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Italien / Friaul - Cividale del Friuli
Cividale del Friuli (Friulian: Cividât, locally Zividât; German: Östrich; Slovene: Čedad) is a town and comune (municipality) in the Regional decentralization entity of Udine, part of the North-Italian region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia. The town lies 135 metres (443 ft) above sea-level in the foothills of the eastern Alps, 15 kilometres (9 mi) by rail from the city of Udine and close to the Slovenian border. It is situated on the river Natisone, which forms a picturesque ravine here.[3] Formerly an important regional power, it is today a quiet, small town that attracts tourists thanks to its medieval center.
History
Archaeological findings reveal that the area was already inhabited in Paleolithic and Neolithic times. During the Iron Age the region was settled by Veneti and Celts. Due to the location's strategic position on the northeastern frontier of Roman Italy, in 50 BC, the Romans founded there a castrum, which afterwards was transformed by Julius Caesar into a forum and its name changed into Forum Iulii ("Julius' marketplace"; Fréjus had the same Roman name). Not long afterward, the forum became a municipium and its citizens were inscribed in the Roman tribe Scaptia.
After the destruction of Aquileia and Iulium Carnicum (Zuglio) in 452 AD, Forum Iulii became the chief town of the district of Friuli and gave its name to it. In 568 the city was the first major centre occupied by Alboin's Lombard invasion of Italy, then part of the Byzantine Empire. The city was chosen as first capital of the newly formed Lombard Kingdom, then granted by Alboin to his nephew Gisulf as the capital of a Lombard Duchy of Friuli. After the Lombards were defeated by the Franks, (774), following the last Lombard resistance under Hrodgaud of Friuli (776) Forum Julii changed its name to Civitas Austriae, Charlemagne's Italian "City of the East".
Under the Carolingian settlement with the Papacy, the patriarchs of Aquileia resided here from 773 to 1031, when they returned to Aquileia, and finally in 1238 removed to Udine. This last change of residence was the origin of the antagonism between Cividale and Udine, which was only terminated by their surrender to Venice in 1419 and 1420 respectively. When the Patriarchal State of Friuli was founded in 1077, Cividale was chosen as the capital.
According to James Burke, a 1331 siege of Cividale was one of the first deployments of what we would now call cannons, in the early form known as a bombard. Between July and September 1409, a church council was held at Cividale by Pope Gregory XII (Roman Obedience). It was poorly attended and achieved nothing. In 1420 Cividale was annexed to the Republic of Venice. After the Napoleonic Wars Cividale became part of the Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia. It was ceded to Kingdom of Italy in 1866.
Main sights
he historical center of the town is dominated by Piazza del Duomo, which is where the National Archaeological Museum of Cividale del Friuli is located. Close by is the Palazzo dei Provveditori Veneti, constructed in 1565 and designed by Andrea Palladio. The town is split in two by the Natisone River, which is spanned by the Devil's Bridge (15th century, rebuilt in 1918). The Celtic Hypogeum is a subterranean series of halls carved in the rock in ancient times, whose destination remains unclear: uses as either Celtic funerary monument or a Roman (Lombard) jail has been proposed.
The Cathedral (Duomo) was built in the 15th century over a pre-existing construction built in the 8th century. It is a Venetian Gothic building, finished in the 16th century by architect Pietro Lombardo, featuring interventions from the 18th century also. The interior houses an altar dedicated to the Madonna, in the right aisle, and the altarpiece of patriarch Pellegrino II (1195−1204), a silver retable which had been inscribed in Latin by the means of individual letter punches, 250 years before the invention of modern movable type printing by Johannes Gutenberg.
The Christian Museum annexed to the Duomo houses outstanding examples of Lombard sculpture. It contains some interesting relics of the art of the 8th century. The cathedral contains an octagonal marble canopy with sculptures in relief, with a font below it belonging to the 8th century, but altered later. The high altar has a fine silver altar front of 1185. The museum contains various Roman and Lombard antiquities, and works of art in gold, silver and ivory formerly belonging to the cathedral chapter. The fine 15th-century Ponte del Diavolo leads to the church of S. Martino, which contains an altar of the 8th century with reliefs executed by order of the Lombard king Ratchis.
The small church of Oratorio di Santa Maria in Valle (also known as Lombard Temple), next to the Natisone river, is a notable example of High Middle Ages art sometimes attributed to the 8th century, but probably later. Included in the old Lombard quarter, it was probably used as Palatine Chapel by the Lombard dukes and king's functionaries. The fine decorations, statues and stuccoes (11th or 12th century) housed in the interior, show a strong Byzantine influence.
In the collegiata, the altarpiece of Pellegrinus II (1195−1204) is a silver retable which had been inscribed in Latin by the means of individual letter punches, 250 years before the invention of modern movable type printing by Johannes Gutenberg. On 25 June 2011 a part of the historical centre of Cividale (the one belonging to the Lombards era) entered the UNESCO heritage list.
Tradition and Folklore
On 6 January residents celebrate the Messa dello Spadone (Mass of the Broadsword), a religious rite observed with an historical reenactment of Patriarch Marquard of Randeck’s arrival in Cividale in 1366.
Game of Truc
The game of Truc is an old game played by children and adults on Easter and the Monday following Easter (called Pasquetta, or Little Easter). A manuscript preserved in the National Archaeology Museum of Cividale del Friuli traces the game back to the 18th century. While Truc is exclusive to the central squares of Cividale, a similar game is played in Venice and in Emilia Romagna (Italy). An Easter game played in Lusatia (Germany) called Waleien also has similar rules to Truc.
The game takes place in a large, round basin made of sand with a ramp leading into it. Players roll colored hard-boiled eggs and, according to precise rules, aim to touch the other eggs rolled into the basin for a number of points. The game’s name is an onomatopoeia imitating the sound the eggs make when they touch.
Other attractions
The town has a number of small osterias which serve distinctive local wines. Of particular note are Tocai friulano, Verduzzo and Refosco dal peduncolo rosso.
(Wikipedia)
Cividale del Friuli (furlanisch Cividât, slowenisch Čedad, deutsch gelegentlich Östrich) ist eine Stadt in der nordostitalienischen Region Friaul-Julisch Venetien mit rund 11.000 Einwohnern.
Name
In römischer Zeit hieß die Stadt Forum Iulii, aus dem später Friuli, der Name für die gesamte Region, hervorging. Als das Langobardenreich im Jahre 776 endgültig durch die Franken besiegt wurde, erhielt sie den Namen Civitas Austriae, was „Stadt des Ostens“ bedeutet, da Italien, ähnlich wie das Frankenreich, in einen westlichen (Neustrien) und einen östlichen (Austrasien) Teil gegliedert wurde. Der Name Cividal d'Austria hielt sich bis in die frühe Neuzeit als volkstümlicher Name. Daraus entwickelten sich Cividale del Friuli, was seit dem 16. Jahrhundert gebräuchlich wurde, aber auch der deutsche Name Östrich.
Einwohnerzahl
Cividale zählte am 31. Dezember 2024 10.744 Einwohner. Hundert Jahre zuvor hatte sie bereits 11.622 Einwohner, seither stagniert die Zahl etwa zwischen 10.000 und 11.700. 1881 hatte sie 8.118 Einwohner, 1878 8.303. Kurz nach dem Anschluss an Italien zählte man 6.812 Einwohner. Bis zur Industrialisierung im späteren 19. Jahrhundert war die Bevölkerung deutlich kleiner. So zählte man 1824 nur 5.307 Einwohner.
Für die Zeit vor der genaueren Erfassung liegen für das 18. Jahrhundert gleichfalls, wenn auch nur angenäherte Zahlen vor. So nennt Cristoforo Tentori für das späte 18. Jahrhundert rund 2.000 Einwohner.
Geographie
Cividale liegt rund 17 km östlich von Udine und wenig mehr als 10 km von der Grenze zu Slowenien entfernt. Die Stadt erstreckt sich beiderseits des kleinen Flusses Natisone und liegt auf den äußersten Ausläufern der Julischen Alpen.
Geschichte
Die Stadt war ursprünglich eine keltische Siedlung, die von Gaius Iulius Caesar zur Stadt erhoben wurde (lat. Forum Iulii, Marktplatz des Iulius). Im Zuge der Völkerwanderung hielt sich in der Stadt eine Bevölkerung, die kulturell und durch ihre dem Ladinischen verwandte Furlanische Sprache mit den Alpenromanen verbunden war. Kirchlich unterstand Cividale ab dem 8. Jahrhundert über lange Zeit dem Patriarchat von Aquileia.
Während der Völkerwanderungszeit hatte seine Bevölkerung besonders zu leiden, da die Stadt unmittelbar westlich der Sperrwerke der Claustra Alpium Iuliarum im Birnbaumer Wald lag, eines Gebirgspasses in den Julischen Alpen, der häufig von plündernden Armeen und ganzen Völkern als Einfallstor nach Italien benutzt wurde. Allerdings konnte die Stadt auf Umwegen auch von den Zerstörungen, etwa durch die Hunnen unter Attila im Jahr 452 profitieren, als diese die Provinzhauptstadt Aquileia zerstörten. So übernahm Cividale, von dem man annahm, es sei nun zur Provinzhauptstadt avanciert, und das tatsächlich schnell wuchs, die Verteidigung der Alpen. Dies schloss auch die Umsiedlung von Speichern für die Armee ein.
Die Stadt gehörte nach dem Untergang Westroms zunächst zum Reich Odoakers (bis 493), dann zum Ostgotenreich Theoderichs und schließlich zu Byzanz.
Im Herbst 568 wurde die Stadt, wohl kampflos, von den Langobarden besetzt, die erst seit wenigen Monaten begonnen hatten, nach Norditalien zu ziehen. Cividale wurde zum Mittelpunkt des Herzogtums Friaul gemacht. Dessen erster Herzog wurde Gisulf I. Um das Jahr 610 wurde Cividale allerdings von den Awaren geplündert. Nachdem Herzog Gisulf II. in der Schlacht gefallen war, suchte seine Frau Romilda mit ihren Söhnen in ihren Mauern Zuflucht. Den Awaren gelang es in die Stadt einzudringen. Den Berichten des Paulus Diaconus zufolge soll Romilda, die Witwe des Herzogs, selbst die Tore der Stadt geöffnet haben, da sie von der Schönheit des Barbarenherrschers geblendet war. Die männlichen Stadtbewohner wurden ermordet, die Frauen und Kinder unter den Awaren aufgeteilt, Romilda selbst wurde ermordet. Nur den Kindern Gisulfs gelang die Flucht.
Nach der Historia Langobardorum des Paulus Diaconus wurde Calixtus, der adlige, langobardische Diakon aus Treviso, mit Unterstützung König Liutprands zum Bischof von Cividale erhoben (zwischen 718 und 728). Als Nachfolger des Serenus († 730) führte er den Titel eines Patriarchen von Aquileia. Nun folgte ein heftiger Streit um den Sitz in Cividale, denn wegen der Streifzüge der Slawen wurde dem Bischof von Zuglio (Krain) der Umzug in die Hauptstadt des Herzogtums, nach Cividale, genehmigt. Herzog Pemmo sträubte sich aber gegen den avisierten Umzug des Patriarchen von Cormòns, einem kleinen Städtchen, in seine Hauptstadt. Kurzerhand beanspruchte Calixtus die Residenz des besagten flüchtigen Bischofs vor den Slawen, womit er den Herzog zu übertölpeln versuchte. Pemmo, der den Patriarchen gefangensetzen ließ, wurde nun selbst vor das königliche Gericht gezerrt und inhaftiert. Nun zog Pemmos ältester Sohn Ratchis mit Genehmigung des Königs in die Residenz ein. Die Residenz des Patriarchen Calixtus entstand dort, wo sich heute der Palast der venezianischen Proveditori befindet.
Unter den Karolingern, die 774 das Langobardenreich erobert hatten, wurde Cividale Teil der Mark Friaul, dann der Markgrafschaft Verona, gelangte dann unter die Landesherrschaft des Patriarchen von Aquileia. Das Patriarchat fiel wiederum 1421 an die Republik Venedig, womit eine sehr viel stärkere Ausrichtung auf deren Bedürfnisse erfolgte. Cividale war bereits 1419 an die Republik gefallen. Der spätere Doge Francesco Donà ließ 1519 bis 1521 die Befestigungswerke wiederherstellen.
Ab 1553 wurde die Stadt direkt von Venedig regiert. Ende des 16. Jahrhunderts wurde die Stadt von einer der Pestwellen getroffen. Um diese Zeit verlor Cividale die Dominanz in der Provinz an Udine.
Es folgte die Herrschaft der Habsburger (kurz von einem französischen Intermezzo unterbrochen) und 1866 die Eingliederung in das Königreich Italien. Während der österreichischen Zeit erlebte die Kommune einen wirtschaftlichen Niedergang. Erst am 24. Juni 1886 wurde Cividale unter der Federführung der Società Veneta per Imprese e Costruzioni Pubbliche aus Padua an das Eisenbahnnetz angebunden.
Am 27. Oktober 1917 erlitt die italienische Armee ein Jahr vor Kriegsende eine schwere Niederlage bei Cividale gegen die deutsche Armee. Erst im Oktober 1918 gelang Italien die Rückeroberung der Stadt.
Nach dem Sturz Mussolinis beanspruchte das nationalsozialistische Deutsche Reich die Herrschaft über Italien. Wie die gesamte Region Friaul – Julisch Venetien gehörte Cividale seit Beginn der deutschen Besatzung nach Bekanntwerden der italienischen Kapitulation von September 1943 bis April 1945 zur für eine spätere Angliederung vorgesehenen Operationszone Adriatisches Küstenland. Ab Mitte September 1943 diente die „Principe Umberto“-Kaserne den Besatzern als Ortskommandantur. In der Folge wurde diese Kaserne zu einem der drei größten Zentren zur Partisanenbekämpfung in der Region. Heinrich Himmler erklärte die gesamte Region wegen der umfangreichen Partisanenaktivitäten am 9. November 1943 zum „Bandenkampfgebiet“. Bereits am 2. Oktober 1943 war auf dem Kasernenareal Antonio Rieppi, ein Mitglied der Garibaldi Brigade „Natisone“, ermordet worden. Mitte Juli 1944 zogen Einheiten der 24. Waffen-Gebirgs-(Karstjäger-)Division in Cividale ein. Mindestens 113 Menschen wurden bis Ende April 1945 auf diesem Areal umgebracht, ihre Leichen in Massengräbern am Ufer des hinter der Kaserne fließenden Natisone verscharrt. Diese Massengräber werden „Fosse del Natisone“ genannt. Am 18. Dezember 1944 wurden im Sportstadion acht Partisanen erschossen.
Cividale del Friuli blieb beim Erdbeben im Friaul 1976 nahezu unversehrt, obwohl es genau auf jener Linie der am meisten heimgesuchten Orte liegt, die sich an den Südhängen und im Vorland der Julisch-Karnischen Alpen hinzieht.
Wirtschaft und Verkehr
Zu erreichen ist Cividale über die Staatsstraße SS 54 von Udine nach Kobarid in Slowenien (eigentlich nur noch bis zur Grenzstadt Pulfero), oder über die Bahnlinie Udine–Cividale, die seit 1886 verkehrt.
Sehenswürdigkeiten
Teufelsbrücke
Über den Natisone führt die Teufelsbrücke, das Wahrzeichen der Stadt. Der Entstehungssage nach baute der Teufel die Brücke über den reißenden Fluss. Als Lohn sollte er die Seele des Ersten, der sie benutzte, erhalten. Nach der Fertigstellung jagten die Bürger jedoch einen Hund über die Brücke. Am Flussufer ist in den Stein ein Gewölbe eingehauen, das als keltisches Hypogäum, römischer Kerker oder auch langobardisches Gefängnis bekannt ist.
Piazza del Duomo
In der Altstadt befindet sich auf der zentralen Piazza del Duomo der Palazzo Pretorio oder auch Palazzo dei Provveditori Veneti genannt, dessen Entwurf Andrea Palladio zugeschrieben wird und der zwischen 1565 und 1586 errichtet wurde. Seit 1990 ist dort das Archäologische Nationalmuseum untergebracht. Neben der Sammlung langobardischer Fundstücke sind auch Teile der zum UNESCO-Weltdokumentenerbe gehörenden Reichenauer Handschriften aufbewahrt. In der Nähe der Piazza befindet sich der 1565 errichtete Stadtpalast.
Dom Santa Maria Assunta
Der dreischiffige Dom Santa Maria Assunta (Mariä Himmelfahrt) aus dem 14. Jahrhundert wurde nach dem Einsturz im Jahr 1502 unter Leitung des Architekten Pietro Lombardo wieder aufgebaut. 1909 erhob Papst Pius X. den Dom zur Basilica minor. Er beherbergt Werke von beachtlichem künstlerischen und historischen Wert. Den Hochaltar schmückt ein Altaraufsatz des Patriarchen Pilgrim II. (1195–1204). Die lateinische Inschrift wurde mit Hilfe einzelner Buchstabenpunzen hergestellt – über 200 Jahre vor Erfindung des Buchdrucks mit beweglichen Lettern durch Gutenberg. An der Nordwand des linken Seitenschiffes hängt ein lebensgroßes Holzkruzifix aus dem 13. Jahrhundert.
An den Dom angeschlossen ist das Museo Cristiano, in dem sich u. a. ein Langobardenthron und das Calixtus-Taufbecken befinden. Für das Alltagsleben aufschlussreich sind Fresken und in Sgraffitotechnik ausgeführte Darstellungen des langobardischen Alltags.
Kloster Santa Maria (Tempietto longobardo)
Der Gebäudekomplex des Klosters Santa Maria steht am Steilufer des Natisone im alten langobardischen Viertel Valle. Der Oratorio di Santa Maria aus dem 8. Jahrhundert war möglicherweise eine langobardische Pfalzkapelle; er wird deshalb auch Tempietto longobardo genannt. Dieses Bauwerk hat einen quadratischen Innenraum mit Kreuzgewölbe und ein tonnengewölbtes dreischiffiges Presbyterium mit byzantinisch beeinflussten Stuckverzierungen und Fresken. Das Gewölbefresko des Chores zeigt Christus in der Mandorla umgeben von Heiligen und sechs fein herausgearbeitete vollplastische Figuren von Heiligen. (Siehe auch: Lombardische Präromanik). Mit seinen komplexen Darbietungen ist der Tempietto longobardo als originelles Ensemble, Bestandteil des langobardischen Kulturanteils des italienischen UNESCO-Welterbes.
Weitere Kirchengebäude
Die Kirche San Giovanni in Valle geht auf die Palastkirche des Königshofes der frühen Langobardenzeit zurück.
Die Kirche der Heiligen Petrus und Blasius (Chiesa dei Santi Pietro e Biagio) fällt durch ihre mit Fresken gestaltete Westfassade auf. Sie stammen von 1506–1508 und wurden 2013 restauriert. In einer Seitenkapelle zeigt ein Fresko den hl. Blasius auf einem Thron.
Die Chiesa di San Francesco ist nicht mehr geweiht und wird für Ausstellungen genutzt.
Im Osten oberhalb der Altstadt, unweit der slowenischen Grenze, befindet sich die Kirche Madonna del Monte.
(Wikipedia)
Reignac-sur-Indre (Indre-et-Loire)
Le château.
Reignac-sur-Indre Castle.
A l'époque romaine, le village port le nom de Brixis.
Une motte féodale dont il ne subsiste aucun vestige est mentionnée dans les écrits des XIe et XIIe siècles.
Un premier castrum remonterait à Foulques Nerra* (972-1040). Foulques III le Noir dit Foulques Nerra, comte d'Anjou, fit construire de nombreuses places fortes en Anjou et une partie de la Touraine.
Vers 1160, l'existence d'un pont est attestée à Brayes ou Brays (Reignac-sur-Indre).
En 1213, un certain Pierre de la Brosse tenait la terre de la Brosse en la paroisse de Breis, aujourd'hui Reignac-sur-Indre, il était serviteur de Dreu de Mello, seigneur de Loches et de Châtillon.
Le château actuel est bâti sur les vestiges d'une ancienne forteresse du XVe siècle, dont il reste deux tours cylindriques. En 1420, la famille du Fau devient propriétaire, et en 1490 le Fau est érigé en baronnie. Le village prend le nom du seigneur. La famille du Fau modernise la forteresse médiévale et ouvre le château en supprimant deux tours sur les quatres d'origine.
Le château est remanié au début du XVIIIe siècle par le nouveau propriétaire, Louis de Barberin: comblement des douves, construction de communs, et la chapelle Saint-Louis (première pierre bénie le 30 juillet 1717), aménagement d'un parc à la française. Louis de Barberin deviendra marquis de Reignac par lettre patente de Louis XIV en 1710.
Le dernier seigneur de Reignac sera Joseph Gilbert Paul du Mottier, marquis de La Fayette, qui était l'arrière petit-fils de Louis de Barberin. Ce même Lafayette qui ira chercher la gloire en Amérique.
En 1861 le domaine est racheté par la famille Müller (L'habillage néogothique du château remonte à cette époque). Edouard Müller** est un banquier parisien, il deviendra maire de Reignac et député. Mis en faillite en 1911, le château est saisi et revendu à la famille Vibraye-Cheverny qui le conservera jusqu'en 1978.
Le château de Reignac a été entièrement restauré en 2003.
* Foulques Nerra, fils de Geoffroi Ier Grisegonelle et d'Adèle de Vermandois, régna sur l'Anjou pendant plus de cinquante ans. A la fois pieu et brutal, il fit trois fois le pèlerinage de Jérusalem pour expier ses péchés. Batailleur et fin politique il sut défendre et agrandir son domaine malgré les appétits des comtes de Blois et du Maine ainsi que des évêques du Mans. Il vainquit les Bretons, à la bataille de Conquereuil (Loire-Atlantique) en 992. Lors de cette bataille, le 27 juin 992, il tua de sa main dit-on, son beau-frère le comte de Rennes Conan Ier dit le Tort (ce dernier est inhumé dans l'église du Mont-Saint-Michel). Il s'empara de Saumur (1026), annexa les Mauges ainsi qu'une partie de la Touraine, et étendit sa suzeraineté sur le Vendômois et le Maine.
En 989, il épouse Elisabeth, fille du comte Bouchard de Vendôme, fidèle du roi de France Hugues Capet. En seconde noces, il épousera Hildegarde de Metz, fille du comte de Sundgau, dont il aura quatre enfants (dont Geoffroi II Martel, qui lui succédera). Il meurt le 21 juin 1040 au retour d'un pélerinage en Terre Sainte.
** Edouard Müller, avocat à Paris jusqu'en 1870, devient ensuite associé dans une banque parisienne. Maire de Reignac-sur-Indre, il est aussi conseiller d'arrondissement et député d'Indre-et-Loire de 1890 à 1893. A la chambre, il siège avec les boulangistes. Il décède dans l'Ain en 1917, à l'âge de 73 ans.
tourainissime.blogspot.com/2009/03/reignac-sur-indre.html
www.reignac-sur-indre.fr/histoire-article-2-2.html
www.vendomois.fr/societeArcheologique/ressources/livres/f...
Il Castel dell'Ovo (Castrum Ovi, in latino), è il castello più antico della città di Napoli. Il suo nome deriva da un'antica leggenda secondo la quale il poeta latino Virgilio - che nel medioevo era considerato anche un mago - nascose nelle segrete dell'edificio un uovo che mantenesse in piedi l'intera fortezza. La sua rottura avrebbe provocato non solo il crollo del castello, ma anche una serie di rovinose catastrofi alla città di Napoli.
Loches (Indre-et-Loire)
Perrusson.
Tour de Mauvières (XIVe siècle).
Vestige d'un château médiéval.
Le castrum primitif de Loches, sur un éperon barré dominant la vallée de l'Indre et bordé de deux petites vallées, avait reçu "une seconde fortification, la Tour de Mauvières, établie à l'entrée du vallon de la Cloutière". (Voir Jean Mesqui - La tour maîtresse du donjon de Loches. In: Bulletin Monumental, tome 156, n°1, année 1998)
La Tour de Mauvières pouvait donc constituer un élément de défense, au sud du plateau, contrôlant l'entrée du vallon de Cloutière et dominant l'Indre.
Le fief de Mauvières, connu depuis le XIe siècle, était rattaché au château de Loches. Au début du XIe siècle, le fief était la possession d'Archambaud de Busançais, qui l'aurait reçu de Foulques Nerra, le comte d'Anjou, redoutable guerrier et grand bâtisseur, qui fit construire les redoutables donjons de Montrichard, Montrésor, Sainte-Maure, Langeais, Montbazon, et Loches.
Archambaud de Busançais, le donna en dot de sa fille Hersende de Buzançais, avec d'autres domaines, vers 1025/1030, à Lisois de Bazouges puis d'Amboise, sénéchal du comte d'Anjou (C'était le premier sénéchal, d'Anjou nommé par Foulques Nerra). Lisois recevra également en dot Montrichard et Amboise, Foulques Nerra le fera gouverneur de la forteresse de Loches.
En 1430, le fief appartenait à Fiacre de Sigogné (Cigogné) dont les descendants gardèrent la possession jusqu'a la fin du XVIe siècle.
En 1574, le fief passa à Jean Gigault de Bellefond, par suite de son mariage avec Claude de Grellet, veuve de Georges de Sigogné.
La tour fut vendue le 5 janvier 1619 à Honorat Baraudin, seigneur de Cloutière, par le seigneur de Bellefonds, René de Gigault († 1649)
Le fief de Mauvières passe ensuite dans la famille de Chambray, par mariage de Bernard comte de Chambray avec Jeanne-Louise-Charlotte de Baraudin en 1774. Bernard de Chambray sera le dernier seigneur de Mauvières.
Après la Révolution, Bernard de Chambray abandonne sa particule et vend le domaine à des agriculteurs. Des champignonnistes s'installeront sur la site au XIXe siècle.
Le 17 juillet 1920, la tour est acquise par la ville de Loches et classée monument historique le 2 février 1926.
La tradition locale prétend qu'un souterrain reliait la tour de Mauvières avec le château de Loches. Le 21 janvier 1972 un effondrement, laissait entrevoir une galerie souterraine à Perruson près du lieu-dit du Grand Cormier, à environ 300 mètres du château de la Cloutière et à 700 m de la Tour de Mauvières.
fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tour_de_Mauvi%C3%A8res#cite_note-Ra...
lieuxditsdetouraine.blogspot.com/2016/07/loches-mauviere....
Dictionnaire géographique, historique et biographique d'Indre et Loire et de l'ancienne province de Touraine par: J.-X. Carré de Busserolle Tome IV (1878-1884)
areps.jimdofree.com/2018/07/03/histoire-du-site-troglodyt...
Saint-Brisson-sur-Loire (Loiret)
Château de Saint-Brisson-sur-Loire.
La construction du château actuel a du commencer vers la fin XIIe, début XIIIe siècle, par le comte Etienne II de Sancerre. et vice-chambellan royal.
Le site était probablement occupé par un castrum dès le XIe siècle. Le premier seigneur connu, Robert de Saint-Brisson, est mentionné dans les années 1060 : Il fait don de son église Sainte-Marie, qui devait se trouver à l'intérieur du castrum, à l'abbaye de Fleury, don confirmé par le pape en 1072.
Le castrum est mentionné par l'abbé Suger (1080-1151), abbé de Saint-Denis et principal ministre des rois Louis VI le Gros et Louis VII le Jeune. D'après l'abbé, le château appartenait à un seigneur qui se serait livré à des déprédations sur des marchands; ce pourquoi Louis VI aurait détruit le castrum, en 1135, par les flammes et contraint la "turris"* et le seigneur à se rendre.
(Ea quam extremam fecit expedicionem, nobilissimo exercitu castrum Sancti Brictionis super fluvium Ligerim, ob sui rapacitatem et mercatorum depredacionem, et incendio dissolvit et turrim et dominum ad dedicionem coegit)
Du château tel qu'il devait être avant sa destruction en 1135, il ne reste probablement que le plan de masse d'un ensemble fortifié significatif des XIe et XIIe siècles.
En 1181, le château est tenu par Étienne Ier de Blois-Champagne**, comte de Sancerre, qui meurt en 1191 à Saint-Jean d'Acre, lors de la troisième croisade (1189-1192). C'est le frère de la reine mère Adèle de Champage, veuve de Louis VII. A la mort de son père, le comte de Blois Thibaut IV, il hérite de la seigneurie de Sancerre, alors que ses deux frères aînés héritent de la Champagne pour l'une, et Blois et Chartres pour l'autre. Son frère cadet, Guillaume (dit Guillaume aux Blanches Mains), ne reçut rien, rentra dans l'Eglise et devint archevêque de Reims ( et aussi évêque de Chartres et archevêque de Sens). On rapporte que ce dernier combatit l'hérésie dans son diocèse et qu'il fit brûler deux femmes de Reims reconnues comme hérétiques***. Mais il est aussi l'auteur de plusieurs chartes, dont une, la loi de Beaumont, qui organisait l'affranchissement de la commune de Beaumont-en-Argonne, et qui libérait la ville de toute servilité envers le seigneur et organisait l'élection de magistrats locaux.
Après la mort d'Etienne Ier de Sancerre lors du siège de Saint-Jean d'Acre, son fils aîné Guillaume devient comte de Sancerre. Toutefois, les châtellenies de Saint-Brisson et de Châtillon-surLoing sont détachées du comté de Sancerre et deviennent possessions de son frère cadet Étienne. Les deux frères étant trop jeunes sont placés sous tutelle de leur oncle Guillaume aux Blanches Mains, archevêque de Reims et ministre du roi. Guillaume participera à la bataille de Bouvines (27 juillet 2014) qui verra la victoire de Philippe Auguste. Son frère et vassal Etienne (Etienne II de Sancerre) sera à ses côtés. Guillaume sera fait prisonnier du despote d'Epire , Théodore Ier, lors de l'expédition contre l'Empire latin d'Orient (Constantinople) en 1217, il meurt en captivité.
Etienne II de Sancerre (branche cadette des seigneurs de saint-Brisson), seigneur de Charenton-du-Cher, de Châtillon-sur-Loing et de Saint-Brisson-sur-Loire, Marchéville, de Montreuil-Bellay et La Loupe, accordera aux habitants de Saint-Brisson la charte de Lorris qui donne aux habitants des privilèges et franchises****. Il est probablement à l'origine du château dans son aspect actuel, peut-être avec son oncle l'archevêque Guillaume aux Mains Blanches. Il meurt en 1252, à l'âge de 72 ans environ.
La famille de Sancerre restera propriétaire de Saint-Brisson jusque vers 1290. Etienne III de Sancerre, seigneur de saint-Brisson aura deux filles. La cadette, Jeanne de Sancerre, dame de Saint-Brisson, épouse en 1290 Jean Ier de Courtenay. Les Courtenay prennent ainsi possession du lieu.
En 1425, le domaine est érigé en barronie pour Jean IV de Courtenay. Celui-ci dissipa sa fortune et dût vendre, entre autres, Saint-Brisson à Guillaume et Jean Juvenal des Ursins, en 1471. Jean IV de Courtenay fut baptisé de "Sans Terre". (Voir le portrait de Guillaume par Jean Fouquet : collections.louvre.fr/ark:/53355/cl010064846)
En 1473, Jacquette des Ursins, fille de Guillaume hérite du domaine et le donne à son époux Philibert de Beaujeu.
A la mort de Philibert de Beaujeu, le château revient à François de Clèves dernier époux de Catherine d'Amboise ancienne veuve de Philibert de Beaujeu.
En 1567, Pierre Ier Séguier*****, avocat général au parlement de Paris, puis président à mortier au parlement de Paris, rachète le château à Henriette de Clèves et son époux Ludovic de Gonzague, ce dernier étant endetté. La famille Séguier transforme la forteresse en lieu d'habitation.
Sidoine Charles François Séguier, marquis de Saint-Brisson, né en novembre 1738 à Saint-Brisson, officier d'infanterie, homme de lettres, après avoir lu l'Emile, devient disciple de Jean-Jacques Rousseau******, il meurt le 17 avril 1773, à l'âge de 34 ans.
En 1793, Nicolas-Maximilien-Sidoine Séguier de Saint-Brisson, fils posthume de Sidoine François Charles Seguier (il naît en décembre alors que son père est décédé en avril), fait abattre le châtelet d'entrée du château, une partie de la courtine Ouest (jusqu'à l'actuelle terrasse), la tour ronde Sud-Ouest et l'intégralité de la courtine Sud.
À partir de 1819, les descendants font restaurer le château.
En 1987, Anne de Ranst de berchem, donne le château à la commune. Une association des Amis du Château de Saint-Brisson (ACSB) est créée pour financer les réparations et assurer les visites.
En 2015, la mairie, n'étant plus capable d'en assurer l'entretien, décide de vendre le château. Celui-ci est racheté par la famille Guyot (qui possède par ailleurs le château de la Ferté-Saint-Aubin) pour 500 000 €, par l'intermédiaire d'une société, et réouvert en 2016.
* "Turris", tour de défense, et plus généralement toute haute maison, citadelle, etc... Dans le Gaffiot : Tour en bois à étages, ouvrage de siège souvent monté sur roues, maison élevée, château...
** Il est possible que Saint-Brisson soit arrivé dans la famille de Sancerre après 1135, après confiscation par le roi du domaine du seigneur détrousseur et remise au comte de Champagne.
*** L'hérésie a été très tôt présente en Champagne. Déjà en 1048, l'évêque de Châlons-sur-Marne dénonçait une hérésie "manichéenne" dans son diocèse. En mai 1239, sous le règne de Saint-Louis, sur le Mont-Aimé en Champagne, l'archevêque de Reims Henry de Braine, fera brûler 180 hérétiques. (flic.kr/p/27BnnPP)
**** La charte de Lorris, du nom du village de Lorris dans le Gâtinais, auquel le roi Louis VI le Gros avait accordé une charte, en 1134, qui accordait à ce village une large autonomie administrative et judiciaire et des privilèges fiscaux. Cette charte servit ensuite de modèle.
***** En 1555, il s'opposera à l'édit introduisant l'Inquisition en France. Sa descendance sera composée de nombreux hommes de loi. Pierre Séguier fut aussi seigneur de Sorel, L'Étang-la-Ville, Autry (Vieux-Château), Saint-Brisson, La Verrière, et bailli de Saint-Denis.
****** Dans les Confessions, Rousseau, à propos de son exil en Suisse, consacre quelques lignes au marquis de Saint-Brisson :
"Le seul Français qui parut me venir voir par goût pour mes sentiments et pour mes ouvrages fut un jeune officier du régiment de Limousin, appelé M. Séguier de Saint-Brisson, qu’on a vu et qu’on voit peut-être encore briller à Paris et dans le monde par des talents assez aimables, et par des prétentions au bel esprit. Il m’était venu voir à Montmorency l’hiver qui précéda ma catastrophe. Je lui trouvai une vivacité de sentiment qui me plut. Il m’écrivit dans la suite à Motiers, et soit qu’il voulût me cajoler, ou que réellement la tête lui tournât de l’Émile, il m’apprit qu’il quittait le service pour vivre indépendant, et qu’il apprenait le métier de menuisier. Il avait un frère aîné, capitaine dans le même régiment, pour lequel était toute la prédilection de la mère, qui, dévote outrée, et dirigée par je ne sais quel abbé tartufe, en usait très mal avec le cadet, qu’elle accusait d’irréligion, et même du crime irrémissible d’avoir des liaisons avec moi. Voilà les griefs sur lesquels il voulut rompre avec sa mère, et prendre le parti dont je viens de parler, le tout pour faire le petit Émile.
