapted from Morel 1995, fig. 4.

Dates

Severnan Period - Middle of 3rd century

Bibliography

  • J. Morel, "Avenches VD, Derrière la Tour et insula 7 : Fouilles 1989/1990," Annuaire de la Société Suisse de Préhistoire et d'Archéologie 74, 1991: 214-220, fig. 2. (worldcat)
  • J. Morel, "Avenches, Palais de Derrière la Tour," Bull. de l'Association Pro Aventico 37, 1995: 206-209, fig. 4.(worldcat)
  • J. Morel, "L'habitat," in : A. Hochuli-Gysel, ed., Avenches, capitale des Helvètes, Archéologie Suisse 24.1 2001: 47-49, fig. 62.(worldcat)

Places

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