Avenches

Yesterday on our way to visit Lausanne we had the opportunity to visit Avenches, the best collection of Roman ruins in Switzerland. Aventicum was the Roman capital of the area and some impressive building projects were undertaken in this town in an effort to romanize these wild Helvetii.

There is a small jewel of a museum in the arena tower filled with artifacts of everyday life of the townspeople. Inevitably when I have a chance to see ancient artifacts in such places, there is one specific thing that changes it from just a bunch of old stuff to things that belonged to real people once upon a time. In this case it was a blue glass necklace from the tomb of a young girl who had died in the 500s. . I supposed because it was the kind of necklace I would like that made everything come alive. That girl was maybe about Marina's age, and certainly her parents were brokenhearted at her death. But also in her tomb was a glass engraved with a phrase about the resurrection, making it one of the earliest evidences of Christianity in Western Switzerland. Maybe her parents or grandparents were recent converts, leaving their pagan gods for belief in Christ and in eternal life.

One of the best parts of Avenches is that in visiting the various archeological sites one gets a really good idea of the actual size and layout of the ancient town. It was also mindboggling and a bit eerie to stand on stones that had been cut by a Roman mason.

The Roman governor Evangelicus making a proclamation in the arena.

Resting on the ruins of the amphitheater.

Zarli on the ruins of the theater: "This is a fun playground!"

The arena with a medieval built tower.

Ecole Vieux Pin teacher explaining the ruins of the Roman baths.

The Roman Baths: this part of the floor has been rebuilt to give an idea of how it once functioned. These columns supported an elevated floor which was then heated by the large fires built in the corner of the basement.