Alarmé de cette pétulance, je me hâtai de lui écrire pour le faire changer de résolution, et je mis à mes exhortations toute la force dont j’étais capable : elles furent écoutées. Il rentra dans son devoir vis-à-vis de sa mère, et il retira des mains de son colonel sa démission, qu’il lui avait donnée, et dont celui-ci avait eu la prudence de ne faire aucun usage, pour lui laisser le temps d’y mieux réfléchir. Saint-Brisson, revenu de ses folies, en fit une un peu moins choquante, mais qui n’était guère plus de mon goût ; ce fut
de se faire auteur. Il donna coup sur coup deux ou trois brochures, qui n’annonçaient pas un homme sans talent, mais sur lesquelles je n’aurai pas à me reprocher de lui avoir donné des éloges bien encourageants pour poursuivre cette carrière.
Quelque temps après, il me vint voir, et nous fîmes ensemble le pèlerinage de l’île de Saint-Pierre. Je le trouvai dans ce voyage différent de ce que je l’avais vu à Montmorency. Il avait je ne sais quoi d’affecté, qui d’abord ne me choqua pas beaucoup mais qui
m’est revenu souvent en mémoire depuis ce temps-là. Il me vint voir encore une fois à l’hôtel de Saint-Simon, à mon passage à
Paris pour aller en Angleterre. J’appris là, ce qu’il ne m’avait pas dit, qu’il vivait dans les grandes sociétés, et qu’il voyait assez souvent Mme de Luxembourg. Il ne me donna aucun signe de vie à Trye et ne me fit rien dire par sa parente, Mlle Ségnier, qui était
ma voisine, et qui ne m’a jamais paru bien favorablement disposée pour moi. En un mot, l’engouement de M. de Saint-Brisson
finit tout d’un coup, comme la liaison de M. de Feins ; mais celuici ne me devait rien, et l’autre me devait quelque chose, à moins
que les sottises que je l’avais empêché de faire n’eussent été qu’un jeu de sa part : ce qui, dans le fond, pourrait très bien être."
www.persee.fr/docAsPDF/bulmo_0007-473x_2017_num_175_3_130...
Cluj-Napoca German: Klausenburg; Hungarian: Kolozsvár, Medieval Latin: Castrum Clus, Claudiopolis; Yiddish: קלויזנבורג, Kloiznburg), commonly known as Cluj, is the second most populous city in Romania, after the national capital Bucharest, and is the seat of Cluj County in the northwestern part of the country. Geographically, it is roughly equidistant from Bucharest (324 kilometres (201 miles)), Budapest (351 km (218 mi)) and Belgrade (322 km (200 mi)). Located in the Someşul Mic River valley, the city is considered the unofficial capital to the historical province of Transylvania. Between 1790 and 1848 and between 1861 and 1867, it was the official capital of the Grand Principality of Transylvania.
Raka Castle is one of the oldest medieval castles in Slovenia.Raka is located in the Municipality of Krško.
Raka Castle (German: Arch) was documented as early as 1161 and explicitly mentioned as Castrum Arch in 1279. Built no later than the second half of the 12th century by the Counts of Bogen, it was inherited by the Counts of Andechs and then passed into the possession of the Dukes of Spanheim. The castle was sold by a relative of the Archer knights to Baron Georg von Scheyer.
The Archer knights oversaw Raka Castle from 1248 until the end of their line at the close of the 15th century. In 1501, a relative of theirs, Leonhard Herič from Kompolje in Blagovica, sold the castle to Baron Georg von Scheyer from Soteska. The castle was later burned in 1515 during a peasant revolt.[1] In 1525, the castle and its estate were given in fief to Baron Johann Balthasar von Werneck by Archduke Karl. In the early 17th century, it was jointly owned by Baron Johann Ruess von Ruessenstein.
Later on, Baron Franz Karl Haller von Hallerstein preserved the old castle from dilapidation.
Through the 17th century, Raka Castle was owned by the Werneck barons and eventually sold to the Kajzelj family, who arranged greenhouse plots and a pond with crab breeding facilities below the castle. The old castle was preserved from its dilapidated state by Baron Franz Karl Haller von Hallerstein, who owned it from 1784 to 1825. He gave it a completely different and refined look, including new landscaped formal gardens and several purpose-built outbuildings. He further enlarged the Raka estate through purchases from the partial sale of the Studenice estate in 1800 and Dolenje Radulje in 1811.
Towards the end of the 19th century, the castle was owned by the nobleman Felix Lenck. After his marriage to a high-profile American woman, Lenck built a sawmill in the vicinity, planted vineyards, and had a piped water supply installed in the castle from nearby Polter Spring.
The castle was used as a military outpost during World War II. Between 1952 and 1961, Raka served as a municipal seat. In 1948, after expulsion from their convent, the Daughters of Charity moved into the castle, where they remained until 1998.
In 2007, the castle was declared a monument of special architectural or historic interest by the Municipality of Krško in order to protect the integrity of its landscape, architectural, artistic and historical value, strengthen its cultural testimony, present its cultural value in situ and in the media, and promote educational and scientific research work.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raka_Castle
s020 8288 ValvasorIII Johann Weikhard von Valvasor Castrum Arch Raka Castle Dvorac Die Ehre deß Herzogthums Crain The Glory of the Duchy of Carniola Laibach-Nürnberg 1689 2te unveränderte Auflage Rudolfswerth 1877-1879. Druck und Verlag v. J. Krajec Ljubljana Laybach Laibach Grafika Bakropis.
Dvorac Raka u povijesnim se dokumentima spominje još 1161. godine, a izričito 1279. godine kao castrum Arch. Najkasnije u drugoj polovini 12. stoljeća izgradili su ga grofovi iz Bogna, zatim naslijedili grofovi od Andechsa, a nakon njih bio je u vlasništvu vojvode Spanheima.
Vitezovi Archeri upravljali su dvorcem od 1248. godine do kraja 15. stoljeća, kad su izumrli. Godine 1501. Leonhard Herič iz Kompolja kod Blagovice, rođak obitelji Archer, prodao je Raku vitezu Jurju Scheyeru iz Soteske, a 1515. godine pobunjeni seljaci su ga zapalili. Godine 1525. nadvojvoda Karlo dodijelio je dvorac s imanjem u feud Janezu Baltazaru pl. Wernecku, a početkom 17. stoljeća suvlasnik je bio Janez Ruess pl. Ruessenstein.
U 17. stoljeću vlasnici račkog dvorca bili su gospoda Verneški, koji su dvorac kasnije prodali obitelji Kajzelj. Obitelj Kajzelj je pod dvorcem uredila staklenike i ribnjak u kojem su uzgajali rakove. Između 1784. i 1825. godine barun Franz Carl Haller von Hallerstein spasio je stari dvorac od propadanja i dao mu posve nov i ljepši izgled.
S istančanim ukusom uredio je novi vrt, izgradio korisne gospodarske zgrade, 1800. godine proširio Raku time što je dokupio djelomično prodano imanje Studenice, a 1811. Dolenje Radulje. Sljedeći poznati vlasnik dvorca bio je Feliks plemeniti Lenck, koji je bio vlasnik zgrade krajem 19. stoljeća. Nakon vjenčanja s poznatom Amerikankom Lenck je u mjestu izgradio pilanu i zasadio vinograde, a u dvorac uveo vodovod iz obližnjeg izvora Poltera.
Za vrijeme Drugog svjetskog rata u dvorcu je bila vojarna. Godine 1948. u dvorac su smještene sestre milosrdnice, Kćeri kršćanske ljubavi, prognane iz svojih dotadašnjih domova, a napustile su ga 1998. godine.
Obćina Krško u prosincu 2014 prodala je dvorac. Novi vlasnik dvorca je Rok Mejak.
La cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta è il duomo di Siena. Costruita in stile Romanico-Gotico italiano, è una delle più significative chiese realizzate in questo stile in Italia.
Nel luogo dove sorge la cattedrale, sarebbe sorto il castrum romano. Ancora nel Medioevo il toponimo era Piano Sancte Mariae e in questo luogo, tra l'attuale costruzione e la piazza che la circonda su due lati, sono stati effettuati degli scavi che hanno suffragato l'ipotesi di uno sviluppo dell'area in periodo longobardo e franco.
Si parla[senza fonte] di un accastellamento con quattro torri, di cui una sarebbe diventata la torre campanaria attuale. Questo edificio sarebbe stato fino al 913 la residenza del vescovo ed avrebbe contenuto una chiesa rivolta verso est, cioè verso l'attuale battistero. Nel XII secolo questa chiesa fu inglobata nella costruzione romanica che andava diventando la cattedrale, con la facciata rivolta a sud, cioè verso l'attuale "Facciatone", la facciata incompiuta del "duomo nuovo".
Finestra gotica sul fianco del duomoÈ tradizione, suffragata anche da deduzioni storiche[senza fonte], che il Duomo sia stato consacrato il 18 novembre 1179. Ci sono però opinioni contrastanti e notizie storiche che smentiscono questa datazione.[senza fonte] Infatti, solo nel XIII secolo (1229) il Duomo sarebbe stato trasformato in basilica, con la facciata rivolta ad ovest, verso l'ospedale di Santa Maria della Scala. I lavori vennero terminati solo alla fine del secolo successivo.
La cupola fu completata nel 1263 e il Rosso padellaio vi appose la "mela". La sua altezza è di 48 metri, inclusa la croce. L'attuale sistemazione dell'apice della cupola stessa è del 1667.
L'"Operaio del Duomo" che sovrintendeva all'amministrazione dei lavori era sempre scelto tra i canonici ma, dal 1258 agli inizi del Trecento, fu scelto tra i monaci dell'abbazia cistercense di San Galgano. Questi si erano segnalati come abili amministratori, tanto che lo stesso Comune di Siena gli aveva affidato gli uffici di Gabella e di Biccherna (gli uffici "entrate" e "uscite" della Repubblica di Siena).
Furono i monaci a chiamare Nicola Pisano e suo figlio Giovanni per i lavori. Giovanni lavorò alla facciata in quel periodo, utilizzando nella parte inferiore i rivestimenti marmorei (provenienti dalle vicine cave di Vallerano, comune di Murlo) che vediamo ancora oggi. Nicola creò il pulpito, terminato nel 1268.
La figura (forse derivata da Cimabue) del Cristo in croce, con le gambe avvitate, i piedi sovrapposti e trapassati da un unico chiodo e le braccia "ad ipsilon" è diventata un classico dell'iconografia. Sembra anche essere stata copiata da parte degli artisti che realizzarono gli affreschi scoperti di recente nella cripta sottostante il Duomo.
Nel 1313 viene terminato il campanile, alto circa 77 metri. Nel 1316 l'edificio venne ampliato sotto la direzione di Camaino di Crescentino, padre dello scultore Tino di Camaino.
Con Siena al massimo del suo splendore, dovette sembrare che il duomo fosse comunque troppo piccolo per la città. Si pensò quindi di ampliarlo in modo tale che l'attuale navata centrale diventasse solo il transetto e la facciata tornasse ad essere orientata a sud, in posizione molto più avanzata rispetto all'antico edificio. Il progetto fu affidato a Lando di Pietro (o "Lando di Piero") dopo la delibera del Consiglio Generale della Campana del 23 agosto 1339. I lavori passarono in seguito sotto la supervisione dello scultore ed architetto Giovanni di Agostino.
A causa della peste del 1348 e di alcuni crolli strutturali, nel giugno del 1357 si decise di interrompere i lavori, lasciando nell'attuale piazza Iacopo della Quercia i segni del fallimento: basamenti per le colonne e incastonamenti di queste nell'edificio dell'attuale Museo dell'Opera Metropolitana del Duomo, oltre alla facciata incompiuta (il "facciatone") dal quale è possibile oggi godere di un notevole panorama sulla città.
Dopo qualche anno, si affidarono di nuovo i lavori al capomastro Domenico di Agostino, fratello di Giovanni, morto nel 1366. Nel 1376, la costruzione della parte superiore della facciata venne affidata a Giovanni di Cecco (detto "Giovannino della Pietra"). Nel 1382 vennero alzate le volte della navata centrale e quest'anno può essere considerato quello di completamento del Duomo.
Nel 1870 un incendio distrusse la cupola estera in legno e parte della copertura lignea della navata che vennero ripristinate.
A Catedral de Siena ou Duomo di Siena, é a catedral medieval de Siena, na Itália.
A Catedral em si foi originalmente projetada e construída entre 1215 e 1263 no local de uma estrutura antiga. Tem a forma de uma cruz Latina, um cúpula e uma torre de sinos. A lanterna, no topo da cúpula, foi adicionada por Gian Lorenzo Bernini. O exterior e o interior são feitos de mármore preto e branco, as cores simbólicas de Siena, derivadas dos lendários cavalos dos fundadores da cidade, Senius e Aschius.
A fachada da Catedral foi construída em dois estágios. A parte inferior foi iniciada em 1284 e construída em estilo da Toscana, por Giovanni Pisano. A exuberante fachada representa profetas, filósofos e apóstolos. Em 1288, a janela em forma de rosa, um vitral redondo colocado em um limite quadrado foi instalado na área do coro, a partir de desenhos de Duccio. O trabalho na parte superior da fachada foram iniciados em 1376 por Giovanni di Cecco, a partir de um projeto inspirado na Catedral de Orvieto. A porta central de bronze é recente e data de 1958. Foi criada por Enrico Manfrini.
No canto esquerdo da fachada há uma inscrição do século XIV, marcando o túmulo de Giovanni Pisano. Ao lado está uma coluna com a loba amamentando Rômulo e Remo, símbolos de Siena. Conta a lenda que Senius e Aschius, filhos de Remo, fundaram Siena.
The Cathedral of Siena (Italian: Duomo di Siena), dedicated from its earliest days as a Roman Catholic Marian church and now to Santa Maria Assunta (Most Holy Mary of Assumption), is a medieval church in Siena, central Italy.
The cathedral itself was originally designed and completed between 1215 and 1263 on the site of an earlier structure. It has the form of a Latin cross with a slightly projecting transept, a dome and a bell tower. The dome rises from an octagonal base with supporting columns. The lantern atop the dome was added by Gian Lorenzo Bernini. The nave is separated from the two aisles by semicircular arches. The exterior and interior are constructed of white and greenish-black marble in alternating stripes, with addition of red marble on the façade. Black and white are the symbolic colors of Siena, etiologically linked to black and white horses of the legendary city's founders, Senius and Aschius.
The origins of the first structure are obscure and shrouded in legend. There was a 9th century church with bishop's palace at the present location. In December 1058 a synod was held in this church resulting in the election of pope Nicholas II and the deposition of the antipope Benedict X.
In 1196 the cathedral masons’ guild, the Opera di Santa Maria, was put in charge of the construction of a new cathedral. By 1215 there were already daily masses said in the new church. There are records from 1226 onwards of the transport of black and white marble, probably for the construction of the façade and the bell tower. The vaults and the transept were constructed in 1259-1260. In 1259 Manuello di Ranieri and his son Parri carved some wooden choir stalls, which were replaced about 100 years later and have now disappeared. In 1264, Rosso Padellaio was paid for the copper sphere on top of the dome.
A second massive addition was planned in 1339. It would have more than doubled the size of the structure by means of an entirely new nave and two aisles ranged perpendicular to the existing nave and centred on the high altar. The construction was begun under the direction of Giovanni di Agostino, better known as a sculptor. Construction was halted by the Black Death in 1348. Basic errors in the construction were already evident by then, however, and the work was never resumed. The outer walls, remains of this extension, can now be seen to the south of the Duomo. The floor of the uncompleted nave now serves as a parking lot and museum, and, though unfinished, the remains are testament to Sienese power, ambition, and artistic achievement.
Underneath the choir of the Duomo, a narthex containing important late-13th century frescoes (probably about 1280) was found and excavated in 1999-2003. The frescoes depict scenes from the Old Testament and the life of Christ. This was part of the entrance of an earlier church. But when the baptistry was built, this under-church was filled with rubble. The narthex is now open to the public.
The façade of this cathedral was built in two stages. The lower part in polychrome marble was begun around 1284. It is built in Tuscan Gothic style by Giovanni Pisano, replete with gargoyles. Giovanni Pisano worked on the lower levels until 1296, when he suddenly left Siena. At that time, between 1270 and 1285, the nave of the church had been raised and a higher façade became necessary. Work at the façade continued for another fifteen years and was then stopped. Meanwhile in 1288, the rose window, a large circular stained-glass window, was installed in the choir, based on designs by Duccio di Buoninsegna.
The three portals, surmounted by lunettes and Gothic pediments, were designed by Giovanni Pisano. The columns between the portals are richly decorated with acanthus scrolls, allegorical figures and biblical scenes.
Work on the upper part of the façade only resumed in 1376 under the direction of Giovanni di Cecco, working on a new elaborate design, inspired by the Orvieto Cathedral. It was to be erected much higher than foreseen, because the nave had, once again, been raised. The division of the upper part does not match the division of the lower part. The pinnacles of the upper part do not continue over the columns flanking the central portal. The weight of the elegant side towers was reduced by adding windows.
The statues of the lavish façade were sculpted by Giovanni Pisano and assistants. They represent prophets, philosophers and apostles. The half-length statues of the patriarchs in the niches around the rose window are the work of other sculptors. Almost all the sculptures on view are copies. The originals are kept in the "Crypt of the Statues" in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo.
The bronze central door is recent and dates from 1958. It was made by Enrico Manfrini. The scenes on the door represent the Glorification of the Virgin. The three large mosaics on the gables of the façade were made in Venice in 1878. The large central mosaic, the Coronation of the Virgin, is the work of Luigi Mussini. The smaller mosaics on each side, Nativity of Jesus and Presentation of Mary in the Temple, were made by Alessandro Franchi.
On the left corner pier of the façade, a 14th century inscription can be found, marking the grave of Giovanni Pisano. Next to the façade stands a column with the she-wolf breast-feeding Romulus and Remus, symbol of Siena (and also of the contrade Lupa). According to legend, Senius and Aschius, sons of Remus, founded Siena. They had stolen the statue of the she-wolf from the Temple of Apollo in Rome.
Schloßgarten
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Das Heidelberger Schloss ist eine der berühmtesten Ruinen Deutschlands und das Wahrzeichen der Stadt Heidelberg. Bis zu seiner Zerstörung im Pfälzischen Erbfolgekrieg war es die Residenz der Kurfürsten von der Pfalz. Seit den Zerstörungen durch die Soldaten Ludwigs XIV. 1689 und der Sprengung durch französische Pioniere am 6. September 1693 wurde das Heidelberger Schloss nur teilweise restauriert. Nachdem am 24. Juni 1764 Blitze die teilweise renovierte Anlage in Brand gesetzt hatten, wurde die Wiederherstellung aufgegeben.[1] Die Schlossruine aus rotem Neckartäler Sandstein erhebt sich 80 Meter über dem Talgrund am Nordhang des Königstuhls und dominiert von dort das Bild der Altstadt. Der Ottheinrichsbau, einer der Palastbauten des Schlosses, zählt zu den bedeutendsten deutschen Bauwerken der Renaissance.[2]
Geschichte
Bis zu den Zerstörungen
Erste Erwähnungen
Erste Darstellung des Schlosses von Sebastian Münster
Um das Jahr 1182 verlegte Konrad der Staufer, Halbbruder von Kaiser Friedrich I. Barbarossa und seit 1156 Pfalzgraf bei Rhein, seine Hofhaltung von der Burg Stahleck bei Bacharach am Mittelrhein auf die Burg Heidelberg.[3]
Die Stadt Heidelberg wird im Jahr 1196 zum ersten Mal in einer Urkunde genannt. Eine Burg in Heidelberg („castrum in Heidelberg cum burgo ipsius castri“) wird im Jahr 1225 erwähnt, als Ludwig I. diese Burg vom Bischof Heinrich von Worms als Lehen erhielt. 1214 waren die Herzöge von Bayern aus dem Haus Wittelsbach mit der Pfalzgrafschaft belehnt worden.
Von einer Burg ist zuletzt im Jahr 1294 die Rede. In einer Urkunde des Jahres 1303 werden zum ersten Mal zwei Burgen aufgeführt: die obere Burg auf dem Kleinen Gaisberg bei der jetzigen Molkenkur und die untere Burg auf dem Jettenbühl. Lange Zeit hatte sich deshalb in der Forschung die Auffassung durchgesetzt, dass die Gründung der unteren Burg zwischen 1294 und 1303 entstanden sein müsse, zumal die vom Schlossbaubüro in der zweiten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts akribisch durchgeführte Bauaufnahme zum Schluss gelangte, dass die Bausubstanz keine Datierung des Schlosses vor das 15. Jahrhundert gerechtfertigt habe. Aufgrund von Architekturfunden und neueren bauarchäologischen Untersuchungen wird in der jüngeren Forschung zum Heidelberger Schloss die Entstehung der unteren Burg dagegen mittlerweile auf die erste Hälfte des 13. Jahrhunderts datiert. Bereits 1897 wurde ein vermauertes spätromanisches Fenster in der Trennwand zwischen Gläsernem Saalbau und Friedrichsbau entdeckt. 1976 förderten Ausschachtungsarbeiten an der Nordostecke des Ruprechtbaues in einer um 1400 abgelagerten Schutt- und Abbruchschicht ein Fensterfragment in Form eines Kleeblattbogens zutage, wie es sich in ähnlicher Form in den Arkadenfenstern der Burg Wildenberg findet. Eine 1999 im Bereich des Ludwigsbaus durchgeführte archäologische Untersuchung verdichtete die Hinweise auf eine Bebauung des Schlossareals in der ersten Hälfte des 13. Jahrhunderts.[4]
Schloss im Thesaurus Picturarum
Schloss und Stadt von Matthäus Merian, (Ausschnitt)
Die ältesten Werke, die das Heidelberger Schloss erwähnen, sind:
der Thesaurus Picturarum des pfälzischen Kirchenrats Markus zum Lamb (1559 bis 1606)
die Annales Academici Heidelbergenses des Heidelberger Bibliothekars und Professors Pithopoeus (1587 begonnen)
der Originum Palatinarum Commentarius von Marquard Freher (1599)
das Teutsche Reyssebuch von Martin Zeiller (Straßburg 1632, als Itinerarium Germaniae 1674 wieder abgedruckt)
Alle diese Werke sind meist oberflächlich und enthalten nichts Ernsthaftes. Anders verhält es sich mit Merians Topographia Palatinatus Rheni aus dem Jahr 1615, in der Kurfürst Ludwig V. als derjenige genannt wird, der „vor hundert und etlichen Jahren hat ein neu Schloß angefangen zu bauen“. Auf Merians Angaben stützen sich die meisten Beschreibungen des Schlosses bis ins 18. Jahrhundert hinein. Das Bestreben, die Gründungszeit des Schlosses weiter rückwärts zu verlegen, führt später zu Hinweisen, dass bereits unter Ruprecht I. die berühmte Hofkapelle auf dem Jettenbühl errichtet worden sei.
Königsschloss und Papstgefängnis
Als Ruprecht III. im Jahr 1401 Deutscher König (Ruprecht I.) wurde, herrschte im Schloss so großer Raummangel, dass er bei seiner Rückkehr von der Königskrönung sein Hoflager im Augustinerkloster (heute: Universitätsplatz) aufschlagen musste. Jetzt galt es, Raum zur Repräsentation und zur Unterbringung des Beamten- und Hofstaates zu schaffen. Gleichzeitig musste die Burg zu einer Festung ausgebaut werden.
Nach Ruprechts Tod im Jahr 1410 wurde der Herrschaftsbereich unter seinen vier Söhnen aufgeteilt. Die pfälzischen Stammlande gingen an den ältesten Sohn Ludwig III. Nach dem Konzil von Konstanz brachte dieser als Stellvertreter des Kaisers und oberster Richter im Jahr 1415 im Auftrag König Sigismunds den abgesetzten Papst Johannes XXIII. auf dem Schloss in Gewahrsam, bevor er auf Burg Eichelsheim (heute Mannheim-Lindenhof) gebracht wurde.
Der französische Dichter Victor Hugo besuchte 1838 Heidelberg und spazierte dabei besonders gerne in den Ruinen des Schlosses herum, dessen Geschichte er in einem Brief zusammenfasst:
„Lassen Sie mich nur von seinem Schloß sprechen. (Das ist absolut unerläßlich, und eigentlich hätte ich damit beginnen sollen). Was hat es nicht alles durchgemacht! Fünfhundert Jahre lang hat es die Rückwirkungen von allem hinnehmen müssen, was Europa erschüttert hat, und am Ende ist es darunter zusammengebrochen. Das liegt daran, daß dieses Heidelberger Schloß, die Residenz des Pfalzgrafen, der über sich nur Könige, Kaiser und Päpste hatte und zu bedeutend war, um sich unter deren Füßen zu krümmen, aber nicht den Kopf heben konnte, ohne mit ihnen aneinanderzugeraten, das liegt daran, meine ich, daß das Heidelberger Schloß immer irgendeine Oppositionshaltung gegenüber den Mächtigen eingenommen hat. Schon um 1300, der Zeit seiner Gründung, beginnt es mit einer Thebais; in dem Grafen Rudolf und dem Kaiser Ludwig, diesen beiden entarteten Brüdern, hat es seinen Eteokles und seinen Polyneikes. Darin nimmt der Kurfürst an Macht zu. Im Jahre 1400 setzt der Pfälzer Ruprecht II., unterstützt von drei rheinischen Kurfürsten, Kaiser Wenzeslaus ab und nimmt dessen Stelle ein; hundertzwanzig Jahre später, 1519, sollte Pfalzgraf Friedrich II. den jungen König Karl I. von Spanien zu Kaiser Karl V. machen.“
– Victor Hugo: Heidelberg[5]
Badisch-Pfälzischer Krieg
Im Badisch-Pfälzischen Krieg 1462 setzte Kurfürst Friedrich I. von der Pfalz (der „Pfälzer Fritz“) den Markgrafen Karl I. von Baden, den Bischof Georg von Metz und den Grafen Ulrich V. von Württemberg auf dem Schloss fest. Friedrich ließ die Gefangenen bei harter Kost in Ketten legen, bis sie bereit waren, die geforderten Lösegeldzahlungen zu leisten.
Markgraf Karl I. musste zur Freilassung 25.000 Gulden zahlen, seinen Anteil an der Grafschaft Sponheim als Pfand abgeben und Pforzheim zum pfälzischen Lehen erklären. Der Metzer Bischof musste 45.000 Gulden zahlen. Das Wichtigste war aber, dass Friedrich I. von der Pfalz seinen Anspruch als Kurfürst gesichert hatte.
Die Sage berichtet, Friedrich habe seinen unfreiwilligen Gästen das Fehlen von Brot bei der Mahlzeit dadurch begreiflich gemacht, dass er sie durch das Fenster auf das verwüstete Land hinab blicken ließ. Dies wird in einem Gedicht von Gustav Schwab mit dem Titel „Das Mahl zu Heidelberg“ nacherzählt.
Wikisource: Das Mahl zu Heidelberg – Quellen und Volltexte
Reformation und Dreißigjähriger Krieg
Befestigungsplan aus dem Jahr 1622
Während der Regierung Ludwigs V. besichtigte Martin Luther, der zu einer Verteidigung seiner Thesen (Heidelberger Disputation) nach Heidelberg gekommen war, das Schloss. Er wurde dabei von Pfalzgraf Wolfgang, dem Bruder Ludwigs V., herumgeführt und lobte später in einem Brief an seinen Freund Georg Spalatin vom 18. Mai 1518 die Schönheit und kriegerische Ausrüstung des Schlosses.
Im Dreißigjährigen Krieg flogen zum ersten Mal Kugeln gegen das Heidelberger Schloss. Hiermit endet auch die eigentliche Geschichte des Schlossbaus. Die folgenden Jahrhunderte bringen hauptsächlich Zerstörungen und Wiederherstellungen.
Friedrich V. von der Pfalz nahm – trotz vieler Bedenken – die Königswürde von Böhmen an und löste damit eine Katastrophe aus. Nach der Schlacht am Weißen Berge war er als Geächteter auf der Flucht und hatte voreilig seine Truppen entlassen, so dass General Tilly, der Oberbefehlshaber der katholischen Liga-Truppen im Dienst des Kurfürsten von Bayern, eine unverteidigte Pfalz vor sich hatte. Am 26. August 1622 eröffnete er die Beschießung Heidelbergs und nahm am 16. September die Stadt und wenige Tage darauf das Schloss ein. Nachdem die Schweden am 5. Mai 1633 die Stadt Heidelberg eingenommen und vom Königstuhl aus das Feuer auf das Schloss eröffnet hatten, übergab der kaiserliche Kommandant am 26. Mai die Festung. Schon im folgenden Jahr versuchten Truppen des Kaisers erneut, das Schloss zurückzuerobern, aber erst im Juli 1635 fiel es wieder in ihre Gewalt, in der es dann bis zum Friedensschluss blieb. Erst am 7. Oktober 1649 zog der neue Herrscher wieder in das zerstörte Stammschloss seiner Familie ein.
Im Pfälzischen Erbfolgekrieg
Darstellung der Zerstörung, 1693
Der französische König Ludwig XIV. verlangte nach dem Tode des kinderlosen Kurfürsten Karl II., des letzten Fürsten der Linie Pfalz-Simmern, im Namen der Herzogin von Orléans die Herausgabe des pfälzischen Allodialgutes. Am 29. September 1688 rückten die französischen Heere im Pfälzischen Erbfolgekrieg in die Pfalz und zogen am 24. Oktober in das von Philipp Wilhelm, dem neuen Kurfürsten aus der Linie Pfalz-Neuburg, verlassene Heidelberg ein.
Gegen die verbündeten europäischen Mächte beschloss der französische Kriegsrat, durch Zerstörung aller Festungswerke und durch Verwüstung des pfälzischen Landes dem Feinde die Möglichkeit des Angriffes von dieser Gegend her zu entziehen. Beim Ausrücken aus der Stadt am 2. März 1689 steckten die Franzosen das Schloss und auch die Stadt an vielen Ecken zugleich in Brand.
Johann Wilhelm ließ sofort nach seinem Einzug in die verwüstete Stadt die Mauern und Türme wiederherstellen. Als die Franzosen 1691 und 1692 erneut bis vor die Tore Heidelbergs gelangten, fanden sie die Stadt in einem so guten Verteidigungszustand vor, dass sie unverrichteter Dinge abziehen mussten. Am 18. Mai 1693 standen die Franzosen allerdings wieder vor der Stadt und nahmen sie am 22. Mai ein. Sie versuchten vermutlich, mit der Zerstörung der Stadt die Hauptoperationsbasis gegen das Schloss zu schaffen. Am folgenden Tage kapitulierte die Schlossbesatzung, und nun holten die Franzosen nach, was sie 1689 in der Eile ihres Abzugs nur unvollständig ausgeführt hatten: sie sprengten nun durch Minen die Türme und Mauern, die beim letzten Mal der Zerstörung entgangen waren. Das Heidelberger Schloss wurde eine Ruine.
Verlegung der Residenz nach Mannheim
Glockenturm des Heidelberger Schlosses mit der Heiliggeistkirche auf einem Gemälde von Jacques Fouquières (1618). Die Kirche bekrönte damals noch ein gotischer Spitzhelm.
Der Frieden von Rijswijk, mit dem der Pfälzische Erbfolgekrieg beendet wurde, brachte im Jahr 1697 endlich etwas Ruhe. Es war geplant, das Schloss abzureißen und die brauchbaren Teile zur Errichtung eines neuen Palastes im Tal zu verwenden. Als sich aber der Durchführung dieses Planes Schwierigkeiten entgegenstellten, wurde das Schloss notdürftig wiederhergestellt. Gleichzeitig trug sich Karl Philipp mit dem Gedanken eines vollständigen Umbaues des Schlosses, aber der Mangel an finanziellen Mitteln schob dieses Projekt auf, und als der Kurfürst 1720 mit den Protestanten der Stadt wegen Überlassung der Heiliggeistkirche an die Katholiken in Streit geriet, der die Verlegung der Residenz nach Mannheim zur Folge hatte, endete das Interesse des Kurfürsten am Heidelberger Schloss. Seine Absicht war es, die Heiliggeistkirche zur katholischen Hofkirche umzuwidmen, was die Heidelberger Reformierten mit allen Mitteln zu verhindern suchten. Als er am 12. April 1720 die Verlegung seiner Residenz mit allen Behörden nach Mannheim verkündete, überließ der Kurfürst die alte Hauptstadt ihrem Schicksal und wünschte ihr, dass „Gras auf ihren Straßen wachsen“ solle. Der religiöse Konflikt war vermutlich aber nur der letzte Anstoß gewesen, das alte, schwer zu einer barocken Anlage umzubauende Bergschloss aufzugeben und in die Ebene zu ziehen, wo er eine ganz seinem Willen entspringende Neugründung vornehmen konnte.
Sein Nachfolger Karl Theodor plante vorübergehend, seinen Wohnsitz wieder ins Heidelberger Schloss zu verlegen. Er nahm davon allerdings wieder Abstand, als am 24. Juni 1764 der Blitz zweimal hintereinander in den Saalbau einschlug und das Schloss abermals brannte. Victor Hugo hielt dies später für einen Wink des Himmels:
„Man könnte sogar sagen, daß der Himmel sich eingemischt hat. Am 23. Juni 1764, einen Tag, bevor Karl-Theodor in das Schloß einziehen und es zu seiner Residenz machen sollte (was, nebenbei gesagt, ein großes Unglück gewesen wäre; denn wenn Karl-Theodor seine dreißig Jahre dort verbracht hätte, wäre die strenge Ruine, die wir heute bewundern, sicher mit einer schrecklichen Pompadour-Verzierung versehen worden), an diesem Vortag also, als die Möbel des Fürsten bereits vor der Tür, in der Heiliggeistkirche, standen, traf das Feuer des Himmels den achteckigen Turm, setzte das Dach in Brand und zerstörte in wenigen Stunden dieses fünfhundert Jahre alte Schloß.“
– Victor Hugo: Heidelberg.[5]
In den folgenden Jahrzehnten wurden zwar noch notwendige Erneuerungen vorgenommen, aber das Heidelberger Schloss blieb von nun an hauptsächlich eine Ruine.
Seit den Zerstörungen
Langsamer Zerfall und romantische Begeisterung
Romantische Darstellung von William Turner
Im Jahr 1777 verlegte Kurfürst Karl Theodor seine Residenz von Mannheim nach München. Damit verlor er das Heidelberger Schloss noch mehr aus den Augen. Die überdachten Räume wurden nun von Handwerksbetrieben genutzt. Schon 1767 hatte man begonnen, die Quader des Südwalles als Baumaterial für das Schwetzinger Schloss zu verwenden. Im Jahr 1784 wurden gar die Gewölbe im Erdgeschoss des Ottheinrichsbaus eingelegt und das Schloss als Steinbruch verwendet.
