Augusta Bagiennorum, the flourishing ancient Roman city

Jiulia Augusta Bagiennorum is the name given by the Romans to an ancient center founded by the Ligurian Bagienni, a people that occupied the territory between the Po and the Panaro. To the ancient center a colony founded by the Romans would have been superimposed, around 25 a.C. The ancient city is located about 2 km from the modern town of Bene Vagienna.

Indice

History

The ancient oppidum was founded by the Ligurian Bagienni and conquered by the Romans in the 1st century BC. The Roman colony was built on the old city, which assumed a strategic importance for the control of the transit between the Po valley, the valleys of the Po tributaries and the Alpine passes.

The city began to disappear from the 4th century AD, probably due to the loss of importance of the transit routes of the surrounding area. Its buildings were demolished and the Roman city fell into complete oblivion until in the seventeenth century the continuous findings of the Roman era did not lead to hypothesize the existence of a true urban center. Only at the end of the 19th century was the rediscovery of Augusta Bagiennorum.

The Archaeological Park

The Roman settlement covered an area of 21 hectares of which can be seen just 5 today. Ancient city was enclosed by walls. Remains of four towers and two gates matching town perimeter were discovered with excavation works.

There are information boards and graphic reconstructions all along the route of how may have been the ancient Roman town explaining Augusta Bagiennorum structure with streets, towers and gates, necropolis and main buildings which today can no longer be found.

The visitor begin the tour from the tiny church of S. Peter built on the remains of Roman acqueduct, close to the southern necropolis that once laid up to anphitheatre: archaeological route starts right here, where it's also possible to see the basements of one of the angular towers and then get the sacred area of the city with remains of the temple. This was the crossing point where decumanus maximum once met the main cardo. You can see also the Forum with the civil basilica, the theater complex with the quadriporticus behind it.

The itinerary ends with the amphitheater and the Cascina Ellena, home to the Park and the Superintendence.

The materials coming from the site are exhibited in the Archaeological Museum of Palazzo Lucerna di Rorà, in the nearby Bene Vagienna.