Durch den Reichsdeputationshauptschluss von 1803 gingen Heidelberg und Mannheim an Baden über. Der große Gebietszuwachs war Großherzog Karl Friedrich willkommen, das Heidelberger Schloss betrachtete er jedoch als unerwünschte Zugabe. Die Bauten verfielen, Heidelberger Bürger holten aus dem Schloss Steine, Holz und Eisen zum Bau ihrer Häuser. Auch Figuren und Verzierungen wurden abgeschlagen. August von Kotzebue äußerte sich 1803 voller Empörung über die Absicht der badischen Regierung, die Ruinen abtragen zu lassen. Das zerstörte Schloss wurde am Beginn des 19. Jahrhunderts zum Sinnbild für die patriotische Gesinnung, die sich gegen die napoleonische Unterdrückung richtete.
Schon vor 1800 erkannten Maler und Zeichner in der Schlossruine und der bergigen Flusslandschaft ein idealtypisches Ensemble. Den Höhepunkt bilden die Gemälde des Engländers William Turner, der sich zwischen 1817 und 1844 mehrfach in Heidelberg aufhielt und etliche Gemälde von Heidelberg und dem Schloss anfertigte. Ihm und anderen Künstlern der Romantik ging es dabei nicht um eine detailgetreue Bauaufnahme. Sie pflegten eher einen recht freien Umgang mit der Wirklichkeit. So ist bei seinem Gemälde des Schlosses das Gelände mehrfach überhöht dargestellt.
Der Retter des Schlosses war der französische Graf Charles de Graimberg. Er kämpfte gegen Pläne der badischen Regierung, für die das Heidelberger Schloss das „alte Gemäuer mit seinen vielfältigen, geschmacklosen, ruinösen Verzierungen“ war, für die Erhaltung der Schlossruinen. Er versah bis 1822 das Amt eines freiwilligen Schlosswächters und wohnte eine Zeit lang im Vorbau des Gläsernen Saalbaues, von dem aus er den Schlosshof am besten übersehen konnte. Lange bevor es in Deutschland eine Denkmalpflege gab, war er der erste, der sich um den Erhalt und die Dokumentation des Schlosses kümmerte, als bei der romantischen Schwärmerei noch niemand daran dachte, den Verfall zu unterbinden. In Auftrag Graimbergs verfasste Thomas A. Leger den ersten Schlossführer. Mit seinen in hoher Auflage produzierten druckgraphischen Ansichten verhalf Graimberg der Schlossruine zu einem Bekanntheitsgrad, der den Fremdenverkehr nach Heidelberg lenkte.
Bestandsaufnahme und Restaurierung – der Heidelberger Schlossstreit
Bestandsaufnahme von Julius Koch und Fritz Seitz
Die Frage, ob das Schloss vollständig wiederhergestellt werden solle, führte zu langen Diskussionen. Der Dichter Wolfgang Müller von Königswinter machte sich im Jahr 1868 für eine vollständige Erneuerung stark und rief damit heftige Reaktionen hervor, die in der Presse und in Versammlungen ausgetragen wurden. Aus dem Streit um den richtigen Umgang mit der Schlossruine entwickelte sich eine Grundsatzdiskussion über die Aufgaben der Denkmalpflege. Die Ergebnisse dieser Debatte, die als der „Heidelberger Schlossstreit“ in die Geschichte eingegangen sind, prägten die Prinzipien der Bewahrung historischer Bauwerke nachhaltig.[6]
Die Großherzogliche badische Regierung errichtete im Jahr 1883 ein „Schloßbaubüro“, das unter Oberaufsicht des Baudirektors Josef Durm in Karlsruhe vom Bezirksbauinspektor Julius Koch und dem Architekten Fritz Seitz geleitet wurde. Aufgabe des Büros war, eine möglichst genaue Bestandsaufnahme zu machen und zugleich Maßnahmen zur Erhaltung oder Instandsetzung der Hauptgebäude vorzuschlagen. Die Arbeiten dieses Büros endeten 1890 und bildeten die Grundlage für eine Kommission von Fachleuten aus ganz Deutschland, deren einhellige Überzeugung war, dass eine völlige oder teilweise Wiederherstellung des Schlosses nicht in Betracht komme, dagegen eine Erhaltung des jetzigen Zustandes mit allen Mitteln zu erstreben sei. Nur der Friedrichsbau, dessen Innenräume zwar durch Feuer zerstört worden waren, der aber nie Ruine war, sollte wiederhergestellt werden. Diese Wiederherstellung geschah schließlich in der Zeit von 1897 bis 1900 durch Carl Schäfer mit dem enormen Kostenaufwand von 520.000 Mark.
Schlossruine und Tourismus
Ausschnitt aus einer Gesamtansicht von Theodor Verhas, 1856
Schon die älteste Beschreibung Heidelbergs aus dem Jahr 1465 erwähnt, dass die Stadt „vielbesucht von Fremden“ sei. Doch ein eigentlicher Städtetourismus setzte frühestens zu Beginn des 19. Jahrhunderts ein. Graf Graimberg sorgte mit seinen Zeichnungen dafür, dass das Schloss als Bildmotiv eine große Verbreitung fand. Sie wurden praktisch zu Vorläufern der Postkarte. Zur gleichen Zeit gab es auch schon das Schloss als Souvenir auf Tassen. Den entscheidenden Schub erhielt der Tourismus aber erst mit dem Anschluss Heidelbergs ans Eisenbahnnetz im Jahr 1840.
Mark Twain beschrieb 1878 in seinem Buch Bummel durch Europa (A Tramp Abroad) das Heidelberger Schloss folgendermaßen:
„Um gut zu wirken, muss eine Ruine den richtigen Standort haben. Diese hier hätte nicht günstiger gelegen sein können. Sie steht auf einer die Umgebung beherrschenden Höhe, sie ist in grünen Wäldern verborgen, um sie herum gibt es keinen ebenen Grund, sondern im Gegenteil bewaldete Terrassen, man blickt durch glänzende Blätter in tiefe Klüfte und Abgründe hinab, wo Dämmer herrscht und die Sonne nicht eindringen kann. Die Natur versteht es, eine Ruine zu schmücken, um die beste Wirkung zu erzielen.“
– Mark Twain: Bummel durch Europa.[7]
Ansicht des Schlosses von Süden vom Schloss-Wolfsbrunnenweg aus
Bei einem am 18. Mai 1978 verübten Brandanschlag, der den Revolutionären Zellen zugerechnet wird, entstand ein Sachschaden von 97.000 DM am Schloss.
Im 20. Jahrhundert verfielen die US-Amerikaner noch mehr dem Heidelberg-Mythos und trugen ihn hinaus in die Welt. So kommt es, dass auch viele andere Nationalitäten das Heidelberger Schloss auf ihren Kurzreisen durch Europa zu den wenigen Zwischenstopps zählen.
Heidelberg hat zu Beginn des 21. Jahrhunderts jährlich mehr als eine Million Besucher und etwa 900.000 Übernachtungen. Wichtigster Anlaufpunkt ist laut einer Befragung des geografischen Instituts der Universität Heidelberg das Schloss mit seinen Aussichtsterrassen.
Das Besucherzentrum am Heidelberger Schloss von Max Dudler
Das Heidelberger Schloss zählt heute zu den landeseigenen Monumenten und wird von der Einrichtung „Staatliche Schlösser und Gärten Baden-Württemberg“ betreut. Aus dem Landesinfrastrukturprogramm Baden-Württemberg wurden für den Neubau eines von Max Dudler entworfenen Besucherzentrums 3 Millionen Euro zur Verfügung gestellt.[8] Es wurde 2012 eröffnet.[9]
Zudem ist das Schloss nach Angaben der Schlösserverwaltung das größte Fledermaus-Winterquartier in Nordbaden. Wegen der dort überwinternden Zwergfledermaus sowie dem Großen Mausohr wurde im Jahr 2016 der im Stückgarten vor dem Schloss stattfindende Teil des Weihnachtsmarktes auf den Friedrich-Ebert-Platz verlegt.[10]
Vorhof
Den Vorhof des Schlosses bildet in etwa das Gelände zwischen Haupttor und Oberem Fürstenbrunnen, dem Elisabethentor zum Stückgarten, dem Brückentor zum Schloss sowie dem Eingang zur Gartenanlage. Um 1800 diente der Schlosshof dem Burgvogt als Bleiche, auf der Wäschestücke ausgelegt wurden. Später wurde der Vorhof als „Gras- und Futterplatz“ für Vieh versteigert. Auch Hühner und Gänse hatten hier freien Auslauf.
Haupttor
Der Weg in den ehemaligen Vorhof des Schlosses führt über eine steinerne Brücke über einen zum Teil zugeschütteten Graben. Das Haupttor wurde im Jahr 1528 erbaut, das Wachthaus wurde im Pfälzischen Erbfolgekrieg zerstört und 1718 durch das heutige rundbogige Eingangstor ersetzt. Die Pforte links vom Haupteingang war durch eine Zugplanke verschlossen, die für einzelne Fußgänger herabgelassen werden konnte.
Goethegedenktafel
Marianne von Willemer
An einem Mauerrest des Vogelhauses wurde 1961 eine Steintafel angebracht, die eine ältere Tafel ersetzte. Die Inschrift mit Versen Marianne von Willemers soll an ihr letztes Treffen mit Johann Wolfgang Goethe Ende September 1815 erinnern. Von den neun Strophen, die sie am 28. August 1824, dem 75. Geburtstag Goethes, hier auf dem Schloss niederschrieb, sind drei wiedergegeben:
Auf der Terrasse hoch gewölbten Bogen
War eine Zeit sein Kommen und sein Gehn
Die Chiffre von der lieben Hand gezogen
Ich fand sie nicht sie ist nicht mehr zu sehn
Diese Verse schrieb Marianne von Willemer
In Erinnerung an ihre letzte Begegnung mit
Goethe in den Herbsttagen des Jahres 1815
Unmittelbar gegenüber der Goethe-Gedenktafel stand einst ein Ginkgo, den Goethe kannte. Es ist überliefert, dass sich Goethe mit Freunden die Blätter des Heidelberger Ginkgos betrachtete und über deren Form fachsimpelte. Das Ginkgo-Symbol verband Goethe mit Marianne von Willemer, die ihn mit ihrem Ehemann am 23. September 1815 überraschend in Heidelberg besuchte. Von dem 1795 gepflanzten Ginkgo hieß es 1928, dass er im Schlossgarten wohl „noch derselbe ist, dem Goethe die Anregung zu seinem schönen Gedicht verdankte“. Wahrscheinlich stand der Baum sogar noch im Jahr 1936. Marianne von Willemer war die dritte Ehefrau seines Frankfurter Freundes, des Bankiers Johann Jakob von Willemer, die mehr als zwanzig Jahre jünger war als er selbst. Goethe traf seine Geliebte mehrmals am ehemaligen Schaumaintor, als er Mitte September 1815 in Frankfurt weilte. Dort widmete er ihr am 15. September 1815 das Gedicht Gingo Biloba und legte als Ausdruck seiner Zuneigung zwei Ginkgo-Blätter bei. Das Baum-Gedicht wurde später in das Buch „Suleika“ im Westöstlichen Divan aufgenommen.
Originalschrift des Goethe-Gedichts
Der mit Goethe befreundete Kunstsammler und Schriftsteller Sulpiz Boisserée erwähnt in einer Tagebucheintragung vom 16. September 1815 – er weilte bis zum 17. September mit Goethe in der Gerbermühle bei Frankfurt – zur Entstehungsgeschichte des Gedichtes Gin(k)go biloba:
„Heitrer Abend. G. hatte der Wilemer ein Blatt der Ginkho (sic) biloba als Sinnbild der Freundschaft geschikt aus der Stadt. Man weiß nicht ob es eins das sich in 2 theilt, oder zwey die sich in eins verbinden. So war der Inhalt des Verses.“
Der Text des Gedichts lautet:
Gingo Biloba
Dieses Baums Blatt, der von Osten
Meinem Garten anvertraut,
Giebt geheimen Sinn zu kosten,
Wie's den Wissenden erbaut,
…
Der Brief mit dem Gedicht und den beigelegten Blättern ist im Goethe-Museum Düsseldorf zu sehen.
Sattelkammer
Die ehemalige Sattelkammer, ursprünglich eine Remise, war wohl anfänglich ein Befestigungswerk. Sie wurde nach dem Dreißigjährigen Krieg für Stallungen sowie als Geräte-, Wagen- und Kutschenhaus benutzt. Im 18. Jahrhundert stürzte das Gewölbe ein und wurde erst in den Jahren 1977 bis 1979 wieder aufgerichtet. Sie wird seither als Cafeteria für die Schlossbesucher genutzt.
Oberer Fürstenbrunnen
Treppe zum Oberen Fürstenbrunnen
Der Obere Fürstenbrunnen wurde unter Kurfürst Karl Philipp neu gefasst und überbaut. Über der Tür des Brunnenhauses ist sein Monogramm mit der Jahreszahl 1738 eingemeißelt. An der rechten Seite des Treppenabgangs steht die folgende Inschrift:
„[DIreCtione] ALeXanDro BIbIena CVra et opera HenrICI Neeb Fons hIC PrInCIpaLIs reparat(Vs) PVrIor sCatVrIt“
„Unter der Oberaufsicht von Alessandro Galli da Bibiena und ausgeführt von Heinrich Neeb wurde dieser Brunnen erneuert und sprudelt nun reiner.“
Die Inschrift ist ein Chronogramm, aus dem sich die Jahreszahl 1741 ergibt. Durch diesen und den Unteren Fürstenbrunnen wurde der Wasserbedarf des kurfürstlichen Hofs in Mannheim bis ins 19. Jahrhundert hinein gedeckt.
Johann Andreas von Traitteur erinnert 1798 an diese Wassertransporte:
„Wegen Mangel eines gesunden, guten Brunnenwassers wurde, so lang die Hofhaltung in Mannheim war, täglich das nöthige Wasser für dieselbe aus dem Gebirg beigeführt. Bekanntlich mußte die Hofkammer einen besonderen dazu eingerichteten Wasserwagen halten, welcher täglich nach Heidelberg fuhr, und das Wasser aus dem Fürstenbrunnen oben im Schloßhof ablangte.“
– Hans Weckesser: Geliebter Wasserturm.[11]
Die Wasserqualität in Mannheim war so schlecht, dass sich die vornehmen Familien der Hofgesellschaft, die es sich leisten konnten, diesem Verfahren anschlossen und ebenfalls Wassertransporte von Heidelberg nach Mannheim finanzierten. In der kurfürstlichen Residenz gab es noch im Jahr 1777 unter den Hofbediensteten einen „Heidelberger Wasserfüller“.
Schlossgebäude
Grundriss des Heidelberger Schlosses (aus Meyers Konversationslexikon, 1888)
Über das Aussehen der mittelalterlichen Burg ist nichts bekannt. Sie erstreckte sich über das Areal des heutigen Schlosshofes ohne die späteren Erweiterungen nach Westen (Dicker Turm, Nordwall (Englischer Bau) und Westwall mit Rondell) und innerhalb der inneren Ringmauer, deren spärliche Reste in der Ostwand des Ludwigbaues, der Ost- und Südwand des Wirtschaftsgebäudes sowie der Westwand von Ruprechtbau und Frauenzimmerbau noch vorhanden sind. Das spätere Schloss bildete mit der 1537 niedergebrannten Burg auf Höhe der heutigen Molkenkur eine Verteidigungslinie, mit der das Neckartal gut „beherrscht“ werden konnte.
Ab etwa Mitte des 15. Jahrhunderts wurde die Burg zur Festung ausgebaut, indem an der Ostseite drei Türme für Geschütze und die äußere Ringmauer errichtet wurden.[12] Ludwig V. erweiterte dann in der ersten Hälfte des 16. Jahrhunderts das Schlossareal beträchtlich nach Westen und ließ neue starke Festungswerke sowie einzelne Wohngebäude errichten. Danach erfolgte sukzessive der Ausbau des Schlosses unter repräsentativen Gesichtspunkten. Die Wehrhaftigkeit trat unter seinen Nachfolgern in den Hintergrund.
Erst nach und nach wurde aus dem Schloss von Generation zu Generation eine Ansammlung großzügiger Wohngebäude. Die Altstadt kam erst lange danach. Zunächst gab es eine Bergstadt für Bedienstete und Beamte am Hangweg.
Der renommierte Kunsthistoriker Georg Dehio beschreibt das Heidelberger Schloss folgendermaßen:
„Als Konglomerat zahlreicher Bauten, deren Stilgemisch lediglich durch die Ruinenhaftigkeit gemildert wird und deren einheitlicher Eindruck auf der engen Gedrängtheit um den gemeinsamen Hof beruht, thront das Schloß hoch über der Stadt auf der vorgeschobenen Jettenbühl-Terrasse des Königstuhles. Dem Charakter eines Wehrbaues entsprechend, wenden sich die Schauseiten im Westen, Süden und Osten gegen den Hof; lediglich die Gebäude der stadtzugewandten, sturmfreien Nordseite besitzen eine zweite, nach außen gekehrte Prunkfassade.“
– Georg Dehio: Handbuch der Deutschen Kunstdenkmäler. Baden-Württemberg I. Die Regierungsbezirke Stuttgart und Karlsruhe[13]
Nach Personen benannte Gebäude
Ruprechtsbau
Schlosshof, Ruine des Ruprechtsbaus (rechts)
Engelswappen
Der Bau ist nach dem Pfalzgrafen und König Ruprecht benannt.
Der Ruprechtsbau gehört zu den ältesten Gebäuden des Heidelberger Schlosses. Er wurde erbaut von Kurfürst Ruprecht III., der zu Beginn des 15. Jahrhunderts deutscher König war und um diese Zeit mit dem Bau der bis heute noch erhaltenen Teile des Heidelberger Schlosses begann.
Lange Zeit glaubte man, dass die Geschichte des Heidelberger Schlosses mit diesem Bauwerk beginne. Doch bei umfangreichen archäologischen Untersuchungen, die während Renovierungsarbeiten Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts durchgeführt wurden, fand man Fragmente romanischer und frühgotischer Fenster. Der Baubeginn des Schlosses wird somit auf die Jahre um 1300 geschätzt.
1534 wurde der Ruprechtsbau durch Ludwig V. um ein steinernes Obergeschoss erweitert. Ein Absatz in der Mauerung an der vorderen Kante sowie die Jahreszahl 1534 im Inneren des Gebäudes künden noch heute von dem Umbau.
Ein Engelswappen über dem Portal ziert das Bauwerk. Es wird vermutet, dass es sich hierbei um das Abzeichen des Bauherrn handelt, der sich auf diese Weise für die Nachwelt verewigt hat. Der Überlieferung nach handelt es sich bei den beiden Engeln auf dem Wappen um eine Darstellung der Kinder des Baumeisters, die bei den Bauarbeiten am Schloss von einem Gerüst stürzten und ums Leben kamen. Der Meister wurde darüber so schwermütig, dass der Bau ins Stocken kam.
Wilhelm Sigmund erzählt diese Legende folgendermaßen:
„Kaiser Ruprecht aber ward böse, daß der Bau so langsam fortschritt und ließ durch den Priester, der die Kinder beerdigt hat, den Meister vermahnen. Der sagte, es sei alles fertig, aber wie er den Abschluß des Tores machen solle, falle ihm in seinem Gram nicht bei.
Alsbald ward dem Meister offenbar, wie er den Abschluß des Tores zu bilden habe. Er meißelte seine Knaben, wie sie ihm erschienen waren, als liebliche Engelkinder, die einen Rosenkranz tragen. In der Mitte des Kranzes setzte er den Zirkel, das Sinnbild seiner Kunst, von der er für immer Abschied nahm.“
– Wilhelm Sigmund[14]
Als Ruprecht III. im Jahr 1400 als Ruprecht I. deutscher König wurde, diente das Gebäude zu Repräsentationszwecken. Deshalb ist auch am Ruprechtsbau eine Wappentafel mit dem Reichsadler angebracht, der auf das Königtum verweist. Im Inneren des Ruprechtsbaus befindet sich ein Renaissance-Kamin, eines der wenigen Elemente der Innenausstattung, die noch heute erhalten sind.
Ruprecht III.
Ruprecht III. und Elisabeth von Hohenzollern-Nürnberg in der Heiliggeistkirche
Ruprecht III. war der einzige Sohn des Kurfürsten Ruprecht II. von der Pfalz. Er stand zusammen mit dem Mainzer Erzbischof seit 1398 an der Spitze der Fürsten, welche am 20. August 1400 König Wenzel absetzten. Der Kölner Erzbischof Friedrich III. von Saarwerden krönte Ruprecht nach seiner Wahl in Köln, da Aachen und auch Frankfurt am Main ihm nicht die Tore öffneten, zum römisch-deutschen König. Im Reich fand er wenigstens in den königsnahen Gebieten schnell Anerkennung, zumal Wenzel nichts weiter unternahm. Allerdings war Ruprechts Wirkungskreis eng begrenzt.
Ruprecht ließ das älteste erkennbare Wohngebäude des Schlosses, den nach ihm benannten Ruprechtsbau errichten. Außerdem begann er den Bau der Heiliggeistkirche.
Friedrichsbau
Friedrichsbau
Name: benannt nach Kurfürst Friedrich IV., dem Begründer der Stadt Mannheim
Kurfürst Friedrich IV. ließ den Friedrichsbau von 1601 bis 1607 errichten, nachdem das zuvor an dieser Stelle befindliche Wohngebäude mit der Schlosskapelle einzustürzen drohte. Johannes Schoch war der Architekt des Bauwerks. In die Hoffassade des Friedrichsbaus sind Statuen der Ahnen der Kurfürsten eingearbeitet. Bildhauer dieser Ahnengalerie des Bauherrn war Sebastian Götz aus Chur. Auf der Hofseite sind die Ahnen Friedrichs dargestellt. Dies sind beginnend oben links:
Zwerchgiebel: Karl der Große, Otto von Wittelsbach, Ludwig der Kelheimer, Rudolf der Stammler
Oberstes Vollgeschoss, vier gekrönte Wittelsbacher: Ludwig der Baier, Ruprecht I., Otto von Ungarn, Christoph von Dänemark
Mittleres Vollgeschoss, die Universitätsgründer Ruprecht I., Friedrich I., Friedrich der Weise, Ottheinrich
Unteres Geschoss: Friedrich der Fromme, Ludwig VI., Johann Casimir, Friedrich IV.
Die Zwerchgiebel zeigen außerdem allegorische Darstellungen von Frühling und Sommer, Sinnbilder für die Vergänglichkeit alles Irdischen.
Der Friedrichsbau ist der erste Palast des Schlosses, der auch mit einer repräsentativen Fassade zur Stadtseite hin errichtet wurde. Im Erdgeschoss des Bauwerks befindet sich die Schlosskirche, welche noch heute unbeeinträchtigt erhalten ist. Die Obergeschosse des Gebäudes wurden als Wohnraum genutzt.
Nach den verheerenden Bränden 1693 und 1764 wurde dieser Teil des Schlosses als einziger Teil wieder aufgebaut. 1890 bis 1900 wurde der Friedrichsbau nach Entwürfen des Karlsruher Professors Carl Schäfer grundlegend im Stil des Historismus erneuert. Damals entzündete sich eine sehr kontroverse Diskussion darüber, wie die Innenräume gestaltet werden sollten. Insbesondere der Kunsthistoriker Georg Dehio hatte sich dafür ausgesprochen, das Bauwerk in seiner gewachsenen Struktur zu erhalten. Letztendlich entschied man sich für eine Innenausstattung im Neorenaissance-Stil. Viele Räume des Friedrichbaus zeigen heute in freier Komposition einen Stilpluralismus. Letztlich wurden die Räume aber nie wieder als Wohnräume genutzt, sondern fungierten als musealer Bau.
Friedrich IV. in der Ahnengalerie des Friedrichsbaus, Schloss Heidelberg
Friedrich IV.
Friedrich IV. übernahm 1608 die Führung der Union der Protestanten, wodurch sich der Konflikt zwischen katholischen und protestantischen Fürstentümern erheblich verstärkte. Friedrich zeigte trotz seiner mangelhaften Ausbildung großes Interesse an den Geisteswissenschaften und ließ an der Heidelberger Universität Lehrstühle für Geschichte und für Orientalistik einrichten.
Friedrich gab sich reichlich seinem Vergnügen hin und ruinierte die Finanzen seines Landes. Seine Ausschweifungen und den Kater danach beschreibt er in eigenen Worten: „bin wohl wieder voll gewest“.
Bleibende Bedeutung hat Kurfürst Friedrich IV., da er in den Jahren 1606 / 1607 die nach ihm benannte Festung Friedrichsburg gründete, aus der die Residenz und Stadt Mannheim hervorging. Seine Haupttätigkeiten am Heidelberger Schloss waren die Errichtung des nach ihm benannten Friedrichsbaus und des Altanbaus sowie der Ausbau der drei Türme an der Ostseite.
Ottheinrichsbau
Ottheinrichsbau, 1894
Fassade des Ottheinrichsbaus, das erste Renaissancegebäude nördlich der Alpen
Name: benannt nach Kurfürst Ottheinrich (Otto-Heinrich)
Erster Baumeister: Hans Engelhardt – Entwurf, zumindest partiell von Peter Flötner
Zweiter Baumeister: Caspar Vischer
Der Ottheinrichsbau wurde unter Ottheinrich erbaut, nachdem dieser 1556 Kurfürst geworden war. Der neue Palast war eines der ersten Renaissancebauwerke auf deutschem Boden und ist ein wichtiges Bauwerk des deutschen Manierismus. Für den Ottheinrichsbau wurden ältere Bauten teilweise verdeckt (Gläserner Saalbau) oder abgerissen (nördliche Hälfte des Ludwigsbaues). Im Osten ruht der Bau auf den Fundamenten älterer Gebäude und auf der äußeren Wehrmauer.
Die Fassade des vier Geschosse hohen Gebäudes ist durch 16 allegorische Figuren verziert, die das Regierungsprogramm des Kurfürsten symbolisieren. Die Figuren stammen von dem Niederländer Alexander Colin, der später für die Habsburger arbeitete. Als Ottheinrich 1559 starb, war der Bau noch nicht fertiggestellt. Frühere Abbildungen (in Matthäus Merians Kurpfälzisches Skizzenbuch) zeigen, dass der Ottheinrichbau vor dem Dreißigjährigen Krieg zwei überdimensionierte Doppelgiebel erhalten hatte, die mit der horizontalen Gliederung des Baues, der sich wesentlich an italienischen Vorbildern der Frührenaissance orientierte, schlecht harmonierten. Dies war offenbar auf einen von Kurfürst Friedrich III. veranlassten Planwechsel zurückzuführen und nicht in der ursprünglichen Bauplanung vorgesehen. Unter Karl Ludwig erhielt der Ottheinrichsbau nach dem Dreißigjährigen Krieg eine neue Bedachung, die riesigen Doppelgiebel verschwanden.
Samson aus Heilbronner Sandstein am Ottheinrichsbau
Figurenprogramm an der Fassade des Ottheinrichsbaus
Die 16 Standbilder (außer den vier Portalfiguren) sind allegorische Darstellungen und Gestalten aus dem Alten Testament und der Götterwelt. Von letzteren hatte der Ottheinrichsbau noch im 18. Jahrhundert den Namen der heidnische Bau:
Parterre: mythische Helden (Josua, Samson, Herakles und David) und römische Kaiser als Sinnbild politischer und militärischer Macht. In den Dreiecksgiebeln der Fenster befinden sich die Portraits berühmter Römer, die nach Vorlagen aus der Münzsammlung angefertigt wurden.
1. Geschoss: Tugenden eines christlichen Herrschers (Stärke, Glaube, Liebe, Hoffnung und Gerechtigkeit)
2. Geschoss: Personifikationen der sieben klassischen Planeten, Saturn, Mars, Venus, Merkur, Jupiter, Sol und Luna
Die vier Standbilder des Erdgeschosses werden durch unbeholfene Verse in gotischer Schrift erklärt:
Der hertzog Josua / durch Gotteß macht Ein und dreissig kü / nig hat umbracht.
Samson der starck ein / Nasir Gotteß war Beschirmet Israhel / wol zwentzig Jar.
Joviß sun Herculeß / bin Ich genandt. Durch mein herliche / thaten wol bekandt.
David war ein Jüng / ling gehertzt und klug Dem frechen Goliath / den kopff abschlug.
Den Sinn dieses Figurenprogramms erklärte der Heidelberger Archäologe K. B. Stark folgendermaßen:
„Die plastischen Darstellungen der Fassade des Palastes bilden zusammen einen schönen Spiegel fürstlicher Regierung. Auf der Kraft der Persönlichkeit, auf dem Heldentum des Volkes baut sich die fürstliche Gewalt sicher auf; sie hat ihr Zentrum in der Übung der christlichen Tugenden, vereint mit Stärke und Gerechtigkeit, steht endlich unter dem Einfluss höherer Mächte, einer himmlischen Leitung, die sich im Lauf der Gestirne kundgibt“
– K. B. Stark[15]
Ottheinrich
Ottheinrich führte 1557 den Protestantismus in der Kurpfalz ein, förderte die Wissenschaft und verpflichtete angehende Mediziner zum Sezieren von Leichen. Seine Bibliothek, die Bibliotheca Palatina, galt als eine der bedeutendsten seiner Zeit.
Aufgrund seiner aufwändigen Lebensführung drohte Ottheinrich der Bankrott. In seinen Besitz kam auch ein Schuldschein aus dem Nachlass seiner Großmutter Hedwig. Dieser Schuldschein über 32.000 Gulden, ausgestellt von König Kasimir IV. von Polen aus Anlass der Heirat seiner Tochter Hedwig mit Georg dem Reichen, war vom polnischen Königshof jedoch nie ausgezahlt worden. Ottheinrich ließ Zins und Zinseszins errechnen und kam auf die Summe von 200.000 Gulden. So brach Ottheinrich 1536 zu seinem Großonkel, dem polnischen König Sigismund I., nach Krakau auf. Während der dreiwöchigen Verhandlungen konnte Ottheinrich zwar die Ausbezahlung des Schuldscheins erreichen, nicht jedoch die Auszahlung der Zinsen.
Ottheinrich regierte nur drei Jahre und gehört dennoch zu den bedeutendsten Kurfürsten. Am Schloss ließ er den nach ihm benannten Ottheinrichsbau errichten, der als herausragendes Beispiel deutscher Renaissance-Architektur gilt.
"The Alte Hofhalte is a historic building complex in Bamberg. It consists of former residential and farm buildings of the episcopal court, which were built from the 15th century on the site of Emperor Henry II's palace.
There used to be a Babenberg fort here on Bamberg's Domberg, the Castrum Babenberg. In 1003, the Palatinate of the Duke of Bavaria and later Roman-German Emperor Henry II was created. After the Bamberg diocese was founded, it became the episcopal residence of the Bamberg bishops in 1007. After the buildings on Domberg were completed, the Old Court, which still contains the remains of the palace and chapel from the 11th century, stood between the cathedral in the south and the new residence in the north. After the prince-bishop moved to a new palace, the buildings were used as a chancery, library and council chamber. Today the city's historical museum is housed there and the cathedral building works are housed in the Henneberg wing. In summer the Calderon festival takes place in the courtyard.
Bamberg (/ˈbæmbɜːrɡ/, US also /ˈbɑːmbɛərk/, German: [ˈbambɛʁk]; East Franconian: Bambärch) is a town in Upper Franconia district in Bavaria, Germany, on the river Regnitz close to its confluence with the river Main. Bamberg had 79,000 inhabitants in 2022. The town dates back to the 9th century, when its name was derived from the nearby Babenberch castle. Cited as one of Germany's most beautiful towns, with medieval streets and buildings, the old town of Bamberg has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1993.
From the 10th century onwards, Bamberg became a key link with the Slav peoples, notably those of Poland and Pomerania. It experienced a period of great prosperity from the 12th century onwards, during which time it was briefly the centre of the Holy Roman Empire. Emperor Henry II was buried in the old town, alongside his wife Kunigunde. The town's architecture from this period strongly influenced that in Northern Germany and Hungary. From the middle of the 13th century onwards, the bishops were princes of the Empire and ruled Bamberg, overseeing the construction of monumental buildings. This growth was complemented by the obtaining of large portions of the estates of the Counts of Meran in 1248 and 1260 by the sea, partly through purchase and partly through the appropriation of extinguished fiefs.
Bamberg lost its independence in 1802, following the secularization of church lands, becoming part of Bavaria in 1803. The town was first connected to the German rail system in 1844, which has been an important part of its infrastructure ever since. After a communist uprising took control over Bavaria in the years following World War I, the state government fled to Bamberg and stayed there for almost two years before the Bavarian capital of Munich was retaken by Freikorps units (see Bavarian Soviet Republic). The first republican constitution of Bavaria was passed in Bamberg, becoming known as the Bamberger Verfassung (Bamberg Constitution).
Following the Second World War, Bamberg was an important base for the Bavarian, German, and then American military stationed at Warner Barracks, until closing in 2014.
Upper Franconia (German: Oberfranken) is a Regierungsbezirk (administrative [Regierungs] region [bezirk]) of the state of Bavaria, southern Germany. It forms part of the historically significant region of Franconia, the others being Middle Franconia and Lower Franconia, which are all now part of the German Federal State of Bayern (Bavaria).
With more than 200 independent breweries which brew approximately 1000 different types of beer, Upper Franconia has the world's highest brewery-density per capita. A special Franconian beer route (Fränkische Brauereistraße) runs through many popular breweries.
The administrative region borders on Thuringia (Thüringen) to the north, Lower Franconia (Unterfranken) to the west, Middle Franconia (Mittelfranken) to the south-west, and Upper Palatinate (Oberpfalz) to the south-east, Saxony (Sachsen) to the north-east and the Czech Republic to the east.
After the founding of the Kingdom of Bavaria the state was totally reorganized and, in 1808, divided into 15 administrative government regions (German: Regierungsbezirke (singular Regierungsbezirk)), in Bavaria called Kreise (singular: Kreis). They were created in the fashion of the French departements, quite even in size and population, and named after their main rivers.
In the following years, due to territorial changes (e. g. loss of Tyrol, addition of the Palatinate), the number of Kreise was reduced to 8. One of these was the Mainkreis (Main District). In 1837 king Ludwig I of Bavaria renamed the Kreise after historical territorial names and tribes of the area. This also involved some border changes or territorial swaps. Thus the name Mainkreis changed to Upper Franconia.
Next to the former episcopal residence city of Bamberg, the capital Bayreuth, the former residence city of Coburg and the classicist centre of Hof, as well as the towns of Lichtenfels, Kronach, Gößweinstein and Kulmbach, the Weißenstein Palace, Banz Abbey and the Basilica of the Fourteen Holy Helpers, the scenic attractions of the River Main and the low mountain ranges of the Fichtel Mountains with the town of Wunsiedel and the Franconian Forest belong among the region's major tourist attractions. There are also numerous spas like Bad Rodach, Bad Steben, Bad Staffelstein, Bad Berneck and Bad Alexandersbad." - info from Wikipedia.
Summer 2019 I did a solo cycling tour across Europe through 12 countries over the course of 3 months. I began my adventure in Edinburgh, Scotland and finished in Florence, Italy cycling 8,816 km. During my trip I took 47,000 photos.
Now on Instagram.
sculpture "Mann vom Castrum" by Eberhard Linke
Mainz, Ministerium des Inneren
Ecke Breidenbacherstraße / Acker
Höhe des Legionärs 300 cm
Bronze, 1985/86
By Wiki :
The first mention of Grožnjan dates from 1102. when istrian Marquess Ulrich II and his wife Adelaida granted their land to Patriarch of Aquileia. In this document the fort is called Castrum Grisiniana. In 1238 Grožnjan was in property of Vicardo I. Pietrapalosa. In 1286 Grožnjan fort was lended to the Aquileian patriarch during war with Venice but changes sided in 1287 and gives Grožnjan to Venice.
Vicard’s son Pietro inherited Grožnjan after his father’s death in 1329, and when he died in 1339 it again became patriarch’s property. The patriarch rented it to Furlanian noble family de Castello. In 1354 Grožnjan's new owner became Volrich, or Ulrich, Reifenberg, who in 1358 sold it to Venice for 4,000 ducats in order to pay his debts. Volrich was a son of Deitalm, a descendant of Aquileian patriarch Volcher, and in 1356, during the war between Venice and Hungary, his army, entrenched in Grožnjan, strongly resisted the Hungarian army. Yet it seems that at the same time Volrich negotiated the surrendering of Grožnjan in Venice.
Vindolanda was a Roman auxiliary fort (castrum) just south of Hadrian's Wall, which it predates, in northern England. Located near the modern village of Bardon Mill, it guarded the Stanegate, the Roman road from the River Tyne to the Solway Firth. It is noted for the Vindolanda tablets, among the most important finds of military and private correspondence (written on wooden tablets) found anywhere in the Roman Empire.
Château du Haut-Koenigsbourg (Haut-Koenigsbourg castle), in Orschwiller, the Bas-Rhin département of Alsace, France.
It is not known when the first castle was built. However, a Burg Staufen (Castrum Estufin) is documented in 1147, when the monks complained to King Louis VII of France about its unlawful construction by the Hohenstaufen Duke Frederick II of Swabia.
In the early thirteenth century, the fortification passed from the Hohenstaufen family to the dukes of Lorraine, who entrusted it to the local Rathsamhausen knightly family and the Lords of Hohenstein, who held the castle until the fifteenth century.
As the Hohensteins allowed some robber barons to use the castle as a hideout, and their behaviour began to exasperate the neighbouring rulers, in 1454 it was occupied by Elector Palatine Frederick I.
In 1479, the Habsburg emperor Frederick III granted the castle ruins to the Counts of Thierstein, who rebuilt them with a defensive system suited to the new artillery of the time. in 1462 was set ablaze by the unified forces of the cities of Colmar, Strasbourg, and Basel.
In 1633, during the Thirty Years' War in which Catholics forces fought Protestants, the Imperial castle was besieged by Protestant Swedish forces. After a 52-day siege, the castle was burned and looted by the Swedish troops. For several hundred years it was left unused, and the ruins became overgrown by the forest. Various romantic poets and artists were inspired by the castle during this time.
The castle was left abandoned until 1899 when it was given to Kaiser Wilhelm II von Hohenzollern by the town of Sélestat. He commissioned the architect Bodo Ebhardt, a specialist in medieval fortifications, to restore the castle. Its renovation satisfied his passion for the Middle Ages, whilst he dreamed of a return to the old German Empire.
The political ambition of this huge renovation project, undertaken at the beginning of the 20th century, was to legitimize the newly forged Hohenzollern imperial dynasty, and create a symbol for the world of the power held by this new empire. Today, the restoration is admired more for its educational potential: although it is not altogether perfect, the result is undeniably authentic.
Information Sources:
Das Castel dell’Ovo (latein Castrum Ovi, deutsch Eierfestung) ist die älteste erhaltene Befestigung der Stadt Neapel, im Stadtteil San Ferdinando. Sie befindet sich auf der kleinen Insel Megaride, die durch einen begehbaren Steg mit dem Festland verbunden ist. Ihr Name (Eierfestung) kommt von einer Legende, nach der der römische Dichter Vergil ein Ei in das Fundament des Bauwerks gelegt haben soll. Im Mittelalter stand Vergil im Ruf, ein mächtiger Zauberer gewesen zu sein. Die Festung wie auch die Stadt sollen nach dieser Legende das Schicksal des Eis teilen. Solange das Ei heil bliebe, sei auch die Stadt vor dem Untergang geschützt. Zumindest einmal während des Mittelalters musste ein Regent Neapels hinaus zur Festung gehen und das Volk von der Unversehrtheit des Eis überzeugen.
Nach einer weiteren Legende soll die Sirene Parthenope, welche sich ins Meer stürzte, nachdem sie Odysseus mit ihrem Gesang nicht bezaubern konnte, an dieser Stelle an Land gespült worden sein.
Die heutige Festung wurde in verschiedenen Phasen vom 1. Jahrhundert v. Chr. bis ins 16. Jahrhundert erbaut und seitdem oftmals renoviert. Die Lage der Befestigung bietet eine hervorragende Sicht auf die Hafenfront der Stadt wie auch deren Umgebung.
zit. Wikipedia: Castel dell'Ovo
My first foto with my new camera: Castle Merode ------ Das auf das 12. Jahrhundert zurückgehende Schloss Merode, auch Schloss Mérode, liegt im Ortsteil Merode der Gemeinde Langerwehe in Nordrhein-Westfalen am nördlichen Rand der Rureifel. Es gilt als eines der schönsten Wasserschlösser des Rheinlands im Renaissance-Stil. Es befindet sich nachweislich seit 1174 bis heute im Besitz der Herren, späteren Grafen, heutigen Fürsten von Merode.Die erste sichere Erwähnung erfolgte im Jahre 1170. Erbaut wurde die ursprüngliche Anlage von dem aus Kerpen stammenden königlichen Ministerialen Werner, der den Hof Echtz und das umliegende Land im 12. Jahrhundert von Kaiser Friedrich I. Barbarossa zu Lehen erhalten hatte. Er ließ an der Stelle des heutigen Wasserschlosses auf einer Rodung einen Sitz anlegen. Dies gab ihm und dem Ort den Namen. Aus dem lateinischen „de Rode“ und dem mittelhochdeutschen „van dem Rode“ bzw. „van me Rode“ leitet sich der heutige Name Merode ab.
Wie die erste Niederlassung Werners im 12. Jahrhundert aussah, ist nicht bekannt. Sicher war es ein kleines befestigtes Gutshaus. Die Bezeichnung „Castrum de Rode“ (Burg Merode) wird 1263 erstmals erwähnt.
Das heutige Erscheinungsbild des Schlosses geht zurück auf die intensive Bautätigkeit des Feldmarschalls Jean Philippe Eugène de Merode-Westerloo zu Beginn des 18. Jahrhunderts. Sein Grabstein befindet sich in der Kapelle des Schlosses. Weitere bauliche Veränderungen erfuhr das Schloss in den Jahren von 1834 bis 1838.
Während des Zweiten Weltkriegs wurde das Schloss in weiten Teilen zerstört. Der Nordwestturm und Teile des Nordflügels wurden nicht wieder aufgebaut.
El lugar, ocupado desde la protohistoria , fue transformado en castrum en la Edad Media y posteriormente en castillo.
En 1373, el rey de Francia, Carlos V , envió a su hermano, Luis I, duque de Anjou, a sitiar el castillo y arrebatárselo a los ingleses. Seis semanas después, los ingleses se rindieron, pues se había agotado el agua. El rey entregó el castillo al conde de Armagnac, quien lo vio disputado por Gastón Febo , príncipe de Foix y Béarn. Este último lo adquirió a través de su matrimonio con la hija del conde, Beatriz. Gastón Febo restauró el castillo (hay un museo dedicado a él en el lugar) alrededor de 1380. Con la ascensión de Enrique IV al trono y la anexión de Bigorra al Reino de Francia en 1607, pasó a ser propiedad de la corona, cayó en desuso y fue desmantelado pieza por pieza, utilizándose sus piedras para edificaciones locales. En 1862, M. Jubinal, diputado de Altos Pirineos, compró el castillo con la intención de crear allí un museo histórico, pero falleció antes de lograr su objetivo. En 1906, M. Ribal, alcalde de Masseube , lo compró, lo restauró y creó un museo gascón. [ 1 ]
Le Castel dell'Ovo (en français : château de l'Œuf) est un château situé dans la ville italienne de Naples.
Le Castel dell'Ovo (Castrum Ovi, en latin) est le plus ancien château de Naples, indissociable de l'histoire de sa fondation par un peuple d'origine grecque, abordant l'îlot de Partenope, où ils construisirent un système défensif au viie siècle av. J.-C.. L'édifice est situé sur une petite île, la Mégaride, où les colons de Cumes fondèrent le noyau originel de la ville. Au ier siècle av. J.-C., le patricien romain Lucius Licinius Lucullus construisit sur le site une villa magnifique, le Castellum Lucullanum. Fort de Valentinien III au début du ve siècle, c'est à cet endroit que le dernier empereur romain d'Occident, Romulus Augustule, fut exilé par Odoacre en 476. Eugippe fonda un monastère sur le site après 492.
Les restes de l'ère romaine et les structures des fortifications ont été démolis par les résidents locaux pendant le ixe siècle afin d'en empêcher l'utilisation par les Sarrasins lors de leurs agressions. Le premier château sur le site a été construit par les Normands au xiie siècle. L'importance du château a commencé à décliner lorsque le roi Charles Ier de Sicile construisit un nouveau château, Castel Nuovo (château neuf), et y déménagea sa cour. Il a été l'objet de nombreux remaniements et le château de l'œuf est devenu le siège de la Chambre royale et du Trésor public. Le château prend alors son apparence actuelle, avec les tours cylindriques et défensives et son chemin de ronde (xve siècle). Il a été pilonné par l'artillerie française et espagnole au cours des Guerres d'Italie. En 1795, Antonio Jerocades y est enfermé. Pendant la République napolitaine de 1799, ses canons furent utilisés par les rebelles pour décourager la population favorable aux Bourbons.
Au cours du xixe siècle, un petit village de pêcheurs (Borgo Marinari) a vu le jour le long du mur sud du château. Ce village toujours présent est maintenant plus connu pour son port de plaisance et pour ses restaurants.
Le nom du château découle d'une légende médiévale rapportée par le poète Virgile. Un sorcier aurait déposé un œuf magique sous les fondations du château afin de soutenir l'ensemble. Si cet œuf venait à disparaître, la forteresse s'effondrerait, entraînant la ruine de Naples. C'est ainsi que la reine Jeanne Ire de Naples a été soupçonnée d'avoir fait disparaître l'œuf et d'avoir précipité tous les maux sur la ville.
Particularités
Le château est construit en front de mer. L'îlot est rattaché au continent par un minuscule chemin en rochers battu par les flots du port qui est l'endroit préféré par les nouveaux mariés pour réaliser les photographies de leur mariage. La chaussée fait plus de 100 mètres de long. Le château est de forme rectangulaire (environ 200 mètres par 45 mètres à son endroit le plus large) et possède un bastion angulaire qui domine la chaussée. À l'intérieur des murs on trouve plusieurs bâtiments qui sont souvent utilisés pour les expositions et autres événements spéciaux. Derrière le château se trouve un long promontoire qui a probablement été utilisé comme une zone d'amarrage. Au sud-est, une grande tour ronde se trouve à l'extérieur des murs du château.
Son emplacement offre une excellente vue du front de mer de Naples et ses environs.
Il se visite entièrement et gratuitement.
Le peintre William Turner le représente à deux reprises dans son Carnet de croquis de Naples à Rome en 1819. Cette aquarelle est conservée à la Tate Britain à Londres
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La Tellaria, come le altre torri, faceva parte di un "castrum", cioè di una costruzione destinata ad ospitare i soldati ed i loro armamenti, le vettovaglie e quant'altro potesse essere utile alla sopravvivenza in caso di assedio e fungeva da torre di guardia e di difesa essendo fortificata.
Il "Castrum Thelarii", sorgendo sul poggio all'ingresso della valle Orco, era deputato al controllo e alla difesa della stessa e del ricetto sottostante costituito da casupole abitate da contadini e artigiani al servizio del "castrum". Molte le ipotesi legate al nome: Tellaria potrebbe derivare da "tell", che significa rilievo formato dall'accumulo di detriti lasciati da insediamenti precedenti ( e Tellario è il toponimo che indica una zona palafitticola abitata in epoche molto antiche); da "tle" cioè dalla presenza di sbarre di ferro incastrate nelle aperture per impedire l'accesso; dall'uso dei "tler" cioè di particolari telai in ferro per muovere le macchine belliche usate per il lancio di pietre e frecce; dai "tëj" cioè i tigli presenti sul pianoro e tuttora ricordati dal toponimo Montiglio.
La torre Ferranda poggia su un affioramento roccioso ed ha un'altezza propria di 32 metri.
La porta d'ingresso è posta a 8 metri di altezza e le finestre si aprono sul fronte principale verso la pianura.
Al piano terra, a diretto contatto con la roccia, si trova una cisterna intonacata per contenere l'acqua piovana, che veniva incanalata dalla sommità.
La struttura interna di accesso ai piani superiori era realizzata in legno secondo una sequenza di scale e soppalchi, delle cui travi rimangono le sedi nelle pareti.
Alla camera sommitale, voltata a botte, e all'ultimo livello esterno si arriva tramite scale ricavate entro la muratura.
Gli originari merli di coronamento sono stati successivamente collegati da una serie di voltini ad arco per consentire lippoggio di una copertura non più esistente.
immagine ingrandita Torre Ferranda - Vista con Bastioni (apre in nuova finestra) A fianco della torre stanno i resti di un edificio fortificato, ricostruito in più riprese, la cui tessitura muraria reca tracce di una merlatura.
Il bastione che circonda il complesso è costituito da mura anch'esse rimaneggiate nel tempo.
L'ingresso era situato ad est, collegato al ricetto dei Valperga posto ai piedi del rilievo verso la pianura; l'accesso attuale, sul fianco opposto, è contestuale alla realizzazione, a fine Ottocento, della chiesa di San Costanzo e della canonica.
Essendo i due castelli divisi soltanto da una via molto stretta, le due famiglie si fronteggiavano quotidianamente a colpi di frecce e massi scagliati con una macchina da guerra.
Legate alla presenza delle torri sono sorte nel tempo numerose leggende; la più nota è certamente Madama Rua, la misteriosa signora che abitava la Tellaria e mangiava i bambini, trasformatasi in corvo per non lasciarsi catturare dagli abitanti di Pont inferociti.
immagine ingrandita Inaugurazione del parco della Torre Tellaria il 21 giugno 2008 (apre in nuova finestra) La tradizione racconta che le due torri sarebbero state collegate da passaggi sotterranei, veri e propri camminamenti che dovevano servire per far fuggire i soldati e gli abitanti del borgo verso le montagne o la pianura in caso di incursione di soldataglie o briganti.
Duranti gli scavi per la posa del primo vero acquedotto di Pont (1939) vennero trovati dei cunicoli, simili a gallerie, che si diramavano in svariate direzioni e si tornò a parlare di passaggi segreti che mettevano in comunicazione Santa Maria con la Ferranda per proseguire poi verso la Tellaria e arrivare a Santa Croce di Sparone.
Secondo la leggenda sarebbero stati i soldati di Arduino a costruirli per far giungere al re assediato a Sparone i rifornimenti necessari; è intuibile che è più probabile che i cunicoli siano cantine e depositi per legna e carbone e che, al massimo si possa ipotizzare qualche via di fuga verso l'esterno dal centro del borgo in direzione dei campi che lo circondavano.
Anche i cunicoli hanno dato origine a leggende: Cugnet, il piccolo gnomo buono che fa addormentare i bambini con la polvere dorata delle stelle e Furicc, lo gnomo dispettoso e birichino sono solo due degli abitanti dei sotterranei segreti dove un discreto numero di folletti continua ad ammassare l'oro che trova nella sabbia dell'Orco.
Se poi andiamo più lontano nel tempo passato troviamo la leggenda del grande lago che si estendeva da Sparone fino a Voira e nel cui centro si ergevano due colline abitate da creature misteriose che impedivano agli uomini di attraversare il lago obbligandoli a risalire i fianchi delle montagne per passare da un luogo all'altro. Alla loro presenza si dovrebbero sia le successive costruzioni dei castelli che la nascita delle numerose borgate di Pont.
(www.comune.pontcanavese.to.it)
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Castelvenere: "....Da antichi documenti si conosce il suo nome latino "castrum veneris". Forse quassù in epoca romana ci fu un tempio dedicato alla dea Venere e dal "castrum" si può dedurre che fu luogo importante anche a fini militari...."
"...La chiesa, dedicata a San Sabba, fu parrocchia del vicariato di Carcause, facente parte della diocesi di Capodistria..."
(da Istria, di Dario Alberi)
In the Middle Ages, the town was called Castrum Berzoriacum. During the Hundred Years' War, it was temporarily caught between the English and French fronts; it was destroyed during the Huguenot Wars. It was also fought over during the Vendée Uprising at the time of the French Revolution.
The church was mentioned as early as 1090, and parts of Notre-Dame date back to the 12th century. The late Gothic, square choir area dates back to the 15th century. At the mid of the 16th century, the 56m-metre-high massive tower was added.
Details of the capitals.
On the left, shepherds carrying sheep on their shoulders. An icon that is frequently found in Auvergne.
On the right, a musician with a double flute. This icon was very common in the 12th century.
Vindolanda was a Roman auxiliary fort (castrum) just south of Hadrian's Wall in northern England, which it originally pre-dated. Archaeological excavations of the site show it was under Roman occupation from roughly 85 AD to 370 AD. Located near the modern village of Bardon Mill in Northumberland, it guarded the Stanegate, the Roman road from the River Tyne to the Solway Firth. It is noted for the Vindolanda tablets, a set of wooden leaf-tablets that were, at the time of their discovery, the oldest surviving handwritten documents in Britain.
The first post-Roman record of the ruins at Vindolanda was made by the antiquarian William Camden, in his Britannia (1586). Occasional travellers reached the site over the next two hundred years, and the accounts they left predate much of the stone-stealing that has damaged the site. The military Thermae (bath-house) was still partly roofed when Christopher Hunter visited the site in 1702. In about 1715 an excise officer named John Warburton found an altar there, which he removed. In 1814 the first real archaeological work was begun, by the Rev. Anthony Hedley.
Hedley died in 1835, before writing up his discoveries. Little more was done for a long time, although in 1914 a workman found another altar at the site, set up by the civilians living at the fort in honour of the Divine House and Vulcan. Several names for the site are used in the early records, including "Chesters on Caudley", "Little Chesters", "The Bower" and "Chesterholm"; the altar found in 1914 confirmed that the Roman name for the site was "Vindolanda", which had been in dispute as one early source referred to it as "Vindolana".
The garrison consisted of infantry or cavalry auxilia, not components of Roman legions. From the early third century, this was the Cohors IV Gallorum equitata also known as the Fourth Cohort of Gauls. It had been presumed that this title was, by this time, purely nominal, with auxiliary troops being recruited locally but an inscription found in a recent season of excavations suggests that native Gauls were still to be found in the regiment and that they liked to distinguish themselves from British soldiers. The inscription reads:
CIVES GALLI
DE GALLIAE
CONCORDES
QUE BRITANNI
A translation of this is "The troops from Gaul dedicate this statue to the goddess Gallia with the full support of the British-born troops".
Among the troops were Basque-speaking soldiers of the Varduli.
The earliest Roman forts at Vindolanda were built of wood and turf. The remains are now buried as much as 13 ft (4 m) deep in the anoxic waterlogged soil. There are five timber forts, built (and demolished) one after the other. The first, a small fort, was probably built by the 1st Cohort of Tungrians about 85 AD. By about 95 AD this was replaced by a larger wooden fort built by the 9th Cohort of Batavians, a mixed infantry-cavalry unit of about 1,000 men. That fort was repaired in about 100 AD under the command of the Roman prefect Flavius Cerialis. When the 9th Cohort of Batavians left in 105 AD, their fort was demolished. The 1st Cohort of Tungrians returned to Vindolanda, built a larger wooden fort and remained here until Hadrian's Wall was built around 122 AD, when they moved, most likely to Vercovicium (Housesteads Roman Fort) on the wall, about two miles to the north-east of Vindolanda.
Soon after Hadrian's Wall was built, most of its men were moved north to the Antonine Wall. A stone fort was built at Vindolanda, possibly for the 2nd Cohort of Nervians. From 208 to 211 AD, there was a major rebellion against Rome in Britain, and the Emperor Septimius Severus led an army to Britain to cope with it personally. The old stone fort was demolished, and replaced by an unconventional set of army buildings on the west, and an unusual array of many round stone huts where the old fort had been. Some of these circular huts are visible by the north and the southwest walls of the final stone fort. The Roman army may have built these to accommodate families of British farmers in this unsettled period. Septimius Severus died at York in 211 AD; his sons paid off the rebels and left for Rome. The stone buildings were demolished, and a large new stone fort was built where the huts had been, for the 4th Cohort of Gauls.
A vicus, a self-governing village, developed to the west of the fort. The vicus contains several rows of buildings, each containing several one-room chambers. Most are not connected to the existing drainage system. The one that does was perhaps a butchery where, for health reasons, an efficient drain would have been important. A stone altar found in 1914 (and exhibited in the museum) proves that the settlement was officially a vicus and that it was named Vindolanda. To the south of the fort is a thermae (a large imperial bath complex), that would have been used by many of the individuals on the site. The later stone fort, and the adjoining village, remained in use until about 285 AD, when it was largely abandoned for unknown reasons.
About 300 AD, the fort was again rebuilt, but the vicus was not reoccupied, so most likely the area remained too unsafe for life outside the defended walls of the fort. In about 370, the fort was roughly repaired, perhaps by irregular soldiers. There is no evidence for the traditional view that Roman occupation ended suddenly in 410; it may have declined slowly.
In the 1930s, the house at Chesterholm where the museum is now located was purchased by archaeologist Eric Birley, who was interested in excavating the site. The excavations have been continued by his sons, Robin and Anthony, and his grandson, Andrew Birley, into the present day. They are undertaken each summer, and some of the archaeological deposits reach depths of six metres. The anoxic conditions at these depths have preserved thousands of artefacts, such as 850 ink tablets and over 160 boxwood combs, that normally disintegrate in the ground, thus providing an opportunity to gain a fuller understanding of Roman life – military and otherwise – on the northern frontier. The study of these ink tablets shows a literacy among both the high born who there, as with the party invitation from one officer's wife to another and with soldiers and their families who send care packages with notes on the contents of the packages. A study of spindle whorls from the north-western quadrant has indicated the presence of spinners of low- and high- status in the fort in the 3rd and 4th century AD. Along with ongoing excavations (in season) and excavated remains, a full-size replica of a section of Hadrian's Wall in both stone and turf can be seen on the site. As of yet there is no reconstruction of the Vallum.
Nearly 2000-year-old Roman boxing gloves were uncovered at Vindolanda in 2017 by the Vindolanda Trust experts led by Dr Andrew Birley. According to the Guardian, being similar in style and function to the full-hand modern boxing gloves, these two gloves found at Vindolanda look like leather bands and date back to 120 AD. It is suggested that, based on their difference from gladiator gloves, warriors using this type of gloves had no purpose to kill each other. These gloves were probably used in a sport for promoting fighting skills. The gloves are currently displayed at Vindolanda's museum. According to Birley, they are not part of a matching pair:
The larger of the two gloves is cut from a single piece of leather and was folded into a pouch configuration, the extending leather at each side were slotted into one another forming a complete oval shape creating an inner hole into which a hand could still easily be inserted. The glove was packed with natural material acting as a shock absorber.
Recent excavations have been accompanied by new archaeological methodologies. 3-D imaging has been used to investigate the use of an ox cranium in target practice.
In 2021, a carved sandstone artifact was discovered a few inches below the floor of the fort. It depicts a nude warrior or deity before a horse or similar animal. Early interpretations point to the figure being of a Roman deity, perhaps of Mars or Mercury.
In 2023 February, a 2,000 year-old disembodied 6.3 inches long wooden phallus toy was revealed, according to the research published in the journal Antiquity.
In addition to the older initial findings of ink tablets, shoes and combs, several more artifacts and discoveries of note have been covered by the media. In 2017, the British newspaper The Guardian focused on a discovery of cavalry barracks that were uncovered during the excavation season that held a large number of artifacts including swords, ink tablets, textiles, arrowheads, and other military paraphernalia. Relative dating of the barracks had determined that they were built around 105 AD. The Guardian also publicized the discovery of a cache of 25 ink tablets found earlier in the 2017 season. The tablets were discovered in a trench in one of the earliest layers of the fort, dating to the 1st century AD. This discovery was considered to be the second-largest discovery of ink tablets in the world, with the first being a cache that was also discovered at Vindolanda in 1992.
In the 2014 excavation season, BBC ran a story about the discovery of one of the few surviving examples of a wooden toilet seat to be found in the Roman Empire. In the same year, they also recorded the discovery of the only (very old, very worn) gold coin ever to be found on the site with a mint date of 64 or 65 AD, lying in a site layer dating to the 4th century AD.
In 2010, the BBC announced the discovery of the remains of a child between the ages of 8 and 10 years, which was uncovered in a shallow pit in a barrack room in a position suggesting that its arms may have been bound. Further archaeological analysis indicated that it could be female. She is believed to have died about 1,800 years ago.
Another find publicised on the BBC website in 2006 was a bronze and silver fibula modelled with the figure of Mars, with the name Quintus Sollonius punched into its surface.
In 2020, archaeologists discovered a 5th-century chalice covered in religious iconography within a collapsed church structure. The images include crosses, angels, a smiling priestly figure holding a crook, fish, a whale, ships, the Greek letters chi-rho. In addition, the chalice bears scripts written in Latin, Greek, and possibly Ogham.
The Vindolanda site museum, also known as Chesterholm Museum, conserves and displays finds from the site. The museum is set in gardens, which include full-sized reconstructions of a Roman temple, a Roman shop, a Roman house and Northumbrian croft, all with audio presentations. Exhibits include Roman boots, shoes, armour, jewellery and coins, infrared photographs of the writing tablets and, from 2011, a small selection of the tablets themselves, on loan from the British Museum. 2011 saw the reopening of the museum at Vindolanda, and also the Roman Army Museum at Magnae Carvetiorum (Carvoran), refurbished with a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Roman Britain was the territory that became the Roman province of Britannia after the Roman conquest of Britain, consisting of a large part of the island of Great Britain. The occupation lasted from AD 43 to AD 410.
Julius Caesar invaded Britain in 55 and 54 BC as part of his Gallic Wars. According to Caesar, the Britons had been overrun or culturally assimilated by the Belgae during the British Iron Age and had been aiding Caesar's enemies. The Belgae were the only Celtic tribe to cross the sea into Britain, for to all other Celtic tribes this land was unknown. He received tribute, installed the friendly king Mandubracius over the Trinovantes, and returned to Gaul. Planned invasions under Augustus were called off in 34, 27, and 25 BC. In 40 AD, Caligula assembled 200,000 men at the Channel on the continent, only to have them gather seashells (musculi) according to Suetonius, perhaps as a symbolic gesture to proclaim Caligula's victory over the sea. Three years later, Claudius directed four legions to invade Britain and restore the exiled king Verica over the Atrebates. The Romans defeated the Catuvellauni, and then organized their conquests as the province of Britain. By 47 AD, the Romans held the lands southeast of the Fosse Way. Control over Wales was delayed by reverses and the effects of Boudica's uprising, but the Romans expanded steadily northward.
The conquest of Britain continued under command of Gnaeus Julius Agricola (77–84), who expanded the Roman Empire as far as Caledonia. In mid-84 AD, Agricola faced the armies of the Caledonians, led by Calgacus, at the Battle of Mons Graupius. Battle casualties were estimated by Tacitus to be upwards of 10,000 on the Caledonian side and about 360 on the Roman side. The bloodbath at Mons Graupius concluded the forty-year conquest of Britain, a period that possibly saw between 100,000 and 250,000 Britons killed. In the context of pre-industrial warfare and of a total population of Britain of c. 2 million, these are very high figures.
Under the 2nd-century emperors Hadrian and Antoninus Pius, two walls were built to defend the Roman province from the Caledonians, whose realms in the Scottish Highlands were never controlled. Around 197 AD, the Severan Reforms divided Britain into two provinces: Britannia Superior and Britannia Inferior. During the Diocletian Reforms, at the end of the 3rd century, Britannia was divided into four provinces under the direction of a vicarius, who administered the Diocese of the Britains. A fifth province, Valentia, is attested in the later 4th century. For much of the later period of the Roman occupation, Britannia was subject to barbarian invasions and often came under the control of imperial usurpers and imperial pretenders. The final Roman withdrawal from Britain occurred around 410; the native kingdoms are considered to have formed Sub-Roman Britain after that.
Following the conquest of the Britons, a distinctive Romano-British culture emerged as the Romans introduced improved agriculture, urban planning, industrial production, and architecture. The Roman goddess Britannia became the female personification of Britain. After the initial invasions, Roman historians generally only mention Britain in passing. Thus, most present knowledge derives from archaeological investigations and occasional epigraphic evidence lauding the Britannic achievements of an emperor. Roman citizens settled in Britain from many parts of the Empire.
History
Britain was known to the Classical world. The Greeks, the Phoenicians and the Carthaginians traded for Cornish tin in the 4th century BC. The Greeks referred to the Cassiterides, or "tin islands", and placed them near the west coast of Europe. The Carthaginian sailor Himilco is said to have visited the island in the 6th or 5th century BC and the Greek explorer Pytheas in the 4th. It was regarded as a place of mystery, with some writers refusing to believe it existed.
The first direct Roman contact was when Julius Caesar undertook two expeditions in 55 and 54 BC, as part of his conquest of Gaul, believing the Britons were helping the Gallic resistance. The first expedition was more a reconnaissance than a full invasion and gained a foothold on the coast of Kent but was unable to advance further because of storm damage to the ships and a lack of cavalry. Despite the military failure, it was a political success, with the Roman Senate declaring a 20-day public holiday in Rome to honour the unprecedented achievement of obtaining hostages from Britain and defeating Belgic tribes on returning to the continent.
The second invasion involved a substantially larger force and Caesar coerced or invited many of the native Celtic tribes to pay tribute and give hostages in return for peace. A friendly local king, Mandubracius, was installed, and his rival, Cassivellaunus, was brought to terms. Hostages were taken, but historians disagree over whether any tribute was paid after Caesar returned to Gaul.
Caesar conquered no territory and left no troops behind, but he established clients and brought Britain into Rome's sphere of influence. Augustus planned invasions in 34, 27 and 25 BC, but circumstances were never favourable, and the relationship between Britain and Rome settled into one of diplomacy and trade. Strabo, writing late in Augustus's reign, claimed that taxes on trade brought in more annual revenue than any conquest could. Archaeology shows that there was an increase in imported luxury goods in southeastern Britain. Strabo also mentions British kings who sent embassies to Augustus, and Augustus's own Res Gestae refers to two British kings he received as refugees. When some of Tiberius's ships were carried to Britain in a storm during his campaigns in Germany in 16 AD, they came back with tales of monsters.
Rome appears to have encouraged a balance of power in southern Britain, supporting two powerful kingdoms: the Catuvellauni, ruled by the descendants of Tasciovanus, and the Atrebates, ruled by the descendants of Commius. This policy was followed until 39 or 40 AD, when Caligula received an exiled member of the Catuvellaunian dynasty and planned an invasion of Britain that collapsed in farcical circumstances before it left Gaul. When Claudius successfully invaded in 43 AD, it was in aid of another fugitive British ruler, Verica of the Atrebates.
Roman invasion
The invasion force in 43 AD was led by Aulus Plautius,[26] but it is unclear how many legions were sent. The Legio II Augusta, commanded by future emperor Vespasian, was the only one directly attested to have taken part. The Legio IX Hispana, the XIV Gemina (later styled Martia Victrix) and the XX (later styled Valeria Victrix) are known to have served during the Boudican Revolt of 60/61, and were probably there since the initial invasion. This is not certain because the Roman army was flexible, with units being moved around whenever necessary. The IX Hispana may have been permanently stationed, with records showing it at Eboracum (York) in 71 and on a building inscription there dated 108, before being destroyed in the east of the Empire, possibly during the Bar Kokhba revolt.
The invasion was delayed by a troop mutiny until an imperial freedman persuaded them to overcome their fear of crossing the Ocean and campaigning beyond the limits of the known world. They sailed in three divisions, and probably landed at Richborough in Kent; at least part of the force may have landed near Fishbourne, West Sussex.
The Catuvellauni and their allies were defeated in two battles: the first, assuming a Richborough landing, on the river Medway, the second on the river Thames. One of their leaders, Togodumnus, was killed, but his brother Caratacus survived to continue resistance elsewhere. Plautius halted at the Thames and sent for Claudius, who arrived with reinforcements, including artillery and elephants, for the final march to the Catuvellaunian capital, Camulodunum (Colchester). Vespasian subdued the southwest, Cogidubnus was set up as a friendly king of several territories, and treaties were made with tribes outside direct Roman control.
Establishment of Roman rule
After capturing the south of the island, the Romans turned their attention to what is now Wales. The Silures, Ordovices and Deceangli remained implacably opposed to the invaders and for the first few decades were the focus of Roman military attention, despite occasional minor revolts among Roman allies like the Brigantes and the Iceni. The Silures were led by Caratacus, and he carried out an effective guerrilla campaign against Governor Publius Ostorius Scapula. Finally, in 51, Ostorius lured Caratacus into a set-piece battle and defeated him. The British leader sought refuge among the Brigantes, but their queen, Cartimandua, proved her loyalty by surrendering him to the Romans. He was brought as a captive to Rome, where a dignified speech he made during Claudius's triumph persuaded the emperor to spare his life. The Silures were still not pacified, and Cartimandua's ex-husband Venutius replaced Caratacus as the most prominent leader of British resistance.
On Nero's accession, Roman Britain extended as far north as Lindum. Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, the conqueror of Mauretania (modern day Algeria and Morocco), then became governor of Britain, and in 60 and 61 he moved against Mona (Anglesey) to settle accounts with Druidism once and for all. Paulinus led his army across the Menai Strait and massacred the Druids and burnt their sacred groves.
While Paulinus was campaigning in Mona, the southeast of Britain rose in revolt under the leadership of Boudica. She was the widow of the recently deceased king of the Iceni, Prasutagus. The Roman historian Tacitus reports that Prasutagus had left a will leaving half his kingdom to Nero in the hope that the remainder would be left untouched. He was wrong. When his will was enforced, Rome[clarification needed] responded by violently seizing the tribe's lands in full. Boudica protested. In consequence, Rome[clarification needed] punished her and her daughters by flogging and rape. In response, the Iceni, joined by the Trinovantes, destroyed the Roman colony at Camulodunum (Colchester) and routed the part of the IXth Legion that was sent to relieve it. Paulinus rode to London (then called Londinium), the rebels' next target, but concluded it could not be defended. Abandoned, it was destroyed, as was Verulamium (St. Albans). Between seventy and eighty thousand people are said to have been killed in the three cities. But Paulinus regrouped with two of the three legions still available to him, chose a battlefield, and, despite being outnumbered by more than twenty to one, defeated the rebels in the Battle of Watling Street. Boudica died not long afterwards, by self-administered poison or by illness. During this time, the Emperor Nero considered withdrawing Roman forces from Britain altogether.
There was further turmoil in 69, the "Year of the Four Emperors". As civil war raged in Rome, weak governors were unable to control the legions in Britain, and Venutius of the Brigantes seized his chance. The Romans had previously defended Cartimandua against him, but this time were unable to do so. Cartimandua was evacuated, and Venutius was left in control of the north of the country. After Vespasian secured the empire, his first two appointments as governor, Quintus Petillius Cerialis and Sextus Julius Frontinus, took on the task of subduing the Brigantes and Silures respectively.[38] Frontinus extended Roman rule to all of South Wales, and initiated exploitation of the mineral resources, such as the gold mines at Dolaucothi.
In the following years, the Romans conquered more of the island, increasing the size of Roman Britain. Governor Gnaeus Julius Agricola, father-in-law to the historian Tacitus, conquered the Ordovices in 78. With the XX Valeria Victrix legion, Agricola defeated the Caledonians in 84 at the Battle of Mons Graupius, in north-east Scotland. This was the high-water mark of Roman territory in Britain: shortly after his victory, Agricola was recalled from Britain back to Rome, and the Romans initially retired to a more defensible line along the Forth–Clyde isthmus, freeing soldiers badly needed along other frontiers.
For much of the history of Roman Britain, a large number of soldiers were garrisoned on the island. This required that the emperor station a trusted senior man as governor of the province. As a result, many future emperors served as governors or legates in this province, including Vespasian, Pertinax, and Gordian I.
Roman military organisation in the north
In 84 AD
In 84 AD
In 155 AD
In 155 AD
Hadrian's Wall, and Antonine Wall
There is no historical source describing the decades that followed Agricola's recall. Even the name of his replacement is unknown. Archaeology has shown that some Roman forts south of the Forth–Clyde isthmus were rebuilt and enlarged; others appear to have been abandoned. By 87 the frontier had been consolidated on the Stanegate. Roman coins and pottery have been found circulating at native settlement sites in the Scottish Lowlands in the years before 100, indicating growing Romanisation. Some of the most important sources for this era are the writing tablets from the fort at Vindolanda in Northumberland, mostly dating to 90–110. These tablets provide evidence for the operation of a Roman fort at the edge of the Roman Empire, where officers' wives maintained polite society while merchants, hauliers and military personnel kept the fort operational and supplied.
Around 105 there appears to have been a serious setback at the hands of the tribes of the Picts: several Roman forts were destroyed by fire, with human remains and damaged armour at Trimontium (at modern Newstead, in SE Scotland) indicating hostilities at least at that site.[citation needed] There is also circumstantial evidence that auxiliary reinforcements were sent from Germany, and an unnamed British war of the period is mentioned on the gravestone of a tribune of Cyrene. Trajan's Dacian Wars may have led to troop reductions in the area or even total withdrawal followed by slighting of the forts by the Picts rather than an unrecorded military defeat. The Romans were also in the habit of destroying their own forts during an orderly withdrawal, in order to deny resources to an enemy. In either case, the frontier probably moved south to the line of the Stanegate at the Solway–Tyne isthmus around this time.
A new crisis occurred at the beginning of Hadrian's reign): a rising in the north which was suppressed by Quintus Pompeius Falco. When Hadrian reached Britannia on his famous tour of the Roman provinces around 120, he directed an extensive defensive wall, known to posterity as Hadrian's Wall, to be built close to the line of the Stanegate frontier. Hadrian appointed Aulus Platorius Nepos as governor to undertake this work who brought the Legio VI Victrix legion with him from Germania Inferior. This replaced the famous Legio IX Hispana, whose disappearance has been much discussed. Archaeology indicates considerable political instability in Scotland during the first half of the 2nd century, and the shifting frontier at this time should be seen in this context.
In the reign of Antoninus Pius (138–161) the Hadrianic border was briefly extended north to the Forth–Clyde isthmus, where the Antonine Wall was built around 142 following the military reoccupation of the Scottish lowlands by a new governor, Quintus Lollius Urbicus.
The first Antonine occupation of Scotland ended as a result of a further crisis in 155–157, when the Brigantes revolted. With limited options to despatch reinforcements, the Romans moved their troops south, and this rising was suppressed by Governor Gnaeus Julius Verus. Within a year the Antonine Wall was recaptured, but by 163 or 164 it was abandoned. The second occupation was probably connected with Antoninus's undertakings to protect the Votadini or his pride in enlarging the empire, since the retreat to the Hadrianic frontier occurred not long after his death when a more objective strategic assessment of the benefits of the Antonine Wall could be made. The Romans did not entirely withdraw from Scotland at this time: the large fort at Newstead was maintained along with seven smaller outposts until at least 180.
During the twenty-year period following the reversion of the frontier to Hadrian's Wall in 163/4, Rome was concerned with continental issues, primarily problems in the Danubian provinces. Increasing numbers of hoards of buried coins in Britain at this time indicate that peace was not entirely achieved. Sufficient Roman silver has been found in Scotland to suggest more than ordinary trade, and it is likely that the Romans were reinforcing treaty agreements by paying tribute to their implacable enemies, the Picts.
In 175, a large force of Sarmatian cavalry, consisting of 5,500 men, arrived in Britannia, probably to reinforce troops fighting unrecorded uprisings. In 180, Hadrian's Wall was breached by the Picts and the commanding officer or governor was killed there in what Cassius Dio described as the most serious war of the reign of Commodus. Ulpius Marcellus was sent as replacement governor and by 184 he had won a new peace, only to be faced with a mutiny from his own troops. Unhappy with Marcellus's strictness, they tried to elect a legate named Priscus as usurper governor; he refused, but Marcellus was lucky to leave the province alive. The Roman army in Britannia continued its insubordination: they sent a delegation of 1,500 to Rome to demand the execution of Tigidius Perennis, a Praetorian prefect who they felt had earlier wronged them by posting lowly equites to legate ranks in Britannia. Commodus met the party outside Rome and agreed to have Perennis killed, but this only made them feel more secure in their mutiny.
The future emperor Pertinax (lived 126–193) was sent to Britannia to quell the mutiny and was initially successful in regaining control, but a riot broke out among the troops. Pertinax was attacked and left for dead, and asked to be recalled to Rome, where he briefly succeeded Commodus as emperor in 192.
3rd century
The death of Commodus put into motion a series of events which eventually led to civil war. Following the short reign of Pertinax, several rivals for the emperorship emerged, including Septimius Severus and Clodius Albinus. The latter was the new governor of Britannia, and had seemingly won the natives over after their earlier rebellions; he also controlled three legions, making him a potentially significant claimant. His sometime rival Severus promised him the title of Caesar in return for Albinus's support against Pescennius Niger in the east. Once Niger was neutralised, Severus turned on his ally in Britannia; it is likely that Albinus saw he would be the next target and was already preparing for war.
Albinus crossed to Gaul in 195, where the provinces were also sympathetic to him, and set up at Lugdunum. Severus arrived in February 196, and the ensuing battle was decisive. Albinus came close to victory, but Severus's reinforcements won the day, and the British governor committed suicide. Severus soon purged Albinus's sympathisers and perhaps confiscated large tracts of land in Britain as punishment. Albinus had demonstrated the major problem posed by Roman Britain. In order to maintain security, the province required the presence of three legions, but command of these forces provided an ideal power base for ambitious rivals. Deploying those legions elsewhere would strip the island of its garrison, leaving the province defenceless against uprisings by the native Celtic tribes and against invasion by the Picts and Scots.
The traditional view is that northern Britain descended into anarchy during Albinus's absence. Cassius Dio records that the new Governor, Virius Lupus, was obliged to buy peace from a fractious northern tribe known as the Maeatae. The succession of militarily distinguished governors who were subsequently appointed suggests that enemies of Rome were posing a difficult challenge, and Lucius Alfenus Senecio's report to Rome in 207 describes barbarians "rebelling, over-running the land, taking loot and creating destruction". In order to rebel, of course, one must be a subject – the Maeatae clearly did not consider themselves such. Senecio requested either reinforcements or an Imperial expedition, and Severus chose the latter, despite being 62 years old. Archaeological evidence shows that Senecio had been rebuilding the defences of Hadrian's Wall and the forts beyond it, and Severus's arrival in Britain prompted the enemy tribes to sue for peace immediately. The emperor had not come all that way to leave without a victory, and it is likely that he wished to provide his teenage sons Caracalla and Geta with first-hand experience of controlling a hostile barbarian land.
Northern campaigns, 208–211
An invasion of Caledonia led by Severus and probably numbering around 20,000 troops moved north in 208 or 209, crossing the Wall and passing through eastern Scotland on a route similar to that used by Agricola. Harried by punishing guerrilla raids by the northern tribes and slowed by an unforgiving terrain, Severus was unable to meet the Caledonians on a battlefield. The emperor's forces pushed north as far as the River Tay, but little appears to have been achieved by the invasion, as peace treaties were signed with the Caledonians. By 210 Severus had returned to York, and the frontier had once again become Hadrian's Wall. He assumed the title Britannicus but the title meant little with regard to the unconquered north, which clearly remained outside the authority of the Empire. Almost immediately, another northern tribe, the Maeatae, went to war. Caracalla left with a punitive expedition, but by the following year his ailing father had died and he and his brother left the province to press their claim to the throne.
As one of his last acts, Severus tried to solve the problem of powerful and rebellious governors in Britain by dividing the province into Britannia Superior and Britannia Inferior. This kept the potential for rebellion in check for almost a century. Historical sources provide little information on the following decades, a period known as the Long Peace. Even so, the number of buried hoards found from this period rises, suggesting continuing unrest. A string of forts were built along the coast of southern Britain to control piracy; and over the following hundred years they increased in number, becoming the Saxon Shore Forts.
During the middle of the 3rd century, the Roman Empire was convulsed by barbarian invasions, rebellions and new imperial pretenders. Britannia apparently avoided these troubles, but increasing inflation had its economic effect. In 259 a so-called Gallic Empire was established when Postumus rebelled against Gallienus. Britannia was part of this until 274 when Aurelian reunited the empire.
Around the year 280, a half-British officer named Bonosus was in command of the Roman's Rhenish fleet when the Germans managed to burn it at anchor. To avoid punishment, he proclaimed himself emperor at Colonia Agrippina (Cologne) but was crushed by Marcus Aurelius Probus. Soon afterwards, an unnamed governor of one of the British provinces also attempted an uprising. Probus put it down by sending irregular troops of Vandals and Burgundians across the Channel.
The Carausian Revolt led to a short-lived Britannic Empire from 286 to 296. Carausius was a Menapian naval commander of the Britannic fleet; he revolted upon learning of a death sentence ordered by the emperor Maximian on charges of having abetted Frankish and Saxon pirates and having embezzled recovered treasure. He consolidated control over all the provinces of Britain and some of northern Gaul while Maximian dealt with other uprisings. An invasion in 288 failed to unseat him and an uneasy peace ensued, with Carausius issuing coins and inviting official recognition. In 293, the junior emperor Constantius Chlorus launched a second offensive, besieging the rebel port of Gesoriacum (Boulogne-sur-Mer) by land and sea. After it fell, Constantius attacked Carausius's other Gallic holdings and Frankish allies and Carausius was usurped by his treasurer, Allectus. Julius Asclepiodotus landed an invasion fleet near Southampton and defeated Allectus in a land battle.
Diocletian's reforms
As part of Diocletian's reforms, the provinces of Roman Britain were organized as a diocese governed by a vicarius under a praetorian prefect who, from 318 to 331, was Junius Bassus who was based at Augusta Treverorum (Trier).
The vicarius was based at Londinium as the principal city of the diocese. Londinium and Eboracum continued as provincial capitals and the territory was divided up into smaller provinces for administrative efficiency.
Civilian and military authority of a province was no longer exercised by one official and the governor was stripped of military command which was handed over to the Dux Britanniarum by 314. The governor of a province assumed more financial duties (the procurators of the Treasury ministry were slowly phased out in the first three decades of the 4th century). The Dux was commander of the troops of the Northern Region, primarily along Hadrian's Wall and his responsibilities included protection of the frontier. He had significant autonomy due in part to the distance from his superiors.
The tasks of the vicarius were to control and coordinate the activities of governors; monitor but not interfere with the daily functioning of the Treasury and Crown Estates, which had their own administrative infrastructure; and act as the regional quartermaster-general of the armed forces. In short, as the sole civilian official with superior authority, he had general oversight of the administration, as well as direct control, while not absolute, over governors who were part of the prefecture; the other two fiscal departments were not.
The early-4th-century Verona List, the late-4th-century work of Sextus Rufus, and the early-5th-century List of Offices and work of Polemius Silvius all list four provinces by some variation of the names Britannia I, Britannia II, Maxima Caesariensis, and Flavia Caesariensis; all of these seem to have initially been directed by a governor (praeses) of equestrian rank. The 5th-century sources list a fifth province named Valentia and give its governor and Maxima's a consular rank. Ammianus mentions Valentia as well, describing its creation by Count Theodosius in 369 after the quelling of the Great Conspiracy. Ammianus considered it a re-creation of a formerly lost province, leading some to think there had been an earlier fifth province under another name (may be the enigmatic "Vespasiana"), and leading others to place Valentia beyond Hadrian's Wall, in the territory abandoned south of the Antonine Wall.
Reconstructions of the provinces and provincial capitals during this period partially rely on ecclesiastical records. On the assumption that the early bishoprics mimicked the imperial hierarchy, scholars use the list of bishops for the 314 Council of Arles. The list is patently corrupt: the British delegation is given as including a Bishop "Eborius" of Eboracum and two bishops "from Londinium" (one de civitate Londinensi and the other de civitate colonia Londinensium). The error is variously emended: Bishop Ussher proposed Colonia, Selden Col. or Colon. Camalodun., and Spelman Colonia Cameloduni (all various names of Colchester); Gale and Bingham offered colonia Lindi and Henry Colonia Lindum (both Lincoln); and Bishop Stillingfleet and Francis Thackeray read it as a scribal error of Civ. Col. Londin. for an original Civ. Col. Leg. II (Caerleon). On the basis of the Verona List, the priest and deacon who accompanied the bishops in some manuscripts are ascribed to the fourth province.
In the 12th century, Gerald of Wales described the supposedly metropolitan sees of the early British church established by the legendary SS Fagan and "Duvian". He placed Britannia Prima in Wales and western England with its capital at "Urbs Legionum" (Caerleon); Britannia Secunda in Kent and southern England with its capital at "Dorobernia" (Canterbury); Flavia in Mercia and central England with its capital at "Lundonia" (London); "Maximia" in northern England with its capital at Eboracum (York); and Valentia in "Albania which is now Scotland" with its capital at St Andrews. Modern scholars generally dispute the last: some place Valentia at or beyond Hadrian's Wall but St Andrews is beyond even the Antonine Wall and Gerald seems to have simply been supporting the antiquity of its church for political reasons.
A common modern reconstruction places the consular province of Maxima at Londinium, on the basis of its status as the seat of the diocesan vicarius; places Prima in the west according to Gerald's traditional account but moves its capital to Corinium of the Dobunni (Cirencester) on the basis of an artifact recovered there referring to Lucius Septimius, a provincial rector; places Flavia north of Maxima, with its capital placed at Lindum Colonia (Lincoln) to match one emendation of the bishops list from Arles;[d] and places Secunda in the north with its capital at Eboracum (York). Valentia is placed variously in northern Wales around Deva (Chester); beside Hadrian's Wall around Luguvalium (Carlisle); and between the walls along Dere Street.
4th century
Emperor Constantius returned to Britain in 306, despite his poor health, with an army aiming to invade northern Britain, the provincial defences having been rebuilt in the preceding years. Little is known of his campaigns with scant archaeological evidence, but fragmentary historical sources suggest he reached the far north of Britain and won a major battle in early summer before returning south. His son Constantine (later Constantine the Great) spent a year in northern Britain at his father's side, campaigning against the Picts beyond Hadrian's Wall in the summer and autumn. Constantius died in York in July 306 with his son at his side. Constantine then successfully used Britain as the starting point of his march to the imperial throne, unlike the earlier usurper, Albinus.
In the middle of the century, the province was loyal for a few years to the usurper Magnentius, who succeeded Constans following the latter's death. After the defeat and death of Magnentius in the Battle of Mons Seleucus in 353, Constantius II dispatched his chief imperial notary Paulus Catena to Britain to hunt down Magnentius's supporters. The investigation deteriorated into a witch-hunt, which forced the vicarius Flavius Martinus to intervene. When Paulus retaliated by accusing Martinus of treason, the vicarius attacked Paulus with a sword, with the aim of assassinating him, but in the end he committed suicide.
As the 4th century progressed, there were increasing attacks from the Saxons in the east and the Scoti (Irish) in the west. A series of forts had been built, starting around 280, to defend the coasts, but these preparations were not enough when, in 367, a general assault of Saxons, Picts, Scoti and Attacotti, combined with apparent dissension in the garrison on Hadrian's Wall, left Roman Britain prostrate. The invaders overwhelmed the entire western and northern regions of Britannia and the cities were sacked. This crisis, sometimes called the Barbarian Conspiracy or the Great Conspiracy, was settled by Count Theodosius from 368 with a string of military and civil reforms. Theodosius crossed from Bononia (Boulogne-sur-Mer) and marched on Londinium where he began to deal with the invaders and made his base.[ An amnesty was promised to deserters which enabled Theodosius to regarrison abandoned forts. By the end of the year Hadrian's Wall was retaken and order returned. Considerable reorganization was undertaken in Britain, including the creation of a new province named Valentia, probably to better address the state of the far north. A new Dux Britanniarum was appointed, Dulcitius, with Civilis to head a new civilian administration.
Another imperial usurper, Magnus Maximus, raised the standard of revolt at Segontium (Caernarfon) in north Wales in 383, and crossed the English Channel. Maximus held much of the western empire, and fought a successful campaign against the Picts and Scots around 384. His continental exploits required troops from Britain, and it appears that forts at Chester and elsewhere were abandoned in this period, triggering raids and settlement in north Wales by the Irish. His rule was ended in 388, but not all the British troops may have returned: the Empire's military resources were stretched to the limit along the Rhine and Danube. Around 396 there were more barbarian incursions into Britain. Stilicho led a punitive expedition. It seems peace was restored by 399, and it is likely that no further garrisoning was ordered; by 401 more troops were withdrawn, to assist in the war against Alaric I.
End of Roman rule
The traditional view of historians, informed by the work of Michael Rostovtzeff, was of a widespread economic decline at the beginning of the 5th century. Consistent archaeological evidence has told another story, and the accepted view is undergoing re-evaluation. Some features are agreed: more opulent but fewer urban houses, an end to new public building and some abandonment of existing ones, with the exception of defensive structures, and the widespread formation of "dark earth" deposits indicating increased horticulture within urban precincts. Turning over the basilica at Silchester to industrial uses in the late 3rd century, doubtless officially condoned, marks an early stage in the de-urbanisation of Roman Britain.
The abandonment of some sites is now believed to be later than had been thought. Many buildings changed use but were not destroyed. There was a growing number of barbarian attacks, but these targeted vulnerable rural settlements rather than towns. Some villas such as Chedworth, Great Casterton in Rutland and Hucclecote in Gloucestershire had new mosaic floors laid around this time, suggesting that economic problems may have been limited and patchy. Many suffered some decay before being abandoned in the 5th century; the story of Saint Patrick indicates that villas were still occupied until at least 430. Exceptionally, new buildings were still going up in this period in Verulamium and Cirencester. Some urban centres, for example Canterbury, Cirencester, Wroxeter, Winchester and Gloucester, remained active during the 5th and 6th centuries, surrounded by large farming estates.
Urban life had generally grown less intense by the fourth quarter of the 4th century, and coins minted between 378 and 388 are very rare, indicating a likely combination of economic decline, diminishing numbers of troops, problems with the payment of soldiers and officials or with unstable conditions during the usurpation of Magnus Maximus 383–87. Coinage circulation increased during the 390s, but never attained the levels of earlier decades. Copper coins are very rare after 402, though minted silver and gold coins from hoards indicate they were still present in the province even if they were not being spent. By 407 there were very few new Roman coins going into circulation, and by 430 it is likely that coinage as a medium of exchange had been abandoned. Mass-produced wheel thrown pottery ended at approximately the same time; the rich continued to use metal and glass vessels, while the poor made do with humble "grey ware" or resorted to leather or wooden containers.
Sub-Roman Britain
Towards the end of the 4th century Roman rule in Britain came under increasing pressure from barbarian attacks. Apparently, there were not enough troops to mount an effective defence. After elevating two disappointing usurpers, the army chose a soldier, Constantine III, to become emperor in 407. He crossed to Gaul but was defeated by Honorius; it is unclear how many troops remained or ever returned, or whether a commander-in-chief in Britain was ever reappointed. A Saxon incursion in 408 was apparently repelled by the Britons, and in 409 Zosimus records that the natives expelled the Roman civilian administration. Zosimus may be referring to the Bacaudic rebellion of the Breton inhabitants of Armorica since he describes how, in the aftermath of the revolt, all of Armorica and the rest of Gaul followed the example of the Brettaniai. A letter from Emperor Honorius in 410 has traditionally been seen as rejecting a British appeal for help, but it may have been addressed to Bruttium or Bologna. With the imperial layers of the military and civil government gone, administration and justice fell to municipal authorities, and local warlords gradually emerged all over Britain, still utilizing Romano-British ideals and conventions. Historian Stuart Laycock has investigated this process and emphasised elements of continuity from the British tribes in the pre-Roman and Roman periods, through to the native post-Roman kingdoms.
In British tradition, pagan Saxons were invited by Vortigern to assist in fighting the Picts, Scoti, and Déisi. (Germanic migration into Roman Britannia may have begun much earlier. There is recorded evidence, for example, of Germanic auxiliaries supporting the legions in Britain in the 1st and 2nd centuries.) The new arrivals rebelled, plunging the country into a series of wars that eventually led to the Saxon occupation of Lowland Britain by 600. Around this time, many Britons fled to Brittany (hence its name), Galicia and probably Ireland. A significant date in sub-Roman Britain is the Groans of the Britons, an unanswered appeal to Aetius, leading general of the western Empire, for assistance against Saxon invasion in 446. Another is the Battle of Deorham in 577, after which the significant cities of Bath, Cirencester and Gloucester fell and the Saxons reached the western sea.
Historians generally reject the historicity of King Arthur, who is supposed to have resisted the Anglo-Saxon conquest according to later medieval legends.
Trade
During the Roman period Britain's continental trade was principally directed across the Southern North Sea and Eastern Channel, focusing on the narrow Strait of Dover, with more limited links via the Atlantic seaways. The most important British ports were London and Richborough, whilst the continental ports most heavily engaged in trade with Britain were Boulogne and the sites of Domburg and Colijnsplaat at the mouth of the river Scheldt. During the Late Roman period it is likely that the shore forts played some role in continental trade alongside their defensive functions.
Exports to Britain included: coin; pottery, particularly red-gloss terra sigillata (samian ware) from southern, central and eastern Gaul, as well as various other wares from Gaul and the Rhine provinces; olive oil from southern Spain in amphorae; wine from Gaul in amphorae and barrels; salted fish products from the western Mediterranean and Brittany in barrels and amphorae; preserved olives from southern Spain in amphorae; lava quern-stones from Mayen on the middle Rhine; glass; and some agricultural products. Britain's exports are harder to detect archaeologically, but will have included metals, such as silver and gold and some lead, iron and copper. Other exports probably included agricultural products, oysters and salt, whilst large quantities of coin would have been re-exported back to the continent as well.
These products moved as a result of private trade and also through payments and contracts established by the Roman state to support its military forces and officials on the island, as well as through state taxation and extraction of resources. Up until the mid-3rd century, the Roman state's payments appear to have been unbalanced, with far more products sent to Britain, to support its large military force (which had reached c. 53,000 by the mid-2nd century), than were extracted from the island.
It has been argued that Roman Britain's continental trade peaked in the late 1st century AD and thereafter declined as a result of an increasing reliance on local products by the population of Britain, caused by economic development on the island and by the Roman state's desire to save money by shifting away from expensive long-distance imports. Evidence has been outlined that suggests that the principal decline in Roman Britain's continental trade may have occurred in the late 2nd century AD, from c. 165 AD onwards. This has been linked to the economic impact of contemporary Empire-wide crises: the Antonine Plague and the Marcomannic Wars.
From the mid-3rd century onwards, Britain no longer received such a wide range and extensive quantity of foreign imports as it did during the earlier part of the Roman period; vast quantities of coin from continental mints reached the island, whilst there is historical evidence for the export of large amounts of British grain to the continent during the mid-4th century. During the latter part of the Roman period British agricultural products, paid for by both the Roman state and by private consumers, clearly played an important role in supporting the military garrisons and urban centres of the northwestern continental Empire. This came about as a result of the rapid decline in the size of the British garrison from the mid-3rd century onwards (thus freeing up more goods for export), and because of 'Germanic' incursions across the Rhine, which appear to have reduced rural settlement and agricultural output in northern Gaul.
Economy
Mineral extraction sites such as the Dolaucothi gold mine were probably first worked by the Roman army from c. 75, and at some later stage passed to civilian operators. The mine developed as a series of opencast workings, mainly by the use of hydraulic mining methods. They are described by Pliny the Elder in his Natural History in great detail. Essentially, water supplied by aqueducts was used to prospect for ore veins by stripping away soil to reveal the bedrock. If veins were present, they were attacked using fire-setting and the ore removed for comminution. The dust was washed in a small stream of water and the heavy gold dust and gold nuggets collected in riffles. The diagram at right shows how Dolaucothi developed from c. 75 through to the 1st century. When opencast work was no longer feasible, tunnels were driven to follow the veins. The evidence from the site shows advanced technology probably under the control of army engineers.
The Wealden ironworking zone, the lead and silver mines of the Mendip Hills and the tin mines of Cornwall seem to have been private enterprises leased from the government for a fee. Mining had long been practised in Britain (see Grimes Graves), but the Romans introduced new technical knowledge and large-scale industrial production to revolutionise the industry. It included hydraulic mining to prospect for ore by removing overburden as well as work alluvial deposits. The water needed for such large-scale operations was supplied by one or more aqueducts, those surviving at Dolaucothi being especially impressive. Many prospecting areas were in dangerous, upland country, and, although mineral exploitation was presumably one of the main reasons for the Roman invasion, it had to wait until these areas were subdued.
By the 3rd and 4th centuries, small towns could often be found near villas. In these towns, villa owners and small-scale farmers could obtain specialist tools. Lowland Britain in the 4th century was agriculturally prosperous enough to export grain to the continent. This prosperity lay behind the blossoming of villa building and decoration that occurred between AD 300 and 350.
Britain's cities also consumed Roman-style pottery and other goods, and were centres through which goods could be distributed elsewhere. At Wroxeter in Shropshire, stock smashed into a gutter during a 2nd-century fire reveals that Gaulish samian ware was being sold alongside mixing bowls from the Mancetter-Hartshill industry of the West Midlands. Roman designs were most popular, but rural craftsmen still produced items derived from the Iron Age La Tène artistic traditions. Britain was home to much gold, which attracted Roman invaders. By the 3rd century, Britain's economy was diverse and well established, with commerce extending into the non-Romanised north.
Government
Further information: Governors of Roman Britain, Roman client kingdoms in Britain, and Roman auxiliaries in Britain
Under the Roman Empire, administration of peaceful provinces was ultimately the remit of the Senate, but those, like Britain, that required permanent garrisons, were placed under the Emperor's control. In practice imperial provinces were run by resident governors who were members of the Senate and had held the consulship. These men were carefully selected, often having strong records of military success and administrative ability. In Britain, a governor's role was primarily military, but numerous other tasks were also his responsibility, such as maintaining diplomatic relations with local client kings, building roads, ensuring the public courier system functioned, supervising the civitates and acting as a judge in important legal cases. When not campaigning, he would travel the province hearing complaints and recruiting new troops.
To assist him in legal matters he had an adviser, the legatus juridicus, and those in Britain appear to have been distinguished lawyers perhaps because of the challenge of incorporating tribes into the imperial system and devising a workable method of taxing them. Financial administration was dealt with by a procurator with junior posts for each tax-raising power. Each legion in Britain had a commander who answered to the governor and, in time of war, probably directly ruled troublesome districts. Each of these commands carried a tour of duty of two to three years in different provinces. Below these posts was a network of administrative managers covering intelligence gathering, sending reports to Rome, organising military supplies and dealing with prisoners. A staff of seconded soldiers provided clerical services.
Colchester was probably the earliest capital of Roman Britain, but it was soon eclipsed by London with its strong mercantile connections. The different forms of municipal organisation in Britannia were known as civitas (which were subdivided, amongst other forms, into colonies such as York, Colchester, Gloucester and Lincoln and municipalities such as Verulamium), and were each governed by a senate of local landowners, whether Brythonic or Roman, who elected magistrates concerning judicial and civic affairs. The various civitates sent representatives to a yearly provincial council in order to profess loyalty to the Roman state, to send direct petitions to the Emperor in times of extraordinary need, and to worship the imperial cult.
Demographics
Roman Britain had an estimated population between 2.8 million and 3 million people at the end of the second century. At the end of the fourth century, it had an estimated population of 3.6 million people, of whom 125,000 consisted of the Roman army and their families and dependents.[80] The urban population of Roman Britain was about 240,000 people at the end of the fourth century. The capital city of Londinium is estimated to have had a population of about 60,000 people. Londinium was an ethnically diverse city with inhabitants from the Roman Empire, including natives of Britannia, continental Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. There was also cultural diversity in other Roman-British towns, which were sustained by considerable migration, from Britannia and other Roman territories, including continental Europe, Roman Syria, the Eastern Mediterranean and North Africa. In a study conducted in 2012, around 45 percent of sites investigated dating from the Roman period had at least one individual of North African origin.
Town and country
During their occupation of Britain the Romans founded a number of important settlements, many of which survive. The towns suffered attrition in the later 4th century, when public building ceased and some were abandoned to private uses. Place names survived the deurbanised Sub-Roman and early Anglo-Saxon periods, and historiography has been at pains to signal the expected survivals, but archaeology shows that a bare handful of Roman towns were continuously occupied. According to S.T. Loseby, the very idea of a town as a centre of power and administration was reintroduced to England by the Roman Christianising mission to Canterbury, and its urban revival was delayed to the 10th century.
Roman towns can be broadly grouped in two categories. Civitates, "public towns" were formally laid out on a grid plan, and their role in imperial administration occasioned the construction of public buildings. The much more numerous category of vici, "small towns" grew on informal plans, often round a camp or at a ford or crossroads; some were not small, others were scarcely urban, some not even defended by a wall, the characteristic feature of a place of any importance.
Cities and towns which have Roman origins, or were extensively developed by them are listed with their Latin names in brackets; civitates are marked C
Alcester (Alauna)
Alchester
Aldborough, North Yorkshire (Isurium Brigantum) C
Bath (Aquae Sulis) C
Brough (Petuaria) C
Buxton (Aquae Arnemetiae)
Caerleon (Isca Augusta) C
Caernarfon (Segontium) C
Caerwent (Venta Silurum) C
Caister-on-Sea C
Canterbury (Durovernum Cantiacorum) C
Carlisle (Luguvalium) C
Carmarthen (Moridunum) C
Chelmsford (Caesaromagus)
Chester (Deva Victrix) C
Chester-le-Street (Concangis)
Chichester (Noviomagus Reginorum) C
Cirencester (Corinium) C
Colchester (Camulodunum) C
Corbridge (Coria) C
Dorchester (Durnovaria) C
Dover (Portus Dubris)
Exeter (Isca Dumnoniorum) C
Gloucester (Glevum) C
Great Chesterford (the name of this vicus is unknown)
Ilchester (Lindinis) C
Leicester (Ratae Corieltauvorum) C
Lincoln (Lindum Colonia) C
London (Londinium) C
Manchester (Mamucium) C
Newcastle upon Tyne (Pons Aelius)
Northwich (Condate)
St Albans (Verulamium) C
Silchester (Calleva Atrebatum) C
Towcester (Lactodurum)
Whitchurch (Mediolanum) C
Winchester (Venta Belgarum) C
Wroxeter (Viroconium Cornoviorum) C
York (Eboracum) C
Religion
The druids, the Celtic priestly caste who were believed to originate in Britain, were outlawed by Claudius, and in 61 they vainly defended their sacred groves from destruction by the Romans on the island of Mona (Anglesey). Under Roman rule the Britons continued to worship native Celtic deities, such as Ancasta, but often conflated with their Roman equivalents, like Mars Rigonemetos at Nettleham.
The degree to which earlier native beliefs survived is difficult to gauge precisely. Certain European ritual traits such as the significance of the number 3, the importance of the head and of water sources such as springs remain in the archaeological record, but the differences in the votive offerings made at the baths at Bath, Somerset, before and after the Roman conquest suggest that continuity was only partial. Worship of the Roman emperor is widely recorded, especially at military sites. The founding of a Roman temple to Claudius at Camulodunum was one of the impositions that led to the revolt of Boudica. By the 3rd century, Pagans Hill Roman Temple in Somerset was able to exist peaceably and it did so into the 5th century.
Pagan religious practices were supported by priests, represented in Britain by votive deposits of priestly regalia such as chain crowns from West Stow and Willingham Fen.
Eastern cults such as Mithraism also grew in popularity towards the end of the occupation. The London Mithraeum is one example of the popularity of mystery religions among the soldiery. Temples to Mithras also exist in military contexts at Vindobala on Hadrian's Wall (the Rudchester Mithraeum) and at Segontium in Roman Wales (the Caernarfon Mithraeum).
Christianity
It is not clear when or how Christianity came to Britain. A 2nd-century "word square" has been discovered in Mamucium, the Roman settlement of Manchester. It consists of an anagram of PATER NOSTER carved on a piece of amphora. There has been discussion by academics whether the "word square" is a Christian artefact, but if it is, it is one of the earliest examples of early Christianity in Britain. The earliest confirmed written evidence for Christianity in Britain is a statement by Tertullian, c. 200 AD, in which he described "all the limits of the Spains, and the diverse nations of the Gauls, and the haunts of the Britons, inaccessible to the Romans, but subjugated to Christ". Archaeological evidence for Christian communities begins to appear in the 3rd and 4th centuries. Small timber churches are suggested at Lincoln and Silchester and baptismal fonts have been found at Icklingham and the Saxon Shore Fort at Richborough. The Icklingham font is made of lead, and visible in the British Museum. A Roman Christian graveyard exists at the same site in Icklingham. A possible Roman 4th-century church and associated burial ground was also discovered at Butt Road on the south-west outskirts of Colchester during the construction of the new police station there, overlying an earlier pagan cemetery. The Water Newton Treasure is a hoard of Christian silver church plate from the early 4th century and the Roman villas at Lullingstone and Hinton St Mary contained Christian wall paintings and mosaics respectively. A large 4th-century cemetery at Poundbury with its east–west oriented burials and lack of grave goods has been interpreted as an early Christian burial ground, although such burial rites were also becoming increasingly common in pagan contexts during the period.
The Church in Britain seems to have developed the cust
The Romans built up a castrum around 15BC. Around 110 AD the town that had developed around the camp was given the rights of a colonia, that was named Colonia Ulpia Traiana. The colonia became the second most important commercial post in "Germania Inferior", surpassed only by Colonia Agrippinensis (Cologne).
Today Xanten hosts one of the largest archaeological open air museums, built at the site of the Colonia Ulpia Traiana.
The first christian buildings may have been oratorys built over a Roman graves. A first church existed 752. A convent developed. As it was believed to have found the graves of Saint Viktor and his companions, all members of the Theban Legion, the places was called "ad sanctos" from which the town´s name "Xanten" derived. The construction of a larger church started, but it got destroyed by Norman invaders, who had hibernated on a near island in the Rhine river, in 863.
Bishop Folkmar of Cologne consecrated a new church here in the second half of the 10th century. This church was restored after fires in the 11th and 12th centuries. From 1128 a choir was erected, that was consecrated by Bishop Rainald von Dassel. Between 1180 and 1213 the western facade had been erected upto the third level.
The erection of today´s church started in 1263. After 281 years of construction it was finally completed in 1544.
St. Viktor, often named "Xantener Dom" ("Xanten Cathedral"), was the center of the convent, that developed to a city in the city. It was completely surrounded by a wall and could be entered only through two gates.
Standing in the nave, facing east. St. Viktor is one of the few churches, where the rood screen survived the times. It was created around 1400.
Château de Commarque en Dordogne : édifié sur un éperon rocheux au fond de la vallée de la Beune. Le site est un castrum médiéval regroupant, à l'intérieur d'une enceinte, un château, une chapelle et des maisons nobles.
Vindolanda was a Roman auxiliary fort (castrum) just south of Hadrian's Wall in northern England, which it originally pre-dated. Archaeological excavations of the site show it was under Roman occupation from roughly 85 AD to 370 AD. Located near the modern village of Bardon Mill in Northumberland, it guarded the Stanegate, the Roman road from the River Tyne to the Solway Firth. It is noted for the Vindolanda tablets, a set of wooden leaf-tablets that were, at the time of their discovery, the oldest surviving handwritten documents in Britain.
The first post-Roman record of the ruins at Vindolanda was made by the antiquarian William Camden, in his Britannia (1586). Occasional travellers reached the site over the next two hundred years, and the accounts they left predate much of the stone-stealing that has damaged the site. The military Thermae (bath-house) was still partly roofed when Christopher Hunter visited the site in 1702. In about 1715 an excise officer named John Warburton found an altar there, which he removed. In 1814 the first real archaeological work was begun, by the Rev. Anthony Hedley.
Hedley died in 1835, before writing up his discoveries. Little more was done for a long time, although in 1914 a workman found another altar at the site, set up by the civilians living at the fort in honour of the Divine House and Vulcan. Several names for the site are used in the early records, including "Chesters on Caudley", "Little Chesters", "The Bower" and "Chesterholm"; the altar found in 1914 confirmed that the Roman name for the site was "Vindolanda", which had been in dispute as one early source referred to it as "Vindolana".
The garrison consisted of infantry or cavalry auxilia, not components of Roman legions. From the early third century, this was the Cohors IV Gallorum equitata also known as the Fourth Cohort of Gauls. It had been presumed that this title was, by this time, purely nominal, with auxiliary troops being recruited locally but an inscription found in a recent season of excavations suggests that native Gauls were still to be found in the regiment and that they liked to distinguish themselves from British soldiers. The inscription reads:
CIVES GALLI
DE GALLIAE
CONCORDES
QUE BRITANNI
A translation of this is "The troops from Gaul dedicate this statue to the goddess Gallia with the full support of the British-born troops".
Among the troops were Basque-speaking soldiers of the Varduli.
The earliest Roman forts at Vindolanda were built of wood and turf. The remains are now buried as much as 13 ft (4 m) deep in the anoxic waterlogged soil. There are five timber forts, built (and demolished) one after the other. The first, a small fort, was probably built by the 1st Cohort of Tungrians about 85 AD. By about 95 AD this was replaced by a larger wooden fort built by the 9th Cohort of Batavians, a mixed infantry-cavalry unit of about 1,000 men. That fort was repaired in about 100 AD under the command of the Roman prefect Flavius Cerialis. When the 9th Cohort of Batavians left in 105 AD, their fort was demolished. The 1st Cohort of Tungrians returned to Vindolanda, built a larger wooden fort and remained here until Hadrian's Wall was built around 122 AD, when they moved, most likely to Vercovicium (Housesteads Roman Fort) on the wall, about two miles to the north-east of Vindolanda.
Soon after Hadrian's Wall was built, most of its men were moved north to the Antonine Wall. A stone fort was built at Vindolanda, possibly for the 2nd Cohort of Nervians. From 208 to 211 AD, there was a major rebellion against Rome in Britain, and the Emperor Septimius Severus led an army to Britain to cope with it personally. The old stone fort was demolished, and replaced by an unconventional set of army buildings on the west, and an unusual array of many round stone huts where the old fort had been. Some of these circular huts are visible by the north and the southwest walls of the final stone fort. The Roman army may have built these to accommodate families of British farmers in this unsettled period. Septimius Severus died at York in 211 AD; his sons paid off the rebels and left for Rome. The stone buildings were demolished, and a large new stone fort was built where the huts had been, for the 4th Cohort of Gauls.
A vicus, a self-governing village, developed to the west of the fort. The vicus contains several rows of buildings, each containing several one-room chambers. Most are not connected to the existing drainage system. The one that does was perhaps a butchery where, for health reasons, an efficient drain would have been important. A stone altar found in 1914 (and exhibited in the museum) proves that the settlement was officially a vicus and that it was named Vindolanda. To the south of the fort is a thermae (a large imperial bath complex), that would have been used by many of the individuals on the site. The later stone fort, and the adjoining village, remained in use until about 285 AD, when it was largely abandoned for unknown reasons.
About 300 AD, the fort was again rebuilt, but the vicus was not reoccupied, so most likely the area remained too unsafe for life outside the defended walls of the fort. In about 370, the fort was roughly repaired, perhaps by irregular soldiers. There is no evidence for the traditional view that Roman occupation ended suddenly in 410; it may have declined slowly.
In the 1930s, the house at Chesterholm where the museum is now located was purchased by archaeologist Eric Birley, who was interested in excavating the site. The excavations have been continued by his sons, Robin and Anthony, and his grandson, Andrew Birley, into the present day. They are undertaken each summer, and some of the archaeological deposits reach depths of six metres. The anoxic conditions at these depths have preserved thousands of artefacts, such as 850 ink tablets and over 160 boxwood combs, that normally disintegrate in the ground, thus providing an opportunity to gain a fuller understanding of Roman life – military and otherwise – on the northern frontier. The study of these ink tablets shows a literacy among both the high born who there, as with the party invitation from one officer's wife to another and with soldiers and their families who send care packages with notes on the contents of the packages. A study of spindle whorls from the north-western quadrant has indicated the presence of spinners of low- and high- status in the fort in the 3rd and 4th century AD. Along with ongoing excavations (in season) and excavated remains, a full-size replica of a section of Hadrian's Wall in both stone and turf can be seen on the site. As of yet there is no reconstruction of the Vallum.
Nearly 2000-year-old Roman boxing gloves were uncovered at Vindolanda in 2017 by the Vindolanda Trust experts led by Dr Andrew Birley. According to the Guardian, being similar in style and function to the full-hand modern boxing gloves, these two gloves found at Vindolanda look like leather bands and date back to 120 AD. It is suggested that, based on their difference from gladiator gloves, warriors using this type of gloves had no purpose to kill each other. These gloves were probably used in a sport for promoting fighting skills. The gloves are currently displayed at Vindolanda's museum. According to Birley, they are not part of a matching pair:
The larger of the two gloves is cut from a single piece of leather and was folded into a pouch configuration, the extending leather at each side were slotted into one another forming a complete oval shape creating an inner hole into which a hand could still easily be inserted. The glove was packed with natural material acting as a shock absorber.
Recent excavations have been accompanied by new archaeological methodologies. 3-D imaging has been used to investigate the use of an ox cranium in target practice.
In 2021, a carved sandstone artifact was discovered a few inches below the floor of the fort. It depicts a nude warrior or deity before a horse or similar animal. Early interpretations point to the figure being of a Roman deity, perhaps of Mars or Mercury.
In 2023 February, a 2,000 year-old disembodied 6.3 inches long wooden phallus toy was revealed, according to the research published in the journal Antiquity.
In addition to the older initial findings of ink tablets, shoes and combs, several more artifacts and discoveries of note have been covered by the media. In 2017, the British newspaper The Guardian focused on a discovery of cavalry barracks that were uncovered during the excavation season that held a large number of artifacts including swords, ink tablets, textiles, arrowheads, and other military paraphernalia. Relative dating of the barracks had determined that they were built around 105 AD. The Guardian also publicized the discovery of a cache of 25 ink tablets found earlier in the 2017 season. The tablets were discovered in a trench in one of the earliest layers of the fort, dating to the 1st century AD. This discovery was considered to be the second-largest discovery of ink tablets in the world, with the first being a cache that was also discovered at Vindolanda in 1992.
In the 2014 excavation season, BBC ran a story about the discovery of one of the few surviving examples of a wooden toilet seat to be found in the Roman Empire. In the same year, they also recorded the discovery of the only (very old, very worn) gold coin ever to be found on the site with a mint date of 64 or 65 AD, lying in a site layer dating to the 4th century AD.
In 2010, the BBC announced the discovery of the remains of a child between the ages of 8 and 10 years, which was uncovered in a shallow pit in a barrack room in a position suggesting that its arms may have been bound. Further archaeological analysis indicated that it could be female. She is believed to have died about 1,800 years ago.
Another find publicised on the BBC website in 2006 was a bronze and silver fibula modelled with the figure of Mars, with the name Quintus Sollonius punched into its surface.
In 2020, archaeologists discovered a 5th-century chalice covered in religious iconography within a collapsed church structure. The images include crosses, angels, a smiling priestly figure holding a crook, fish, a whale, ships, the Greek letters chi-rho. In addition, the chalice bears scripts written in Latin, Greek, and possibly Ogham.
The Vindolanda site museum, also known as Chesterholm Museum, conserves and displays finds from the site. The museum is set in gardens, which include full-sized reconstructions of a Roman temple, a Roman shop, a Roman house and Northumbrian croft, all with audio presentations. Exhibits include Roman boots, shoes, armour, jewellery and coins, infrared photographs of the writing tablets and, from 2011, a small selection of the tablets themselves, on loan from the British Museum. 2011 saw the reopening of the museum at Vindolanda, and also the Roman Army Museum at Magnae Carvetiorum (Carvoran), refurbished with a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Roman Britain was the territory that became the Roman province of Britannia after the Roman conquest of Britain, consisting of a large part of the island of Great Britain. The occupation lasted from AD 43 to AD 410.
Julius Caesar invaded Britain in 55 and 54 BC as part of his Gallic Wars. According to Caesar, the Britons had been overrun or culturally assimilated by the Belgae during the British Iron Age and had been aiding Caesar's enemies. The Belgae were the only Celtic tribe to cross the sea into Britain, for to all other Celtic tribes this land was unknown. He received tribute, installed the friendly king Mandubracius over the Trinovantes, and returned to Gaul. Planned invasions under Augustus were called off in 34, 27, and 25 BC. In 40 AD, Caligula assembled 200,000 men at the Channel on the continent, only to have them gather seashells (musculi) according to Suetonius, perhaps as a symbolic gesture to proclaim Caligula's victory over the sea. Three years later, Claudius directed four legions to invade Britain and restore the exiled king Verica over the Atrebates. The Romans defeated the Catuvellauni, and then organized their conquests as the province of Britain. By 47 AD, the Romans held the lands southeast of the Fosse Way. Control over Wales was delayed by reverses and the effects of Boudica's uprising, but the Romans expanded steadily northward.
The conquest of Britain continued under command of Gnaeus Julius Agricola (77–84), who expanded the Roman Empire as far as Caledonia. In mid-84 AD, Agricola faced the armies of the Caledonians, led by Calgacus, at the Battle of Mons Graupius. Battle casualties were estimated by Tacitus to be upwards of 10,000 on the Caledonian side and about 360 on the Roman side. The bloodbath at Mons Graupius concluded the forty-year conquest of Britain, a period that possibly saw between 100,000 and 250,000 Britons killed. In the context of pre-industrial warfare and of a total population of Britain of c. 2 million, these are very high figures.
Under the 2nd-century emperors Hadrian and Antoninus Pius, two walls were built to defend the Roman province from the Caledonians, whose realms in the Scottish Highlands were never controlled. Around 197 AD, the Severan Reforms divided Britain into two provinces: Britannia Superior and Britannia Inferior. During the Diocletian Reforms, at the end of the 3rd century, Britannia was divided into four provinces under the direction of a vicarius, who administered the Diocese of the Britains. A fifth province, Valentia, is attested in the later 4th century. For much of the later period of the Roman occupation, Britannia was subject to barbarian invasions and often came under the control of imperial usurpers and imperial pretenders. The final Roman withdrawal from Britain occurred around 410; the native kingdoms are considered to have formed Sub-Roman Britain after that.
Following the conquest of the Britons, a distinctive Romano-British culture emerged as the Romans introduced improved agriculture, urban planning, industrial production, and architecture. The Roman goddess Britannia became the female personification of Britain. After the initial invasions, Roman historians generally only mention Britain in passing. Thus, most present knowledge derives from archaeological investigations and occasional epigraphic evidence lauding the Britannic achievements of an emperor. Roman citizens settled in Britain from many parts of the Empire.
History
Britain was known to the Classical world. The Greeks, the Phoenicians and the Carthaginians traded for Cornish tin in the 4th century BC. The Greeks referred to the Cassiterides, or "tin islands", and placed them near the west coast of Europe. The Carthaginian sailor Himilco is said to have visited the island in the 6th or 5th century BC and the Greek explorer Pytheas in the 4th. It was regarded as a place of mystery, with some writers refusing to believe it existed.
The first direct Roman contact was when Julius Caesar undertook two expeditions in 55 and 54 BC, as part of his conquest of Gaul, believing the Britons were helping the Gallic resistance. The first expedition was more a reconnaissance than a full invasion and gained a foothold on the coast of Kent but was unable to advance further because of storm damage to the ships and a lack of cavalry. Despite the military failure, it was a political success, with the Roman Senate declaring a 20-day public holiday in Rome to honour the unprecedented achievement of obtaining hostages from Britain and defeating Belgic tribes on returning to the continent.
The second invasion involved a substantially larger force and Caesar coerced or invited many of the native Celtic tribes to pay tribute and give hostages in return for peace. A friendly local king, Mandubracius, was installed, and his rival, Cassivellaunus, was brought to terms. Hostages were taken, but historians disagree over whether any tribute was paid after Caesar returned to Gaul.
Caesar conquered no territory and left no troops behind, but he established clients and brought Britain into Rome's sphere of influence. Augustus planned invasions in 34, 27 and 25 BC, but circumstances were never favourable, and the relationship between Britain and Rome settled into one of diplomacy and trade. Strabo, writing late in Augustus's reign, claimed that taxes on trade brought in more annual revenue than any conquest could. Archaeology shows that there was an increase in imported luxury goods in southeastern Britain. Strabo also mentions British kings who sent embassies to Augustus, and Augustus's own Res Gestae refers to two British kings he received as refugees. When some of Tiberius's ships were carried to Britain in a storm during his campaigns in Germany in 16 AD, they came back with tales of monsters.
Rome appears to have encouraged a balance of power in southern Britain, supporting two powerful kingdoms: the Catuvellauni, ruled by the descendants of Tasciovanus, and the Atrebates, ruled by the descendants of Commius. This policy was followed until 39 or 40 AD, when Caligula received an exiled member of the Catuvellaunian dynasty and planned an invasion of Britain that collapsed in farcical circumstances before it left Gaul. When Claudius successfully invaded in 43 AD, it was in aid of another fugitive British ruler, Verica of the Atrebates.
Roman invasion
The invasion force in 43 AD was led by Aulus Plautius,[26] but it is unclear how many legions were sent. The Legio II Augusta, commanded by future emperor Vespasian, was the only one directly attested to have taken part. The Legio IX Hispana, the XIV Gemina (later styled Martia Victrix) and the XX (later styled Valeria Victrix) are known to have served during the Boudican Revolt of 60/61, and were probably there since the initial invasion. This is not certain because the Roman army was flexible, with units being moved around whenever necessary. The IX Hispana may have been permanently stationed, with records showing it at Eboracum (York) in 71 and on a building inscription there dated 108, before being destroyed in the east of the Empire, possibly during the Bar Kokhba revolt.
The invasion was delayed by a troop mutiny until an imperial freedman persuaded them to overcome their fear of crossing the Ocean and campaigning beyond the limits of the known world. They sailed in three divisions, and probably landed at Richborough in Kent; at least part of the force may have landed near Fishbourne, West Sussex.
The Catuvellauni and their allies were defeated in two battles: the first, assuming a Richborough landing, on the river Medway, the second on the river Thames. One of their leaders, Togodumnus, was killed, but his brother Caratacus survived to continue resistance elsewhere. Plautius halted at the Thames and sent for Claudius, who arrived with reinforcements, including artillery and elephants, for the final march to the Catuvellaunian capital, Camulodunum (Colchester). Vespasian subdued the southwest, Cogidubnus was set up as a friendly king of several territories, and treaties were made with tribes outside direct Roman control.
Establishment of Roman rule
After capturing the south of the island, the Romans turned their attention to what is now Wales. The Silures, Ordovices and Deceangli remained implacably opposed to the invaders and for the first few decades were the focus of Roman military attention, despite occasional minor revolts among Roman allies like the Brigantes and the Iceni. The Silures were led by Caratacus, and he carried out an effective guerrilla campaign against Governor Publius Ostorius Scapula. Finally, in 51, Ostorius lured Caratacus into a set-piece battle and defeated him. The British leader sought refuge among the Brigantes, but their queen, Cartimandua, proved her loyalty by surrendering him to the Romans. He was brought as a captive to Rome, where a dignified speech he made during Claudius's triumph persuaded the emperor to spare his life. The Silures were still not pacified, and Cartimandua's ex-husband Venutius replaced Caratacus as the most prominent leader of British resistance.
On Nero's accession, Roman Britain extended as far north as Lindum. Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, the conqueror of Mauretania (modern day Algeria and Morocco), then became governor of Britain, and in 60 and 61 he moved against Mona (Anglesey) to settle accounts with Druidism once and for all. Paulinus led his army across the Menai Strait and massacred the Druids and burnt their sacred groves.
While Paulinus was campaigning in Mona, the southeast of Britain rose in revolt under the leadership of Boudica. She was the widow of the recently deceased king of the Iceni, Prasutagus. The Roman historian Tacitus reports that Prasutagus had left a will leaving half his kingdom to Nero in the hope that the remainder would be left untouched. He was wrong. When his will was enforced, Rome[clarification needed] responded by violently seizing the tribe's lands in full. Boudica protested. In consequence, Rome[clarification needed] punished her and her daughters by flogging and rape. In response, the Iceni, joined by the Trinovantes, destroyed the Roman colony at Camulodunum (Colchester) and routed the part of the IXth Legion that was sent to relieve it. Paulinus rode to London (then called Londinium), the rebels' next target, but concluded it could not be defended. Abandoned, it was destroyed, as was Verulamium (St. Albans). Between seventy and eighty thousand people are said to have been killed in the three cities. But Paulinus regrouped with two of the three legions still available to him, chose a battlefield, and, despite being outnumbered by more than twenty to one, defeated the rebels in the Battle of Watling Street. Boudica died not long afterwards, by self-administered poison or by illness. During this time, the Emperor Nero considered withdrawing Roman forces from Britain altogether.
There was further turmoil in 69, the "Year of the Four Emperors". As civil war raged in Rome, weak governors were unable to control the legions in Britain, and Venutius of the Brigantes seized his chance. The Romans had previously defended Cartimandua against him, but this time were unable to do so. Cartimandua was evacuated, and Venutius was left in control of the north of the country. After Vespasian secured the empire, his first two appointments as governor, Quintus Petillius Cerialis and Sextus Julius Frontinus, took on the task of subduing the Brigantes and Silures respectively.[38] Frontinus extended Roman rule to all of South Wales, and initiated exploitation of the mineral resources, such as the gold mines at Dolaucothi.
In the following years, the Romans conquered more of the island, increasing the size of Roman Britain. Governor Gnaeus Julius Agricola, father-in-law to the historian Tacitus, conquered the Ordovices in 78. With the XX Valeria Victrix legion, Agricola defeated the Caledonians in 84 at the Battle of Mons Graupius, in north-east Scotland. This was the high-water mark of Roman territory in Britain: shortly after his victory, Agricola was recalled from Britain back to Rome, and the Romans initially retired to a more defensible line along the Forth–Clyde isthmus, freeing soldiers badly needed along other frontiers.
For much of the history of Roman Britain, a large number of soldiers were garrisoned on the island. This required that the emperor station a trusted senior man as governor of the province. As a result, many future emperors served as governors or legates in this province, including Vespasian, Pertinax, and Gordian I.
Roman military organisation in the north
In 84 AD
In 84 AD
In 155 AD
In 155 AD
Hadrian's Wall, and Antonine Wall
There is no historical source describing the decades that followed Agricola's recall. Even the name of his replacement is unknown. Archaeology has shown that some Roman forts south of the Forth–Clyde isthmus were rebuilt and enlarged; others appear to have been abandoned. By 87 the frontier had been consolidated on the Stanegate. Roman coins and pottery have been found circulating at native settlement sites in the Scottish Lowlands in the years before 100, indicating growing Romanisation. Some of the most important sources for this era are the writing tablets from the fort at Vindolanda in Northumberland, mostly dating to 90–110. These tablets provide evidence for the operation of a Roman fort at the edge of the Roman Empire, where officers' wives maintained polite society while merchants, hauliers and military personnel kept the fort operational and supplied.
Around 105 there appears to have been a serious setback at the hands of the tribes of the Picts: several Roman forts were destroyed by fire, with human remains and damaged armour at Trimontium (at modern Newstead, in SE Scotland) indicating hostilities at least at that site.[citation needed] There is also circumstantial evidence that auxiliary reinforcements were sent from Germany, and an unnamed British war of the period is mentioned on the gravestone of a tribune of Cyrene. Trajan's Dacian Wars may have led to troop reductions in the area or even total withdrawal followed by slighting of the forts by the Picts rather than an unrecorded military defeat. The Romans were also in the habit of destroying their own forts during an orderly withdrawal, in order to deny resources to an enemy. In either case, the frontier probably moved south to the line of the Stanegate at the Solway–Tyne isthmus around this time.
A new crisis occurred at the beginning of Hadrian's reign): a rising in the north which was suppressed by Quintus Pompeius Falco. When Hadrian reached Britannia on his famous tour of the Roman provinces around 120, he directed an extensive defensive wall, known to posterity as Hadrian's Wall, to be built close to the line of the Stanegate frontier. Hadrian appointed Aulus Platorius Nepos as governor to undertake this work who brought the Legio VI Victrix legion with him from Germania Inferior. This replaced the famous Legio IX Hispana, whose disappearance has been much discussed. Archaeology indicates considerable political instability in Scotland during the first half of the 2nd century, and the shifting frontier at this time should be seen in this context.
In the reign of Antoninus Pius (138–161) the Hadrianic border was briefly extended north to the Forth–Clyde isthmus, where the Antonine Wall was built around 142 following the military reoccupation of the Scottish lowlands by a new governor, Quintus Lollius Urbicus.
The first Antonine occupation of Scotland ended as a result of a further crisis in 155–157, when the Brigantes revolted. With limited options to despatch reinforcements, the Romans moved their troops south, and this rising was suppressed by Governor Gnaeus Julius Verus. Within a year the Antonine Wall was recaptured, but by 163 or 164 it was abandoned. The second occupation was probably connected with Antoninus's undertakings to protect the Votadini or his pride in enlarging the empire, since the retreat to the Hadrianic frontier occurred not long after his death when a more objective strategic assessment of the benefits of the Antonine Wall could be made. The Romans did not entirely withdraw from Scotland at this time: the large fort at Newstead was maintained along with seven smaller outposts until at least 180.
During the twenty-year period following the reversion of the frontier to Hadrian's Wall in 163/4, Rome was concerned with continental issues, primarily problems in the Danubian provinces. Increasing numbers of hoards of buried coins in Britain at this time indicate that peace was not entirely achieved. Sufficient Roman silver has been found in Scotland to suggest more than ordinary trade, and it is likely that the Romans were reinforcing treaty agreements by paying tribute to their implacable enemies, the Picts.
In 175, a large force of Sarmatian cavalry, consisting of 5,500 men, arrived in Britannia, probably to reinforce troops fighting unrecorded uprisings. In 180, Hadrian's Wall was breached by the Picts and the commanding officer or governor was killed there in what Cassius Dio described as the most serious war of the reign of Commodus. Ulpius Marcellus was sent as replacement governor and by 184 he had won a new peace, only to be faced with a mutiny from his own troops. Unhappy with Marcellus's strictness, they tried to elect a legate named Priscus as usurper governor; he refused, but Marcellus was lucky to leave the province alive. The Roman army in Britannia continued its insubordination: they sent a delegation of 1,500 to Rome to demand the execution of Tigidius Perennis, a Praetorian prefect who they felt had earlier wronged them by posting lowly equites to legate ranks in Britannia. Commodus met the party outside Rome and agreed to have Perennis killed, but this only made them feel more secure in their mutiny.
The future emperor Pertinax (lived 126–193) was sent to Britannia to quell the mutiny and was initially successful in regaining control, but a riot broke out among the troops. Pertinax was attacked and left for dead, and asked to be recalled to Rome, where he briefly succeeded Commodus as emperor in 192.
3rd century
The death of Commodus put into motion a series of events which eventually led to civil war. Following the short reign of Pertinax, several rivals for the emperorship emerged, including Septimius Severus and Clodius Albinus. The latter was the new governor of Britannia, and had seemingly won the natives over after their earlier rebellions; he also controlled three legions, making him a potentially significant claimant. His sometime rival Severus promised him the title of Caesar in return for Albinus's support against Pescennius Niger in the east. Once Niger was neutralised, Severus turned on his ally in Britannia; it is likely that Albinus saw he would be the next target and was already preparing for war.
Albinus crossed to Gaul in 195, where the provinces were also sympathetic to him, and set up at Lugdunum. Severus arrived in February 196, and the ensuing battle was decisive. Albinus came close to victory, but Severus's reinforcements won the day, and the British governor committed suicide. Severus soon purged Albinus's sympathisers and perhaps confiscated large tracts of land in Britain as punishment. Albinus had demonstrated the major problem posed by Roman Britain. In order to maintain security, the province required the presence of three legions, but command of these forces provided an ideal power base for ambitious rivals. Deploying those legions elsewhere would strip the island of its garrison, leaving the province defenceless against uprisings by the native Celtic tribes and against invasion by the Picts and Scots.
The traditional view is that northern Britain descended into anarchy during Albinus's absence. Cassius Dio records that the new Governor, Virius Lupus, was obliged to buy peace from a fractious northern tribe known as the Maeatae. The succession of militarily distinguished governors who were subsequently appointed suggests that enemies of Rome were posing a difficult challenge, and Lucius Alfenus Senecio's report to Rome in 207 describes barbarians "rebelling, over-running the land, taking loot and creating destruction". In order to rebel, of course, one must be a subject – the Maeatae clearly did not consider themselves such. Senecio requested either reinforcements or an Imperial expedition, and Severus chose the latter, despite being 62 years old. Archaeological evidence shows that Senecio had been rebuilding the defences of Hadrian's Wall and the forts beyond it, and Severus's arrival in Britain prompted the enemy tribes to sue for peace immediately. The emperor had not come all that way to leave without a victory, and it is likely that he wished to provide his teenage sons Caracalla and Geta with first-hand experience of controlling a hostile barbarian land.
Northern campaigns, 208–211
An invasion of Caledonia led by Severus and probably numbering around 20,000 troops moved north in 208 or 209, crossing the Wall and passing through eastern Scotland on a route similar to that used by Agricola. Harried by punishing guerrilla raids by the northern tribes and slowed by an unforgiving terrain, Severus was unable to meet the Caledonians on a battlefield. The emperor's forces pushed north as far as the River Tay, but little appears to have been achieved by the invasion, as peace treaties were signed with the Caledonians. By 210 Severus had returned to York, and the frontier had once again become Hadrian's Wall. He assumed the title Britannicus but the title meant little with regard to the unconquered north, which clearly remained outside the authority of the Empire. Almost immediately, another northern tribe, the Maeatae, went to war. Caracalla left with a punitive expedition, but by the following year his ailing father had died and he and his brother left the province to press their claim to the throne.
As one of his last acts, Severus tried to solve the problem of powerful and rebellious governors in Britain by dividing the province into Britannia Superior and Britannia Inferior. This kept the potential for rebellion in check for almost a century. Historical sources provide little information on the following decades, a period known as the Long Peace. Even so, the number of buried hoards found from this period rises, suggesting continuing unrest. A string of forts were built along the coast of southern Britain to control piracy; and over the following hundred years they increased in number, becoming the Saxon Shore Forts.
During the middle of the 3rd century, the Roman Empire was convulsed by barbarian invasions, rebellions and new imperial pretenders. Britannia apparently avoided these troubles, but increasing inflation had its economic effect. In 259 a so-called Gallic Empire was established when Postumus rebelled against Gallienus. Britannia was part of this until 274 when Aurelian reunited the empire.
Around the year 280, a half-British officer named Bonosus was in command of the Roman's Rhenish fleet when the Germans managed to burn it at anchor. To avoid punishment, he proclaimed himself emperor at Colonia Agrippina (Cologne) but was crushed by Marcus Aurelius Probus. Soon afterwards, an unnamed governor of one of the British provinces also attempted an uprising. Probus put it down by sending irregular troops of Vandals and Burgundians across the Channel.
The Carausian Revolt led to a short-lived Britannic Empire from 286 to 296. Carausius was a Menapian naval commander of the Britannic fleet; he revolted upon learning of a death sentence ordered by the emperor Maximian on charges of having abetted Frankish and Saxon pirates and having embezzled recovered treasure. He consolidated control over all the provinces of Britain and some of northern Gaul while Maximian dealt with other uprisings. An invasion in 288 failed to unseat him and an uneasy peace ensued, with Carausius issuing coins and inviting official recognition. In 293, the junior emperor Constantius Chlorus launched a second offensive, besieging the rebel port of Gesoriacum (Boulogne-sur-Mer) by land and sea. After it fell, Constantius attacked Carausius's other Gallic holdings and Frankish allies and Carausius was usurped by his treasurer, Allectus. Julius Asclepiodotus landed an invasion fleet near Southampton and defeated Allectus in a land battle.
Diocletian's reforms
As part of Diocletian's reforms, the provinces of Roman Britain were organized as a diocese governed by a vicarius under a praetorian prefect who, from 318 to 331, was Junius Bassus who was based at Augusta Treverorum (Trier).
The vicarius was based at Londinium as the principal city of the diocese. Londinium and Eboracum continued as provincial capitals and the territory was divided up into smaller provinces for administrative efficiency.
Civilian and military authority of a province was no longer exercised by one official and the governor was stripped of military command which was handed over to the Dux Britanniarum by 314. The governor of a province assumed more financial duties (the procurators of the Treasury ministry were slowly phased out in the first three decades of the 4th century). The Dux was commander of the troops of the Northern Region, primarily along Hadrian's Wall and his responsibilities included protection of the frontier. He had significant autonomy due in part to the distance from his superiors.
The tasks of the vicarius were to control and coordinate the activities of governors; monitor but not interfere with the daily functioning of the Treasury and Crown Estates, which had their own administrative infrastructure; and act as the regional quartermaster-general of the armed forces. In short, as the sole civilian official with superior authority, he had general oversight of the administration, as well as direct control, while not absolute, over governors who were part of the prefecture; the other two fiscal departments were not.
The early-4th-century Verona List, the late-4th-century work of Sextus Rufus, and the early-5th-century List of Offices and work of Polemius Silvius all list four provinces by some variation of the names Britannia I, Britannia II, Maxima Caesariensis, and Flavia Caesariensis; all of these seem to have initially been directed by a governor (praeses) of equestrian rank. The 5th-century sources list a fifth province named Valentia and give its governor and Maxima's a consular rank. Ammianus mentions Valentia as well, describing its creation by Count Theodosius in 369 after the quelling of the Great Conspiracy. Ammianus considered it a re-creation of a formerly lost province, leading some to think there had been an earlier fifth province under another name (may be the enigmatic "Vespasiana"), and leading others to place Valentia beyond Hadrian's Wall, in the territory abandoned south of the Antonine Wall.
Reconstructions of the provinces and provincial capitals during this period partially rely on ecclesiastical records. On the assumption that the early bishoprics mimicked the imperial hierarchy, scholars use the list of bishops for the 314 Council of Arles. The list is patently corrupt: the British delegation is given as including a Bishop "Eborius" of Eboracum and two bishops "from Londinium" (one de civitate Londinensi and the other de civitate colonia Londinensium). The error is variously emended: Bishop Ussher proposed Colonia, Selden Col. or Colon. Camalodun., and Spelman Colonia Cameloduni (all various names of Colchester); Gale and Bingham offered colonia Lindi and Henry Colonia Lindum (both Lincoln); and Bishop Stillingfleet and Francis Thackeray read it as a scribal error of Civ. Col. Londin. for an original Civ. Col. Leg. II (Caerleon). On the basis of the Verona List, the priest and deacon who accompanied the bishops in some manuscripts are ascribed to the fourth province.
In the 12th century, Gerald of Wales described the supposedly metropolitan sees of the early British church established by the legendary SS Fagan and "Duvian". He placed Britannia Prima in Wales and western England with its capital at "Urbs Legionum" (Caerleon); Britannia Secunda in Kent and southern England with its capital at "Dorobernia" (Canterbury); Flavia in Mercia and central England with its capital at "Lundonia" (London); "Maximia" in northern England with its capital at Eboracum (York); and Valentia in "Albania which is now Scotland" with its capital at St Andrews. Modern scholars generally dispute the last: some place Valentia at or beyond Hadrian's Wall but St Andrews is beyond even the Antonine Wall and Gerald seems to have simply been supporting the antiquity of its church for political reasons.
A common modern reconstruction places the consular province of Maxima at Londinium, on the basis of its status as the seat of the diocesan vicarius; places Prima in the west according to Gerald's traditional account but moves its capital to Corinium of the Dobunni (Cirencester) on the basis of an artifact recovered there referring to Lucius Septimius, a provincial rector; places Flavia north of Maxima, with its capital placed at Lindum Colonia (Lincoln) to match one emendation of the bishops list from Arles;[d] and places Secunda in the north with its capital at Eboracum (York). Valentia is placed variously in northern Wales around Deva (Chester); beside Hadrian's Wall around Luguvalium (Carlisle); and between the walls along Dere Street.
4th century
Emperor Constantius returned to Britain in 306, despite his poor health, with an army aiming to invade northern Britain, the provincial defences having been rebuilt in the preceding years. Little is known of his campaigns with scant archaeological evidence, but fragmentary historical sources suggest he reached the far north of Britain and won a major battle in early summer before returning south. His son Constantine (later Constantine the Great) spent a year in northern Britain at his father's side, campaigning against the Picts beyond Hadrian's Wall in the summer and autumn. Constantius died in York in July 306 with his son at his side. Constantine then successfully used Britain as the starting point of his march to the imperial throne, unlike the earlier usurper, Albinus.
In the middle of the century, the province was loyal for a few years to the usurper Magnentius, who succeeded Constans following the latter's death. After the defeat and death of Magnentius in the Battle of Mons Seleucus in 353, Constantius II dispatched his chief imperial notary Paulus Catena to Britain to hunt down Magnentius's supporters. The investigation deteriorated into a witch-hunt, which forced the vicarius Flavius Martinus to intervene. When Paulus retaliated by accusing Martinus of treason, the vicarius attacked Paulus with a sword, with the aim of assassinating him, but in the end he committed suicide.
As the 4th century progressed, there were increasing attacks from the Saxons in the east and the Scoti (Irish) in the west. A series of forts had been built, starting around 280, to defend the coasts, but these preparations were not enough when, in 367, a general assault of Saxons, Picts, Scoti and Attacotti, combined with apparent dissension in the garrison on Hadrian's Wall, left Roman Britain prostrate. The invaders overwhelmed the entire western and northern regions of Britannia and the cities were sacked. This crisis, sometimes called the Barbarian Conspiracy or the Great Conspiracy, was settled by Count Theodosius from 368 with a string of military and civil reforms. Theodosius crossed from Bononia (Boulogne-sur-Mer) and marched on Londinium where he began to deal with the invaders and made his base.[ An amnesty was promised to deserters which enabled Theodosius to regarrison abandoned forts. By the end of the year Hadrian's Wall was retaken and order returned. Considerable reorganization was undertaken in Britain, including the creation of a new province named Valentia, probably to better address the state of the far north. A new Dux Britanniarum was appointed, Dulcitius, with Civilis to head a new civilian administration.
Another imperial usurper, Magnus Maximus, raised the standard of revolt at Segontium (Caernarfon) in north Wales in 383, and crossed the English Channel. Maximus held much of the western empire, and fought a successful campaign against the Picts and Scots around 384. His continental exploits required troops from Britain, and it appears that forts at Chester and elsewhere were abandoned in this period, triggering raids and settlement in north Wales by the Irish. His rule was ended in 388, but not all the British troops may have returned: the Empire's military resources were stretched to the limit along the Rhine and Danube. Around 396 there were more barbarian incursions into Britain. Stilicho led a punitive expedition. It seems peace was restored by 399, and it is likely that no further garrisoning was ordered; by 401 more troops were withdrawn, to assist in the war against Alaric I.
End of Roman rule
The traditional view of historians, informed by the work of Michael Rostovtzeff, was of a widespread economic decline at the beginning of the 5th century. Consistent archaeological evidence has told another story, and the accepted view is undergoing re-evaluation. Some features are agreed: more opulent but fewer urban houses, an end to new public building and some abandonment of existing ones, with the exception of defensive structures, and the widespread formation of "dark earth" deposits indicating increased horticulture within urban precincts. Turning over the basilica at Silchester to industrial uses in the late 3rd century, doubtless officially condoned, marks an early stage in the de-urbanisation of Roman Britain.
The abandonment of some sites is now believed to be later than had been thought. Many buildings changed use but were not destroyed. There was a growing number of barbarian attacks, but these targeted vulnerable rural settlements rather than towns. Some villas such as Chedworth, Great Casterton in Rutland and Hucclecote in Gloucestershire had new mosaic floors laid around this time, suggesting that economic problems may have been limited and patchy. Many suffered some decay before being abandoned in the 5th century; the story of Saint Patrick indicates that villas were still occupied until at least 430. Exceptionally, new buildings were still going up in this period in Verulamium and Cirencester. Some urban centres, for example Canterbury, Cirencester, Wroxeter, Winchester and Gloucester, remained active during the 5th and 6th centuries, surrounded by large farming estates.
Urban life had generally grown less intense by the fourth quarter of the 4th century, and coins minted between 378 and 388 are very rare, indicating a likely combination of economic decline, diminishing numbers of troops, problems with the payment of soldiers and officials or with unstable conditions during the usurpation of Magnus Maximus 383–87. Coinage circulation increased during the 390s, but never attained the levels of earlier decades. Copper coins are very rare after 402, though minted silver and gold coins from hoards indicate they were still present in the province even if they were not being spent. By 407 there were very few new Roman coins going into circulation, and by 430 it is likely that coinage as a medium of exchange had been abandoned. Mass-produced wheel thrown pottery ended at approximately the same time; the rich continued to use metal and glass vessels, while the poor made do with humble "grey ware" or resorted to leather or wooden containers.
Sub-Roman Britain
Towards the end of the 4th century Roman rule in Britain came under increasing pressure from barbarian attacks. Apparently, there were not enough troops to mount an effective defence. After elevating two disappointing usurpers, the army chose a soldier, Constantine III, to become emperor in 407. He crossed to Gaul but was defeated by Honorius; it is unclear how many troops remained or ever returned, or whether a commander-in-chief in Britain was ever reappointed. A Saxon incursion in 408 was apparently repelled by the Britons, and in 409 Zosimus records that the natives expelled the Roman civilian administration. Zosimus may be referring to the Bacaudic rebellion of the Breton inhabitants of Armorica since he describes how, in the aftermath of the revolt, all of Armorica and the rest of Gaul followed the example of the Brettaniai. A letter from Emperor Honorius in 410 has traditionally been seen as rejecting a British appeal for help, but it may have been addressed to Bruttium or Bologna. With the imperial layers of the military and civil government gone, administration and justice fell to municipal authorities, and local warlords gradually emerged all over Britain, still utilizing Romano-British ideals and conventions. Historian Stuart Laycock has investigated this process and emphasised elements of continuity from the British tribes in the pre-Roman and Roman periods, through to the native post-Roman kingdoms.
In British tradition, pagan Saxons were invited by Vortigern to assist in fighting the Picts, Scoti, and Déisi. (Germanic migration into Roman Britannia may have begun much earlier. There is recorded evidence, for example, of Germanic auxiliaries supporting the legions in Britain in the 1st and 2nd centuries.) The new arrivals rebelled, plunging the country into a series of wars that eventually led to the Saxon occupation of Lowland Britain by 600. Around this time, many Britons fled to Brittany (hence its name), Galicia and probably Ireland. A significant date in sub-Roman Britain is the Groans of the Britons, an unanswered appeal to Aetius, leading general of the western Empire, for assistance against Saxon invasion in 446. Another is the Battle of Deorham in 577, after which the significant cities of Bath, Cirencester and Gloucester fell and the Saxons reached the western sea.
Historians generally reject the historicity of King Arthur, who is supposed to have resisted the Anglo-Saxon conquest according to later medieval legends.
Trade
During the Roman period Britain's continental trade was principally directed across the Southern North Sea and Eastern Channel, focusing on the narrow Strait of Dover, with more limited links via the Atlantic seaways. The most important British ports were London and Richborough, whilst the continental ports most heavily engaged in trade with Britain were Boulogne and the sites of Domburg and Colijnsplaat at the mouth of the river Scheldt. During the Late Roman period it is likely that the shore forts played some role in continental trade alongside their defensive functions.
Exports to Britain included: coin; pottery, particularly red-gloss terra sigillata (samian ware) from southern, central and eastern Gaul, as well as various other wares from Gaul and the Rhine provinces; olive oil from southern Spain in amphorae; wine from Gaul in amphorae and barrels; salted fish products from the western Mediterranean and Brittany in barrels and amphorae; preserved olives from southern Spain in amphorae; lava quern-stones from Mayen on the middle Rhine; glass; and some agricultural products. Britain's exports are harder to detect archaeologically, but will have included metals, such as silver and gold and some lead, iron and copper. Other exports probably included agricultural products, oysters and salt, whilst large quantities of coin would have been re-exported back to the continent as well.
These products moved as a result of private trade and also through payments and contracts established by the Roman state to support its military forces and officials on the island, as well as through state taxation and extraction of resources. Up until the mid-3rd century, the Roman state's payments appear to have been unbalanced, with far more products sent to Britain, to support its large military force (which had reached c. 53,000 by the mid-2nd century), than were extracted from the island.
It has been argued that Roman Britain's continental trade peaked in the late 1st century AD and thereafter declined as a result of an increasing reliance on local products by the population of Britain, caused by economic development on the island and by the Roman state's desire to save money by shifting away from expensive long-distance imports. Evidence has been outlined that suggests that the principal decline in Roman Britain's continental trade may have occurred in the late 2nd century AD, from c. 165 AD onwards. This has been linked to the economic impact of contemporary Empire-wide crises: the Antonine Plague and the Marcomannic Wars.
From the mid-3rd century onwards, Britain no longer received such a wide range and extensive quantity of foreign imports as it did during the earlier part of the Roman period; vast quantities of coin from continental mints reached the island, whilst there is historical evidence for the export of large amounts of British grain to the continent during the mid-4th century. During the latter part of the Roman period British agricultural products, paid for by both the Roman state and by private consumers, clearly played an important role in supporting the military garrisons and urban centres of the northwestern continental Empire. This came about as a result of the rapid decline in the size of the British garrison from the mid-3rd century onwards (thus freeing up more goods for export), and because of 'Germanic' incursions across the Rhine, which appear to have reduced rural settlement and agricultural output in northern Gaul.
Economy
Mineral extraction sites such as the Dolaucothi gold mine were probably first worked by the Roman army from c. 75, and at some later stage passed to civilian operators. The mine developed as a series of opencast workings, mainly by the use of hydraulic mining methods. They are described by Pliny the Elder in his Natural History in great detail. Essentially, water supplied by aqueducts was used to prospect for ore veins by stripping away soil to reveal the bedrock. If veins were present, they were attacked using fire-setting and the ore removed for comminution. The dust was washed in a small stream of water and the heavy gold dust and gold nuggets collected in riffles. The diagram at right shows how Dolaucothi developed from c. 75 through to the 1st century. When opencast work was no longer feasible, tunnels were driven to follow the veins. The evidence from the site shows advanced technology probably under the control of army engineers.
The Wealden ironworking zone, the lead and silver mines of the Mendip Hills and the tin mines of Cornwall seem to have been private enterprises leased from the government for a fee. Mining had long been practised in Britain (see Grimes Graves), but the Romans introduced new technical knowledge and large-scale industrial production to revolutionise the industry. It included hydraulic mining to prospect for ore by removing overburden as well as work alluvial deposits. The water needed for such large-scale operations was supplied by one or more aqueducts, those surviving at Dolaucothi being especially impressive. Many prospecting areas were in dangerous, upland country, and, although mineral exploitation was presumably one of the main reasons for the Roman invasion, it had to wait until these areas were subdued.
By the 3rd and 4th centuries, small towns could often be found near villas. In these towns, villa owners and small-scale farmers could obtain specialist tools. Lowland Britain in the 4th century was agriculturally prosperous enough to export grain to the continent. This prosperity lay behind the blossoming of villa building and decoration that occurred between AD 300 and 350.
Britain's cities also consumed Roman-style pottery and other goods, and were centres through which goods could be distributed elsewhere. At Wroxeter in Shropshire, stock smashed into a gutter during a 2nd-century fire reveals that Gaulish samian ware was being sold alongside mixing bowls from the Mancetter-Hartshill industry of the West Midlands. Roman designs were most popular, but rural craftsmen still produced items derived from the Iron Age La Tène artistic traditions. Britain was home to much gold, which attracted Roman invaders. By the 3rd century, Britain's economy was diverse and well established, with commerce extending into the non-Romanised north.
Government
Further information: Governors of Roman Britain, Roman client kingdoms in Britain, and Roman auxiliaries in Britain
Under the Roman Empire, administration of peaceful provinces was ultimately the remit of the Senate, but those, like Britain, that required permanent garrisons, were placed under the Emperor's control. In practice imperial provinces were run by resident governors who were members of the Senate and had held the consulship. These men were carefully selected, often having strong records of military success and administrative ability. In Britain, a governor's role was primarily military, but numerous other tasks were also his responsibility, such as maintaining diplomatic relations with local client kings, building roads, ensuring the public courier system functioned, supervising the civitates and acting as a judge in important legal cases. When not campaigning, he would travel the province hearing complaints and recruiting new troops.
To assist him in legal matters he had an adviser, the legatus juridicus, and those in Britain appear to have been distinguished lawyers perhaps because of the challenge of incorporating tribes into the imperial system and devising a workable method of taxing them. Financial administration was dealt with by a procurator with junior posts for each tax-raising power. Each legion in Britain had a commander who answered to the governor and, in time of war, probably directly ruled troublesome districts. Each of these commands carried a tour of duty of two to three years in different provinces. Below these posts was a network of administrative managers covering intelligence gathering, sending reports to Rome, organising military supplies and dealing with prisoners. A staff of seconded soldiers provided clerical services.
Colchester was probably the earliest capital of Roman Britain, but it was soon eclipsed by London with its strong mercantile connections. The different forms of municipal organisation in Britannia were known as civitas (which were subdivided, amongst other forms, into colonies such as York, Colchester, Gloucester and Lincoln and municipalities such as Verulamium), and were each governed by a senate of local landowners, whether Brythonic or Roman, who elected magistrates concerning judicial and civic affairs. The various civitates sent representatives to a yearly provincial council in order to profess loyalty to the Roman state, to send direct petitions to the Emperor in times of extraordinary need, and to worship the imperial cult.
Demographics
Roman Britain had an estimated population between 2.8 million and 3 million people at the end of the second century. At the end of the fourth century, it had an estimated population of 3.6 million people, of whom 125,000 consisted of the Roman army and their families and dependents.[80] The urban population of Roman Britain was about 240,000 people at the end of the fourth century. The capital city of Londinium is estimated to have had a population of about 60,000 people. Londinium was an ethnically diverse city with inhabitants from the Roman Empire, including natives of Britannia, continental Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. There was also cultural diversity in other Roman-British towns, which were sustained by considerable migration, from Britannia and other Roman territories, including continental Europe, Roman Syria, the Eastern Mediterranean and North Africa. In a study conducted in 2012, around 45 percent of sites investigated dating from the Roman period had at least one individual of North African origin.
Town and country
During their occupation of Britain the Romans founded a number of important settlements, many of which survive. The towns suffered attrition in the later 4th century, when public building ceased and some were abandoned to private uses. Place names survived the deurbanised Sub-Roman and early Anglo-Saxon periods, and historiography has been at pains to signal the expected survivals, but archaeology shows that a bare handful of Roman towns were continuously occupied. According to S.T. Loseby, the very idea of a town as a centre of power and administration was reintroduced to England by the Roman Christianising mission to Canterbury, and its urban revival was delayed to the 10th century.
Roman towns can be broadly grouped in two categories. Civitates, "public towns" were formally laid out on a grid plan, and their role in imperial administration occasioned the construction of public buildings. The much more numerous category of vici, "small towns" grew on informal plans, often round a camp or at a ford or crossroads; some were not small, others were scarcely urban, some not even defended by a wall, the characteristic feature of a place of any importance.
Cities and towns which have Roman origins, or were extensively developed by them are listed with their Latin names in brackets; civitates are marked C
Alcester (Alauna)
Alchester
Aldborough, North Yorkshire (Isurium Brigantum) C
Bath (Aquae Sulis) C
Brough (Petuaria) C
Buxton (Aquae Arnemetiae)
Caerleon (Isca Augusta) C
Caernarfon (Segontium) C
Caerwent (Venta Silurum) C
Caister-on-Sea C
Canterbury (Durovernum Cantiacorum) C
Carlisle (Luguvalium) C
Carmarthen (Moridunum) C
Chelmsford (Caesaromagus)
Chester (Deva Victrix) C
Chester-le-Street (Concangis)
Chichester (Noviomagus Reginorum) C
Cirencester (Corinium) C
Colchester (Camulodunum) C
Corbridge (Coria) C
Dorchester (Durnovaria) C
Dover (Portus Dubris)
Exeter (Isca Dumnoniorum) C
Gloucester (Glevum) C
Great Chesterford (the name of this vicus is unknown)
Ilchester (Lindinis) C
Leicester (Ratae Corieltauvorum) C
Lincoln (Lindum Colonia) C
London (Londinium) C
Manchester (Mamucium) C
Newcastle upon Tyne (Pons Aelius)
Northwich (Condate)
St Albans (Verulamium) C
Silchester (Calleva Atrebatum) C
Towcester (Lactodurum)
Whitchurch (Mediolanum) C
Winchester (Venta Belgarum) C
Wroxeter (Viroconium Cornoviorum) C
York (Eboracum) C
Religion
The druids, the Celtic priestly caste who were believed to originate in Britain, were outlawed by Claudius, and in 61 they vainly defended their sacred groves from destruction by the Romans on the island of Mona (Anglesey). Under Roman rule the Britons continued to worship native Celtic deities, such as Ancasta, but often conflated with their Roman equivalents, like Mars Rigonemetos at Nettleham.
The degree to which earlier native beliefs survived is difficult to gauge precisely. Certain European ritual traits such as the significance of the number 3, the importance of the head and of water sources such as springs remain in the archaeological record, but the differences in the votive offerings made at the baths at Bath, Somerset, before and after the Roman conquest suggest that continuity was only partial. Worship of the Roman emperor is widely recorded, especially at military sites. The founding of a Roman temple to Claudius at Camulodunum was one of the impositions that led to the revolt of Boudica. By the 3rd century, Pagans Hill Roman Temple in Somerset was able to exist peaceably and it did so into the 5th century.
Pagan religious practices were supported by priests, represented in Britain by votive deposits of priestly regalia such as chain crowns from West Stow and Willingham Fen.
Eastern cults such as Mithraism also grew in popularity towards the end of the occupation. The London Mithraeum is one example of the popularity of mystery religions among the soldiery. Temples to Mithras also exist in military contexts at Vindobala on Hadrian's Wall (the Rudchester Mithraeum) and at Segontium in Roman Wales (the Caernarfon Mithraeum).
Christianity
It is not clear when or how Christianity came to Britain. A 2nd-century "word square" has been discovered in Mamucium, the Roman settlement of Manchester. It consists of an anagram of PATER NOSTER carved on a piece of amphora. There has been discussion by academics whether the "word square" is a Christian artefact, but if it is, it is one of the earliest examples of early Christianity in Britain. The earliest confirmed written evidence for Christianity in Britain is a statement by Tertullian, c. 200 AD, in which he described "all the limits of the Spains, and the diverse nations of the Gauls, and the haunts of the Britons, inaccessible to the Romans, but subjugated to Christ". Archaeological evidence for Christian communities begins to appear in the 3rd and 4th centuries. Small timber churches are suggested at Lincoln and Silchester and baptismal fonts have been found at Icklingham and the Saxon Shore Fort at Richborough. The Icklingham font is made of lead, and visible in the British Museum. A Roman Christian graveyard exists at the same site in Icklingham. A possible Roman 4th-century church and associated burial ground was also discovered at Butt Road on the south-west outskirts of Colchester during the construction of the new police station there, overlying an earlier pagan cemetery. The Water Newton Treasure is a hoard of Christian silver church plate from the early 4th century and the Roman villas at Lullingstone and Hinton St Mary contained Christian wall paintings and mosaics respectively. A large 4th-century cemetery at Poundbury with its east–west oriented burials and lack of grave goods has been interpreted as an early Christian burial ground, although such burial rites were also becoming increasingly common in pagan contexts during the period.
The Church in Britain seems to have developed the cust
Montreal, auch Mons Regalis, Castrum Saboach, arabisch قلعة الشوبك, DMG qalʿat aš-Šawbak, ist eine ehemalige Kreuzfahrerburg in „Idumäa“ (Edom) südöstlich des Toten Meeres im heutigen Jordanien. Die Ruinen der Höhenburg liegen auf einem kegelförmigen Berg über der Ebene von Edom an der Pilger- und Karawanenstraße von Syrien nach Arabien. Der wichtige Handelsweg führte an dieser Stelle vom Toten Meer zur Arava-Senke und von dort weiter nach Akaba am Roten Meer. Die Burg wurde 1115 von Balduin I. von Jerusalem als erste Burg östlich des Jordans und des Toten Meers errichtet. Anlass war ein Feldzug, bei dem er 1116 Akaba eroberte; die neue Festung sollte die Route von Jerusalem nach Akaba sichern. Die günstige Lage der Burg erlaubte es Balduin, zudem die Wirtschaft der Gegend zu kontrollieren, da Pilger und Händler eine Erlaubnis brauchten, die Straße zu benutzen. Die Burg war von relativ fruchtbarem Land umgeben, was die Versorgung ihrer Besatzung erleichterte. Zudem wurden zwei Brunnen gegraben und mit langen und steilen Treppen versehen.
König Balduin II. vergab die Burg 1118 als Zentrum der Herrschaft Oultrejordain als Lehen an Roman von Le Puy. Als dieser sich 1134 an einem Aufstand gegen König Fulko von Jerusalem beteiligte, wurde das Lehen eingezogen und an Pagan den Mundschenk vergeben. Nach Pagans Tod um 1147 beerbte ihn sein Neffe Moritz von Montreal. Nach dessen Tod fiel die Herrschaft an König Balduin III. von Jerusalem zurück. 1161 vergab dieser die Oultrejordain als Lehen an Philipp von Milly, der dafür sein bisheriges Lehen, die Herrschaft Nablus, zurückgab. Zu dieser Zeit wurde das Zentrum der Herrschaft Oultrejordain nach Kerak verlegt, einer stärkeren Festung, die unter Pagan nördlich von Montreal errichtet worden war, doch blieb auch Montreal bedeutend. Ebenso wie Kerak hatte es dem Königreich Jerusalem sechzig Ritter zu stellen.
Nach Philipps Tod übernahm seine Tochter Stephanie von Milly die Herrschaft, die nacheinander von ihren insgesamt drei Ehegatten ausgeübt wurde. Der letzte von ihnen war ab 1176 Rainald von Chatillon. Rainald nutzte Montreal, um die reichen Karawanen anzugreifen, die bisher die Straße ohne Schaden zu nehmen passieren konnten. Auch ließ er hier Schiffe bauen, die er über Land ans Rote Meer transportieren ließ, um Mekka anzugreifen. Der Ayyubiden-Sultan Saladin griff aufgrund dieser Provokationen das Königreich 1187 an, eroberte Jerusalem und ließ seinen Bruder al-Adil im gleichen Jahr auch Montreal belagern. Den Verteidigern wird nachgesagt, während der langen Belagerung ihre Frauen und Kinder für Nahrung verkauft zu haben, und dass sie aus Mangel an Salz blind geworden seien. Wegen des Hügels konnten die Angreifer keine Belagerungsmaschinen einsetzen, so dass die Burg erst nach zwei Jahren, im Mai 1189, fiel. (Wikipedia)
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The Castel dell 'Ovo ( Castrum Ovi, in Latin) , is the oldest castle in the city of Naples [1] and is one of the elements that stand out most in the famous view of the gulf . It is located between the neighborhoods of St. Ferdinand and Chiaia , in front of Mergellina .
Due to several events that have partially destroyed the original appearance thanks to Norman and subsequent reconstruction work took place during the Angevin and Aragonese , the architectural line of the castle changed dramatically until reaching the stage where it is today .
Its name comes from an ancient legend that the Roman poet Virgil - that in the Middle Ages was considered a magician - hid in the secret building an egg that kept standing the whole fortress. His break would have caused not only the collapse of the castle, but also a series of ruinous disaster to the city of Naples.
During the fourteenth century , at the time of Joan I, the castle suffered considerable damage due to the partial collapse of the arch on which it rests , and to prevent it from spreading among the population panic to the alleged future disasters that have hit the city , the queen had to swear that he had replaced the egg. [2]
The castle is located on the island of tuff Megaris ( greek : Megaris ) , natural offshoot of Mount Echia , which was joined to the mainland by a narrow isthmus of rock. This is the place where Partenope was founded in the eighth century BC, by the hand Cumana . During the sixth century BC, the plateau below arose the new residential area ( " Neapolis "). The oldest part of the city was called " Palepolis " (old town) and fell into disuse in the IV- III century BC
In the first century BC Lucius Licinius Lucullus gained in the bottom of a very large (which according to some theories ranged from Pizzafalcone to Pozzuoli ) on the island and built a splendid villa , Villa Licinius Lucullus, which was equipped with a rich library of farms and moray eels peach trees imported from Persia, who at the time were a novelty along with the cherry trees that the general had come from Cerasunto . [3] the memory of this property persisted in the name of Castrum Lucullanum that site maintained until late Roman age [4].
In the darkest times for the Empire - the mid-fifth century - the villa was fortified by Valentinian III and touched her fate to host the deposed last emperor of Rome, Romulus Augustus in 476 . [5]
Subsequently, the death of Romulus Augustus, on the island of Megaris and Mount Echia , by the end of the fifth century , settled Basilian monks called from Pannonia by a matron with the relics of the abbot Barbara Severino . Allocated initially in scattered cells (called " hermitages Basilian " ) , the monks adopted the Benedictine rule in the seventh century and created an important scriptorium (having probably also the remains of the library of the culinary kind ) .
The Middle Ages: the Duchy of Naples, the king Normans, Swabians and Angevins
Interior of the castle
The monastery , however, was razed to the ground at the beginning of the tenth century by the Dukes of Naples , to ensure that there will fortify the Saracens using it as a base for the invasion of the city, while the monks retired to Pizzafalcone . In 872 , at the time called the islet of San Salvatore Saracens imprison the bishop Athanasius of Naples, but the joint effort of the fleets of the Duchy of Naples and the Amalfi Republic frees the bishop and drive out the Muslims . [6] In a document of 1128 the site was again cited a fortification , called Arx Sancti Saviour of the church of St. Peter, who had built the monks . Witness the establishment of the Basilian monks is precisely what remains of this church , founded by the monks themselves , and whose earliest records date back to 1324. The only major architectural element left is the entrance preceded by the great arches of the loggia .
Roger the Norman conquered Naples in 1140 , had its headquarters in Castel dell 'Ovo . The residential use of the castle , however, was used only on a few occasions since, with the completion of the Castel Capuano, were moved there all the lines of development and trade to the ground. Under the Normans , began a systematic program of fortification of the site , which was in its first bastion tower Normandy , and it was the one on which the flags were waving .
With the passage of the kingdom through the Swabians Costanza d' Altavilla , Castel dell 'Ovo is further strengthened in 1222 by Frederick II, making it the seat of the royal treasury and the other is to build towers - Colleville tower tower tower Teacher and Middle . In those years , the castle became a royal palace and a state prison .
King Charles I of Anjou moved to New Castle ( Angevin ) the court . He maintained , however, in Castel dell 'Ovo - which at this time began to be called chateau de l' Oeuf or Castrum Ovi enchanted - the property to be preserved in the best fortified place : so he made the residence of the family, bringing order and numerous restorations changes , and you kept the royal treasury . In this period , as a state prison , was imprisoned in the castle Conradin before being beheaded in the Market Square , and the sons of Manfred and Queen Elena Doukas .
After an earthquake in 1370 that had brought down the natural arch that formed the isthmus , Queen Joan had it rebuilt in masonry , restoring even the Norman buildings . After having lived in the castle as a sovereign , the queen was imprisoned here dall'infedele grandson Charles of Durazzo , before ending up in exile in Muro Lucano .
The Aragonese , the viceroy , the Bourbons
hermitage Basilian
Alfonso V of Aragon, founder of the Aragonese domination in Naples (1442 - 1503) , brought to the castle further restructuring , enriching the royal palace , restoring the pier , strengthening the defensive structures and lowering the towers.
Successogli throne to his son Ferrante I got looting by French troops , to regain possession of the castle he had to bombard with artillery.
Tower of the Normans
The castle was further damaged by France's Louis XII and Spain's Gonzalo de Cordoba , who ousted on behalf of Ferdinand II of Aragon, King of Spain , the last Aragonese king of Naples. In 1503, the siege of Ferdinand the Catholic definitively demolished what was left of the towers. The castle was extensively restored and then again , taking the form we see today . Mutated weapons systems - from throwing weapons and mortars from the jet - were rebuilt octagonal towers , thick walls , and the defensive structures were oriented toward the ground, and not towards the sea. Defeated the French twice, in Cerignola and the Garigliano , there was the complete conquest of the entire Kingdom of Naples in favor of Spain .
During the reign of the Bourbon Spanish viceroys and later the castle was fortified with even more batteries and two drawbridges. The structure completely lost the function of the XVIII century royal residence and also the title of " real factory ," and was used as a military outpost and provision - which the Spanish bombed the city during the riots of Masaniello - and in prison , where he was imprisoned among others, the philosopher Tommaso Campanella before being sentenced to death , and later some of the Jacobins , the Carbonari and liberals such as Carlo Poerio , Luigi Settembrini , Francesco de Sanctis .
Unification of Italy today
View from the sea
During the period of the so-called " cleansing ", which changed the face of Naples after the unification of Italy , a project developed by the scientists of the writers and artists in 1871 included the demolition of the castle to make room for a new ward . However, that project was never implemented and the building remained in the possession of state property and virtually abandoned until the beginning of the restoration in 1975.
Today is adjacent to the historic district of Saint Lucia and can be visited . In the large rooms are held exhibitions, conferences and events. At its base lies the marina of the " Borgo Marinari " , with its restaurants and bars , historic home of some of the most prestigious yacht clubs in Naples .
Though of ancient origin, Blois is first distinctly mentioned by Gregory of Tours in the 6th century, and the city gained some notability in the 9th century, when it became the seat of a powerful countship with «Blesum castrum» («Le château de Blois»). In 1171, Blois was the site of a blood libel against its Jewish community that led to 31 Jews (by some accounts 40) being burned to death. Their martyrdom also contributed to a prominent and durable school of poetry inspired by Christian persecution. In 1196, Count Louis granted privileges to the townsmen; a commune, which survived throughout the Middle Ages, probably dated from this time. The counts of the Châtillon line resided at Blois more often than their predecessors. They built the oldest parts of the château (from the thirteenth century). Joan of Arc rode the thirty-five miles on Wednesday 29 April to Blois to relieve Orléans. After his captivity in England, Charles of Orléans in 1440 took up his residence in the château, where in 1462 his son, afterwards Louis XII, was born. In the 16th century Blois was often the resort of the French court. The Treaty of Blois, which temporarily halted the Italian Wars, was signed there in 1504–1505.
The city's inhabitants included many Calvinists, and in 1562 and 1567 it was the scene of struggles between them and the supporters of the Catholic Church. In 1576 and 1588 Henri III, king of France, chose Blois as the meeting-place of the States-General, and in 1588 he brought about the murders of Henry, duke of Guise, and his brother,Louis, archbishop of Reims and cardinal, in the Château, where their deaths were shortly followed by that of the queen-mother, Catherine de' Medici. From 1617 to 1619 Marie de' Medici, wife of King Henri IV, exiled from the court, lived at the château, which was soon afterwards given by King Louis XIII to his brother Gaston, Duke of Orléans, who lived there till his death in 1660.
The bishopric, seated at Blois Cathedral, dates from the end of the 17th century. In 1814 Blois was for a short time the seat of the regency of Marie Louise, wife of Napoleon I.
Blois was occupied during World War II by the German army, which took the city on 18 June 1940. American soldiers liberated the city during the last two weeks of August 1944. On both occasions, the city withstood several days of bombing. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blois
Sur les 530 maisons à pans de bois repérées à Auxerre, la plus grande partie se situe dans les quartiers de La Marine, de la Cathédrale et de l’Hôtel de Ville qui correspondent à l’ancien castrum gallo-romain. Ces maisons se répartissent en quatre groupes selon leur implantation sur le parcellaire : les maisons à pignon sur rue (128), à mur goutterot sur rue (294), sur cour (30, visibles de la rue) et les maisons d’angle de rues (79). Dans l’ensemble, ce sont des “maisons blocs”, sans aile ni saillie, rectangulaires, étroites et profondes pour celles qui ont pignon sur rue, peu profondes et de largeurs très variables pour celles qui ont le mur goutterot sur rue. La majorité des maisons ont un étage (365), un comble habitable ou non et une cave.
Il y a deux grands types de construction : les maisons mixtes en maçonnerie et pans-de-bois (117 en pans-de-bois visibles et 118 en pans-de-bois cachés) et les maisons entièrement en pans-de-bois (123 en pans-de-bois visibles et 169 en pans-de-bois cachés) dont la plupart ont un solin en maçonnerie. Sur les 240 maisons à pans-de-bois apparents, sont à remarquer cinq types de colombages : celui à colombes simples avec des écharpes de décharge (85), un autre à colombes simples et embrèvement (55), les colombages à croix de Saint-André (18) et à grandes croix de Saint-André (11) et enfin le colombage à épis (29), une seule maison présentant un colombage à losanges.
Les hourdis ou remplissage entre les pièces de bois sont de trois types, le torchis recouvert d’enduit, la maçonnerie de moellons liés par un mortier de terre et de chaux (le plus courant à Auxerre), parfois recouvert d’un enduit et la brique qui n’apparaît qu’au XVIIème siècle. Un des éléments les plus caractéristiques de la construction en pans-de-bois est l’encorbellement d’un étage sur un autre. À Auxerre, on dénombre 87 maisons à encorbellement dont 82 encorbellements du premier étage sur le rez-de-chaussée, 2 encorbellements du deuxième étage sur le premier étage et 3 double encorbellements aux premier et deuxième étages. Cet élément de construction est très intéressant pour la datation des maisons : un édit de 1607 interdisant la construction des maisons à encorbellement fait penser que, sauf non respect de la réglementation, la construction des maisons à encorbellement est antérieure à cette date. Au moins 16 % des maisons à pans-de-bois sont du XVIème siècle, voire peut-être pour certaines du XVème siècle.
Les maisons les plus anciennes ont un toit à double pente très pentu avec pour certaines une ferme débordante en pignon. Au cours du temps, apparaissent d’autres formes : le toit à double pente avec croupe en pignon à partir de la fin du XVIeème siècle et le toit en comble brisé aux XVIIème et XVIIIème siècles, avec une couverture est en général en tuiles plates. Le décor est en lien avec l’architecture : on le trouve souvent aux articulations majeures de la structure (encorbellement, poteau cornier) et sur l’encadrement des ouvertures. Peu de maisons sont décorées (45) et celles qui le sont reprennent souvent les mêmes formes et les mêmes motifs d’inspiration architecturale ou artisanale : moulures diverses, cordes avalées par des engoulants, motifs en relief (losanges, fleurs, animaux, outils, écussons...).
Si l’inventaire peut nous donner une idée de la distribution et de la fonction de la maison à partir des ouvertures (portes et fenêtres) et des éléments constituants restants comme les boutiques, les ateliers ou les cages d’escalier, il faut tenir compte des nombreuses modifications qui ont pu intervenir
Les maisons d’angle de rues, mise à part leur situation particulière (deux façades sur rues), ne sont pas tellement différentes des autres maisons à pans-de-bois. La mise en œuvre du bâtiment est la même que la maison, soit en angle de rues ou pas. Se retrouvent les deux grands types de construction : la maison mixte et la maison entièrement en pans-de-bois, la même structure pour les pans-de-bois, les cinq types de colombage, les mêmes hourdis et les toits en bâtière couverts de tuiles plates. En revanche, il y a assez souvent deux encorbellements, un sur chaque façade, qui déterminent un traitement de l’angle particulier. Lorsque l’encorbellement est au même niveau sur les deux façades, les poutres et les poteaux sont encastrés les uns dans les autres, les assemblages ne sont pas visibles et l’angle est souvent construit avec un poteau cornier ou avec un coyau et des aisseliers ; lorsque l’encorbellement n’est pas au même niveau sur les deux façades, l’angle est traité par superposition des poteaux verticaux et des poutres horizontales (sablières et sommiers) et les assemblages sont généralement visibles.
En ce qui concerne les rapports entre la maison, la rue et la ville, on retrouve les mêmes contraintes que pour les autres maisons à pans-de-bois : l’influence du quartier et du parcellaire sur la taille, la forme et le décor de la maison. Mais, cette situation à l’angle de deux rues leur confère un certain nombre d’avantages : une double orientation, des ouvertures plus nombreuses et plus variées qui leur assurent une meilleure aération et un meilleur éclairage, des boutiques ou ateliers pouvant ouvrir sur deux côtés... On les voit mieux : elles ont donc plutôt tendance à se donner encore plus à voir et de ce fait sont, dans l’ensemble, plus décorées que les autres (surtout lorsqu’elles ont un poteau cornier) ; elles peuvent aussi servir de repère pour se situer ou localiser des événements dans la ville.
L’élément essentiel dans la construction d’une maison d’angle de rues est le traitement de l’angle, angle qui peut être mis en valeur de différentes façons ou tout simplement ignoré. La forme la plus traditionnelle et sans doute la plus noble pour traiter l’angle d’une maison est l’utilisation d’un poteau cornier ; il permet de porter la structure, d’intégrer des assemblages sophistiqués grâce auxquels l’encorbellement est au même niveau sur les deux façades, de dissimuler tout ou partie de ces assemblages, de décorer la maison et d’animer la rue. Une variante que l’on retrouve plusieurs fois à Auxerre est le poteau d’angle simple, non élargi en partie haute mais accompagné d’aisseliers pour soutenir la structure. Dans ce cas-là, les assemblages sont souvent visibles, l’encorbellement n’est pas toujours au même niveau sur les deux façades, mais la maison est aussi bien décorée et la rue autant animée.
Enfin, il existe une autre possibilité, beaucoup moins courante à Auxerre et qui n’intervient que lorsque la construction comporte divers matériaux, c’est le “poteau d’angle” en pierre. Dans d’autres cas, la situation en angle de rues de certaines maisons n’a pas du tout été prise en compte ; l’angle est ignoré et la construction est menée comme si l’édifice était inséré entre deux autres bâtiments. Parmi les exemples que l’on a relevés, trois catégories se distinguent : les maisons dont une seule façade est mise en valeur, les maisons dont les façades sont traitées indépendamment les unes des autres et les maisons qui sont devenues des maisons d’angle par modification de l’urbanisme. Ce manque d’intérêt pour l’angle peut s’expliquer par un souci d’économie, par la volonté délibérée de privilégier une façade, par la localisation des bâtiments dans un quartier résidentiel, assez éloigné du centre, plus modeste...
Pour conclure cette synthèse sur le traitement de l’angle, il semble intéressant d’aborder une nouvelle forme que vont adopter les modes ultérieures (même si l’on sort du cadre médiéval) et que l’on rencontre à plusieurs reprises à Auxerre : c’est la mise en valeur de l’angle par un pan coupé.
Conclusion :
L’abondance des maisons à pans-de-bois conservées à Auxerre en fait un lieu privilégié pour aborder ce type de construction, avec un nombre significatif d’éléments, dans un environnement protégé. Parmi cet ensemble, les maisons d’angle de rues ont constitué un échantillon intéressant à étudier en détail. Si elles ont des caractéristiques générales identiques à celles des autres maisons à pans-de-bois, elles présentent néanmoins des particularités remarquables. Pourtant, elles ne sont pas différentes des autres maisons à pans-de-bois, mais ont des éléments en plus, sont souvent plus soignées, plus décorées, et appartiennent au même type de construction. L’habitat privé est un domaine mal connu, délicat à aborder, qui recouvre un patrimoine riche et abondant, malmené et en danger. Permettre de mettre en valeur cette architecture vernaculaire, faire prendre conscience de son intérêt, insister sur la nécessité de la préserver, peut inciter les propriétaires à la respecter et à la restaurer dans son intégrité, sans la défigurer (cf. Françoise Burguière-Labrunie, merci maryse89.eklablog.com pour la photo).
Heidelberg Castle is a famous ruin in Germany and landmark of Heidelberg. The castle ruins are among the most important Renaissance structures north of the Alps.
The castle has only been partially rebuilt since its demolition in the 17th and 18th centuries. It is located 80 metres (260 ft) up the northern part of the Königstuhl hillside, and thereby dominates the view of the old downtown. It is served by an intermediate station on the Heidelberger Bergbahn funicular railway that runs from Heidelberg's Kornmarkt to the summit of the Königstuhl.
The earliest castle structure was built before AD 1214 and later expanded into 2 castles circa 1294; however, in 1537, a lightning-bolt destroyed the upper castle. The present structures had been expanded by 1650, before damage by later wars and fires. In 1764, another lightning-bolt destroyed some rebuilt sections.
Vindolanda was a Roman auxiliary fort (castrum) just south of Hadrian's Wall in northern England, which it originally pre-dated. Archaeological excavations of the site show it was under Roman occupation from roughly 85 AD to 370 AD. Located near the modern village of Bardon Mill in Northumberland, it guarded the Stanegate, the Roman road from the River Tyne to the Solway Firth. It is noted for the Vindolanda tablets, a set of wooden leaf-tablets that were, at the time of their discovery, the oldest surviving handwritten documents in Britain.
The first post-Roman record of the ruins at Vindolanda was made by the antiquarian William Camden, in his Britannia (1586). Occasional travellers reached the site over the next two hundred years, and the accounts they left predate much of the stone-stealing that has damaged the site. The military Thermae (bath-house) was still partly roofed when Christopher Hunter visited the site in 1702. In about 1715 an excise officer named John Warburton found an altar there, which he removed. In 1814 the first real archaeological work was begun, by the Rev. Anthony Hedley.
Hedley died in 1835, before writing up his discoveries. Little more was done for a long time, although in 1914 a workman found another altar at the site, set up by the civilians living at the fort in honour of the Divine House and Vulcan. Several names for the site are used in the early records, including "Chesters on Caudley", "Little Chesters", "The Bower" and "Chesterholm"; the altar found in 1914 confirmed that the Roman name for the site was "Vindolanda", which had been in dispute as one early source referred to it as "Vindolana".
The garrison consisted of infantry or cavalry auxilia, not components of Roman legions. From the early third century, this was the Cohors IV Gallorum equitata also known as the Fourth Cohort of Gauls. It had been presumed that this title was, by this time, purely nominal, with auxiliary troops being recruited locally but an inscription found in a recent season of excavations suggests that native Gauls were still to be found in the regiment and that they liked to distinguish themselves from British soldiers. The inscription reads:
CIVES GALLI
DE GALLIAE
CONCORDES
QUE BRITANNI
A translation of this is "The troops from Gaul dedicate this statue to the goddess Gallia with the full support of the British-born troops".
Among the troops were Basque-speaking soldiers of the Varduli.
The earliest Roman forts at Vindolanda were built of wood and turf. The remains are now buried as much as 13 ft (4 m) deep in the anoxic waterlogged soil. There are five timber forts, built (and demolished) one after the other. The first, a small fort, was probably built by the 1st Cohort of Tungrians about 85 AD. By about 95 AD this was replaced by a larger wooden fort built by the 9th Cohort of Batavians, a mixed infantry-cavalry unit of about 1,000 men. That fort was repaired in about 100 AD under the command of the Roman prefect Flavius Cerialis. When the 9th Cohort of Batavians left in 105 AD, their fort was demolished. The 1st Cohort of Tungrians returned to Vindolanda, built a larger wooden fort and remained here until Hadrian's Wall was built around 122 AD, when they moved, most likely to Vercovicium (Housesteads Roman Fort) on the wall, about two miles to the north-east of Vindolanda.
Soon after Hadrian's Wall was built, most of its men were moved north to the Antonine Wall. A stone fort was built at Vindolanda, possibly for the 2nd Cohort of Nervians. From 208 to 211 AD, there was a major rebellion against Rome in Britain, and the Emperor Septimius Severus led an army to Britain to cope with it personally. The old stone fort was demolished, and replaced by an unconventional set of army buildings on the west, and an unusual array of many round stone huts where the old fort had been. Some of these circular huts are visible by the north and the southwest walls of the final stone fort. The Roman army may have built these to accommodate families of British farmers in this unsettled period. Septimius Severus died at York in 211 AD; his sons paid off the rebels and left for Rome. The stone buildings were demolished, and a large new stone fort was built where the huts had been, for the 4th Cohort of Gauls.
A vicus, a self-governing village, developed to the west of the fort. The vicus contains several rows of buildings, each containing several one-room chambers. Most are not connected to the existing drainage system. The one that does was perhaps a butchery where, for health reasons, an efficient drain would have been important. A stone altar found in 1914 (and exhibited in the museum) proves that the settlement was officially a vicus and that it was named Vindolanda. To the south of the fort is a thermae (a large imperial bath complex), that would have been used by many of the individuals on the site. The later stone fort, and the adjoining village, remained in use until about 285 AD, when it was largely abandoned for unknown reasons.
About 300 AD, the fort was again rebuilt, but the vicus was not reoccupied, so most likely the area remained too unsafe for life outside the defended walls of the fort. In about 370, the fort was roughly repaired, perhaps by irregular soldiers. There is no evidence for the traditional view that Roman occupation ended suddenly in 410; it may have declined slowly.
In the 1930s, the house at Chesterholm where the museum is now located was purchased by archaeologist Eric Birley, who was interested in excavating the site. The excavations have been continued by his sons, Robin and Anthony, and his grandson, Andrew Birley, into the present day. They are undertaken each summer, and some of the archaeological deposits reach depths of six metres. The anoxic conditions at these depths have preserved thousands of artefacts, such as 850 ink tablets and over 160 boxwood combs, that normally disintegrate in the ground, thus providing an opportunity to gain a fuller understanding of Roman life – military and otherwise – on the northern frontier. The study of these ink tablets shows a literacy among both the high born who there, as with the party invitation from one officer's wife to another and with soldiers and their families who send care packages with notes on the contents of the packages. A study of spindle whorls from the north-western quadrant has indicated the presence of spinners of low- and high- status in the fort in the 3rd and 4th century AD. Along with ongoing excavations (in season) and excavated remains, a full-size replica of a section of Hadrian's Wall in both stone and turf can be seen on the site. As of yet there is no reconstruction of the Vallum.
Nearly 2000-year-old Roman boxing gloves were uncovered at Vindolanda in 2017 by the Vindolanda Trust experts led by Dr Andrew Birley. According to the Guardian, being similar in style and function to the full-hand modern boxing gloves, these two gloves found at Vindolanda look like leather bands and date back to 120 AD. It is suggested that, based on their difference from gladiator gloves, warriors using this type of gloves had no purpose to kill each other. These gloves were probably used in a sport for promoting fighting skills. The gloves are currently displayed at Vindolanda's museum. According to Birley, they are not part of a matching pair:
The larger of the two gloves is cut from a single piece of leather and was folded into a pouch configuration, the extending leather at each side were slotted into one another forming a complete oval shape creating an inner hole into which a hand could still easily be inserted. The glove was packed with natural material acting as a shock absorber.
Recent excavations have been accompanied by new archaeological methodologies. 3-D imaging has been used to investigate the use of an ox cranium in target practice.
In 2021, a carved sandstone artifact was discovered a few inches below the floor of the fort. It depicts a nude warrior or deity before a horse or similar animal. Early interpretations point to the figure being of a Roman deity, perhaps of Mars or Mercury.
In 2023 February, a 2,000 year-old disembodied 6.3 inches long wooden phallus toy was revealed, according to the research published in the journal Antiquity.
In addition to the older initial findings of ink tablets, shoes and combs, several more artifacts and discoveries of note have been covered by the media. In 2017, the British newspaper The Guardian focused on a discovery of cavalry barracks that were uncovered during the excavation season that held a large number of artifacts including swords, ink tablets, textiles, arrowheads, and other military paraphernalia. Relative dating of the barracks had determined that they were built around 105 AD. The Guardian also publicized the discovery of a cache of 25 ink tablets found earlier in the 2017 season. The tablets were discovered in a trench in one of the earliest layers of the fort, dating to the 1st century AD. This discovery was considered to be the second-largest discovery of ink tablets in the world, with the first being a cache that was also discovered at Vindolanda in 1992.
In the 2014 excavation season, BBC ran a story about the discovery of one of the few surviving examples of a wooden toilet seat to be found in the Roman Empire. In the same year, they also recorded the discovery of the only (very old, very worn) gold coin ever to be found on the site with a mint date of 64 or 65 AD, lying in a site layer dating to the 4th century AD.
In 2010, the BBC announced the discovery of the remains of a child between the ages of 8 and 10 years, which was uncovered in a shallow pit in a barrack room in a position suggesting that its arms may have been bound. Further archaeological analysis indicated that it could be female. She is believed to have died about 1,800 years ago.
Another find publicised on the BBC website in 2006 was a bronze and silver fibula modelled with the figure of Mars, with the name Quintus Sollonius punched into its surface.
In 2020, archaeologists discovered a 5th-century chalice covered in religious iconography within a collapsed church structure. The images include crosses, angels, a smiling priestly figure holding a crook, fish, a whale, ships, the Greek letters chi-rho. In addition, the chalice bears scripts written in Latin, Greek, and possibly Ogham.
The Vindolanda site museum, also known as Chesterholm Museum, conserves and displays finds from the site. The museum is set in gardens, which include full-sized reconstructions of a Roman temple, a Roman shop, a Roman house and Northumbrian croft, all with audio presentations. Exhibits include Roman boots, shoes, armour, jewellery and coins, infrared photographs of the writing tablets and, from 2011, a small selection of the tablets themselves, on loan from the British Museum. 2011 saw the reopening of the museum at Vindolanda, and also the Roman Army Museum at Magnae Carvetiorum (Carvoran), refurbished with a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Roman Britain was the territory that became the Roman province of Britannia after the Roman conquest of Britain, consisting of a large part of the island of Great Britain. The occupation lasted from AD 43 to AD 410.
Julius Caesar invaded Britain in 55 and 54 BC as part of his Gallic Wars. According to Caesar, the Britons had been overrun or culturally assimilated by the Belgae during the British Iron Age and had been aiding Caesar's enemies. The Belgae were the only Celtic tribe to cross the sea into Britain, for to all other Celtic tribes this land was unknown. He received tribute, installed the friendly king Mandubracius over the Trinovantes, and returned to Gaul. Planned invasions under Augustus were called off in 34, 27, and 25 BC. In 40 AD, Caligula assembled 200,000 men at the Channel on the continent, only to have them gather seashells (musculi) according to Suetonius, perhaps as a symbolic gesture to proclaim Caligula's victory over the sea. Three years later, Claudius directed four legions to invade Britain and restore the exiled king Verica over the Atrebates. The Romans defeated the Catuvellauni, and then organized their conquests as the province of Britain. By 47 AD, the Romans held the lands southeast of the Fosse Way. Control over Wales was delayed by reverses and the effects of Boudica's uprising, but the Romans expanded steadily northward.
The conquest of Britain continued under command of Gnaeus Julius Agricola (77–84), who expanded the Roman Empire as far as Caledonia. In mid-84 AD, Agricola faced the armies of the Caledonians, led by Calgacus, at the Battle of Mons Graupius. Battle casualties were estimated by Tacitus to be upwards of 10,000 on the Caledonian side and about 360 on the Roman side. The bloodbath at Mons Graupius concluded the forty-year conquest of Britain, a period that possibly saw between 100,000 and 250,000 Britons killed. In the context of pre-industrial warfare and of a total population of Britain of c. 2 million, these are very high figures.
Under the 2nd-century emperors Hadrian and Antoninus Pius, two walls were built to defend the Roman province from the Caledonians, whose realms in the Scottish Highlands were never controlled. Around 197 AD, the Severan Reforms divided Britain into two provinces: Britannia Superior and Britannia Inferior. During the Diocletian Reforms, at the end of the 3rd century, Britannia was divided into four provinces under the direction of a vicarius, who administered the Diocese of the Britains. A fifth province, Valentia, is attested in the later 4th century. For much of the later period of the Roman occupation, Britannia was subject to barbarian invasions and often came under the control of imperial usurpers and imperial pretenders. The final Roman withdrawal from Britain occurred around 410; the native kingdoms are considered to have formed Sub-Roman Britain after that.
Following the conquest of the Britons, a distinctive Romano-British culture emerged as the Romans introduced improved agriculture, urban planning, industrial production, and architecture. The Roman goddess Britannia became the female personification of Britain. After the initial invasions, Roman historians generally only mention Britain in passing. Thus, most present knowledge derives from archaeological investigations and occasional epigraphic evidence lauding the Britannic achievements of an emperor. Roman citizens settled in Britain from many parts of the Empire.
History
Britain was known to the Classical world. The Greeks, the Phoenicians and the Carthaginians traded for Cornish tin in the 4th century BC. The Greeks referred to the Cassiterides, or "tin islands", and placed them near the west coast of Europe. The Carthaginian sailor Himilco is said to have visited the island in the 6th or 5th century BC and the Greek explorer Pytheas in the 4th. It was regarded as a place of mystery, with some writers refusing to believe it existed.
The first direct Roman contact was when Julius Caesar undertook two expeditions in 55 and 54 BC, as part of his conquest of Gaul, believing the Britons were helping the Gallic resistance. The first expedition was more a reconnaissance than a full invasion and gained a foothold on the coast of Kent but was unable to advance further because of storm damage to the ships and a lack of cavalry. Despite the military failure, it was a political success, with the Roman Senate declaring a 20-day public holiday in Rome to honour the unprecedented achievement of obtaining hostages from Britain and defeating Belgic tribes on returning to the continent.
The second invasion involved a substantially larger force and Caesar coerced or invited many of the native Celtic tribes to pay tribute and give hostages in return for peace. A friendly local king, Mandubracius, was installed, and his rival, Cassivellaunus, was brought to terms. Hostages were taken, but historians disagree over whether any tribute was paid after Caesar returned to Gaul.
Caesar conquered no territory and left no troops behind, but he established clients and brought Britain into Rome's sphere of influence. Augustus planned invasions in 34, 27 and 25 BC, but circumstances were never favourable, and the relationship between Britain and Rome settled into one of diplomacy and trade. Strabo, writing late in Augustus's reign, claimed that taxes on trade brought in more annual revenue than any conquest could. Archaeology shows that there was an increase in imported luxury goods in southeastern Britain. Strabo also mentions British kings who sent embassies to Augustus, and Augustus's own Res Gestae refers to two British kings he received as refugees. When some of Tiberius's ships were carried to Britain in a storm during his campaigns in Germany in 16 AD, they came back with tales of monsters.
Rome appears to have encouraged a balance of power in southern Britain, supporting two powerful kingdoms: the Catuvellauni, ruled by the descendants of Tasciovanus, and the Atrebates, ruled by the descendants of Commius. This policy was followed until 39 or 40 AD, when Caligula received an exiled member of the Catuvellaunian dynasty and planned an invasion of Britain that collapsed in farcical circumstances before it left Gaul. When Claudius successfully invaded in 43 AD, it was in aid of another fugitive British ruler, Verica of the Atrebates.
Roman invasion
The invasion force in 43 AD was led by Aulus Plautius,[26] but it is unclear how many legions were sent. The Legio II Augusta, commanded by future emperor Vespasian, was the only one directly attested to have taken part. The Legio IX Hispana, the XIV Gemina (later styled Martia Victrix) and the XX (later styled Valeria Victrix) are known to have served during the Boudican Revolt of 60/61, and were probably there since the initial invasion. This is not certain because the Roman army was flexible, with units being moved around whenever necessary. The IX Hispana may have been permanently stationed, with records showing it at Eboracum (York) in 71 and on a building inscription there dated 108, before being destroyed in the east of the Empire, possibly during the Bar Kokhba revolt.
The invasion was delayed by a troop mutiny until an imperial freedman persuaded them to overcome their fear of crossing the Ocean and campaigning beyond the limits of the known world. They sailed in three divisions, and probably landed at Richborough in Kent; at least part of the force may have landed near Fishbourne, West Sussex.
The Catuvellauni and their allies were defeated in two battles: the first, assuming a Richborough landing, on the river Medway, the second on the river Thames. One of their leaders, Togodumnus, was killed, but his brother Caratacus survived to continue resistance elsewhere. Plautius halted at the Thames and sent for Claudius, who arrived with reinforcements, including artillery and elephants, for the final march to the Catuvellaunian capital, Camulodunum (Colchester). Vespasian subdued the southwest, Cogidubnus was set up as a friendly king of several territories, and treaties were made with tribes outside direct Roman control.
Establishment of Roman rule
After capturing the south of the island, the Romans turned their attention to what is now Wales. The Silures, Ordovices and Deceangli remained implacably opposed to the invaders and for the first few decades were the focus of Roman military attention, despite occasional minor revolts among Roman allies like the Brigantes and the Iceni. The Silures were led by Caratacus, and he carried out an effective guerrilla campaign against Governor Publius Ostorius Scapula. Finally, in 51, Ostorius lured Caratacus into a set-piece battle and defeated him. The British leader sought refuge among the Brigantes, but their queen, Cartimandua, proved her loyalty by surrendering him to the Romans. He was brought as a captive to Rome, where a dignified speech he made during Claudius's triumph persuaded the emperor to spare his life. The Silures were still not pacified, and Cartimandua's ex-husband Venutius replaced Caratacus as the most prominent leader of British resistance.
On Nero's accession, Roman Britain extended as far north as Lindum. Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, the conqueror of Mauretania (modern day Algeria and Morocco), then became governor of Britain, and in 60 and 61 he moved against Mona (Anglesey) to settle accounts with Druidism once and for all. Paulinus led his army across the Menai Strait and massacred the Druids and burnt their sacred groves.
While Paulinus was campaigning in Mona, the southeast of Britain rose in revolt under the leadership of Boudica. She was the widow of the recently deceased king of the Iceni, Prasutagus. The Roman historian Tacitus reports that Prasutagus had left a will leaving half his kingdom to Nero in the hope that the remainder would be left untouched. He was wrong. When his will was enforced, Rome[clarification needed] responded by violently seizing the tribe's lands in full. Boudica protested. In consequence, Rome[clarification needed] punished her and her daughters by flogging and rape. In response, the Iceni, joined by the Trinovantes, destroyed the Roman colony at Camulodunum (Colchester) and routed the part of the IXth Legion that was sent to relieve it. Paulinus rode to London (then called Londinium), the rebels' next target, but concluded it could not be defended. Abandoned, it was destroyed, as was Verulamium (St. Albans). Between seventy and eighty thousand people are said to have been killed in the three cities. But Paulinus regrouped with two of the three legions still available to him, chose a battlefield, and, despite being outnumbered by more than twenty to one, defeated the rebels in the Battle of Watling Street. Boudica died not long afterwards, by self-administered poison or by illness. During this time, the Emperor Nero considered withdrawing Roman forces from Britain altogether.
There was further turmoil in 69, the "Year of the Four Emperors". As civil war raged in Rome, weak governors were unable to control the legions in Britain, and Venutius of the Brigantes seized his chance. The Romans had previously defended Cartimandua against him, but this time were unable to do so. Cartimandua was evacuated, and Venutius was left in control of the north of the country. After Vespasian secured the empire, his first two appointments as governor, Quintus Petillius Cerialis and Sextus Julius Frontinus, took on the task of subduing the Brigantes and Silures respectively.[38] Frontinus extended Roman rule to all of South Wales, and initiated exploitation of the mineral resources, such as the gold mines at Dolaucothi.
In the following years, the Romans conquered more of the island, increasing the size of Roman Britain. Governor Gnaeus Julius Agricola, father-in-law to the historian Tacitus, conquered the Ordovices in 78. With the XX Valeria Victrix legion, Agricola defeated the Caledonians in 84 at the Battle of Mons Graupius, in north-east Scotland. This was the high-water mark of Roman territory in Britain: shortly after his victory, Agricola was recalled from Britain back to Rome, and the Romans initially retired to a more defensible line along the Forth–Clyde isthmus, freeing soldiers badly needed along other frontiers.
For much of the history of Roman Britain, a large number of soldiers were garrisoned on the island. This required that the emperor station a trusted senior man as governor of the province. As a result, many future emperors served as governors or legates in this province, including Vespasian, Pertinax, and Gordian I.
Roman military organisation in the north
In 84 AD
In 84 AD
In 155 AD
In 155 AD
Hadrian's Wall, and Antonine Wall
There is no historical source describing the decades that followed Agricola's recall. Even the name of his replacement is unknown. Archaeology has shown that some Roman forts south of the Forth–Clyde isthmus were rebuilt and enlarged; others appear to have been abandoned. By 87 the frontier had been consolidated on the Stanegate. Roman coins and pottery have been found circulating at native settlement sites in the Scottish Lowlands in the years before 100, indicating growing Romanisation. Some of the most important sources for this era are the writing tablets from the fort at Vindolanda in Northumberland, mostly dating to 90–110. These tablets provide evidence for the operation of a Roman fort at the edge of the Roman Empire, where officers' wives maintained polite society while merchants, hauliers and military personnel kept the fort operational and supplied.
Around 105 there appears to have been a serious setback at the hands of the tribes of the Picts: several Roman forts were destroyed by fire, with human remains and damaged armour at Trimontium (at modern Newstead, in SE Scotland) indicating hostilities at least at that site.[citation needed] There is also circumstantial evidence that auxiliary reinforcements were sent from Germany, and an unnamed British war of the period is mentioned on the gravestone of a tribune of Cyrene. Trajan's Dacian Wars may have led to troop reductions in the area or even total withdrawal followed by slighting of the forts by the Picts rather than an unrecorded military defeat. The Romans were also in the habit of destroying their own forts during an orderly withdrawal, in order to deny resources to an enemy. In either case, the frontier probably moved south to the line of the Stanegate at the Solway–Tyne isthmus around this time.
A new crisis occurred at the beginning of Hadrian's reign): a rising in the north which was suppressed by Quintus Pompeius Falco. When Hadrian reached Britannia on his famous tour of the Roman provinces around 120, he directed an extensive defensive wall, known to posterity as Hadrian's Wall, to be built close to the line of the Stanegate frontier. Hadrian appointed Aulus Platorius Nepos as governor to undertake this work who brought the Legio VI Victrix legion with him from Germania Inferior. This replaced the famous Legio IX Hispana, whose disappearance has been much discussed. Archaeology indicates considerable political instability in Scotland during the first half of the 2nd century, and the shifting frontier at this time should be seen in this context.
In the reign of Antoninus Pius (138–161) the Hadrianic border was briefly extended north to the Forth–Clyde isthmus, where the Antonine Wall was built around 142 following the military reoccupation of the Scottish lowlands by a new governor, Quintus Lollius Urbicus.
The first Antonine occupation of Scotland ended as a result of a further crisis in 155–157, when the Brigantes revolted. With limited options to despatch reinforcements, the Romans moved their troops south, and this rising was suppressed by Governor Gnaeus Julius Verus. Within a year the Antonine Wall was recaptured, but by 163 or 164 it was abandoned. The second occupation was probably connected with Antoninus's undertakings to protect the Votadini or his pride in enlarging the empire, since the retreat to the Hadrianic frontier occurred not long after his death when a more objective strategic assessment of the benefits of the Antonine Wall could be made. The Romans did not entirely withdraw from Scotland at this time: the large fort at Newstead was maintained along with seven smaller outposts until at least 180.
During the twenty-year period following the reversion of the frontier to Hadrian's Wall in 163/4, Rome was concerned with continental issues, primarily problems in the Danubian provinces. Increasing numbers of hoards of buried coins in Britain at this time indicate that peace was not entirely achieved. Sufficient Roman silver has been found in Scotland to suggest more than ordinary trade, and it is likely that the Romans were reinforcing treaty agreements by paying tribute to their implacable enemies, the Picts.
In 175, a large force of Sarmatian cavalry, consisting of 5,500 men, arrived in Britannia, probably to reinforce troops fighting unrecorded uprisings. In 180, Hadrian's Wall was breached by the Picts and the commanding officer or governor was killed there in what Cassius Dio described as the most serious war of the reign of Commodus. Ulpius Marcellus was sent as replacement governor and by 184 he had won a new peace, only to be faced with a mutiny from his own troops. Unhappy with Marcellus's strictness, they tried to elect a legate named Priscus as usurper governor; he refused, but Marcellus was lucky to leave the province alive. The Roman army in Britannia continued its insubordination: they sent a delegation of 1,500 to Rome to demand the execution of Tigidius Perennis, a Praetorian prefect who they felt had earlier wronged them by posting lowly equites to legate ranks in Britannia. Commodus met the party outside Rome and agreed to have Perennis killed, but this only made them feel more secure in their mutiny.
The future emperor Pertinax (lived 126–193) was sent to Britannia to quell the mutiny and was initially successful in regaining control, but a riot broke out among the troops. Pertinax was attacked and left for dead, and asked to be recalled to Rome, where he briefly succeeded Commodus as emperor in 192.
3rd century
The death of Commodus put into motion a series of events which eventually led to civil war. Following the short reign of Pertinax, several rivals for the emperorship emerged, including Septimius Severus and Clodius Albinus. The latter was the new governor of Britannia, and had seemingly won the natives over after their earlier rebellions; he also controlled three legions, making him a potentially significant claimant. His sometime rival Severus promised him the title of Caesar in return for Albinus's support against Pescennius Niger in the east. Once Niger was neutralised, Severus turned on his ally in Britannia; it is likely that Albinus saw he would be the next target and was already preparing for war.
Albinus crossed to Gaul in 195, where the provinces were also sympathetic to him, and set up at Lugdunum. Severus arrived in February 196, and the ensuing battle was decisive. Albinus came close to victory, but Severus's reinforcements won the day, and the British governor committed suicide. Severus soon purged Albinus's sympathisers and perhaps confiscated large tracts of land in Britain as punishment. Albinus had demonstrated the major problem posed by Roman Britain. In order to maintain security, the province required the presence of three legions, but command of these forces provided an ideal power base for ambitious rivals. Deploying those legions elsewhere would strip the island of its garrison, leaving the province defenceless against uprisings by the native Celtic tribes and against invasion by the Picts and Scots.
The traditional view is that northern Britain descended into anarchy during Albinus's absence. Cassius Dio records that the new Governor, Virius Lupus, was obliged to buy peace from a fractious northern tribe known as the Maeatae. The succession of militarily distinguished governors who were subsequently appointed suggests that enemies of Rome were posing a difficult challenge, and Lucius Alfenus Senecio's report to Rome in 207 describes barbarians "rebelling, over-running the land, taking loot and creating destruction". In order to rebel, of course, one must be a subject – the Maeatae clearly did not consider themselves such. Senecio requested either reinforcements or an Imperial expedition, and Severus chose the latter, despite being 62 years old. Archaeological evidence shows that Senecio had been rebuilding the defences of Hadrian's Wall and the forts beyond it, and Severus's arrival in Britain prompted the enemy tribes to sue for peace immediately. The emperor had not come all that way to leave without a victory, and it is likely that he wished to provide his teenage sons Caracalla and Geta with first-hand experience of controlling a hostile barbarian land.
Northern campaigns, 208–211
An invasion of Caledonia led by Severus and probably numbering around 20,000 troops moved north in 208 or 209, crossing the Wall and passing through eastern Scotland on a route similar to that used by Agricola. Harried by punishing guerrilla raids by the northern tribes and slowed by an unforgiving terrain, Severus was unable to meet the Caledonians on a battlefield. The emperor's forces pushed north as far as the River Tay, but little appears to have been achieved by the invasion, as peace treaties were signed with the Caledonians. By 210 Severus had returned to York, and the frontier had once again become Hadrian's Wall. He assumed the title Britannicus but the title meant little with regard to the unconquered north, which clearly remained outside the authority of the Empire. Almost immediately, another northern tribe, the Maeatae, went to war. Caracalla left with a punitive expedition, but by the following year his ailing father had died and he and his brother left the province to press their claim to the throne.
As one of his last acts, Severus tried to solve the problem of powerful and rebellious governors in Britain by dividing the province into Britannia Superior and Britannia Inferior. This kept the potential for rebellion in check for almost a century. Historical sources provide little information on the following decades, a period known as the Long Peace. Even so, the number of buried hoards found from this period rises, suggesting continuing unrest. A string of forts were built along the coast of southern Britain to control piracy; and over the following hundred years they increased in number, becoming the Saxon Shore Forts.
During the middle of the 3rd century, the Roman Empire was convulsed by barbarian invasions, rebellions and new imperial pretenders. Britannia apparently avoided these troubles, but increasing inflation had its economic effect. In 259 a so-called Gallic Empire was established when Postumus rebelled against Gallienus. Britannia was part of this until 274 when Aurelian reunited the empire.
Around the year 280, a half-British officer named Bonosus was in command of the Roman's Rhenish fleet when the Germans managed to burn it at anchor. To avoid punishment, he proclaimed himself emperor at Colonia Agrippina (Cologne) but was crushed by Marcus Aurelius Probus. Soon afterwards, an unnamed governor of one of the British provinces also attempted an uprising. Probus put it down by sending irregular troops of Vandals and Burgundians across the Channel.
The Carausian Revolt led to a short-lived Britannic Empire from 286 to 296. Carausius was a Menapian naval commander of the Britannic fleet; he revolted upon learning of a death sentence ordered by the emperor Maximian on charges of having abetted Frankish and Saxon pirates and having embezzled recovered treasure. He consolidated control over all the provinces of Britain and some of northern Gaul while Maximian dealt with other uprisings. An invasion in 288 failed to unseat him and an uneasy peace ensued, with Carausius issuing coins and inviting official recognition. In 293, the junior emperor Constantius Chlorus launched a second offensive, besieging the rebel port of Gesoriacum (Boulogne-sur-Mer) by land and sea. After it fell, Constantius attacked Carausius's other Gallic holdings and Frankish allies and Carausius was usurped by his treasurer, Allectus. Julius Asclepiodotus landed an invasion fleet near Southampton and defeated Allectus in a land battle.
Diocletian's reforms
As part of Diocletian's reforms, the provinces of Roman Britain were organized as a diocese governed by a vicarius under a praetorian prefect who, from 318 to 331, was Junius Bassus who was based at Augusta Treverorum (Trier).
The vicarius was based at Londinium as the principal city of the diocese. Londinium and Eboracum continued as provincial capitals and the territory was divided up into smaller provinces for administrative efficiency.
Civilian and military authority of a province was no longer exercised by one official and the governor was stripped of military command which was handed over to the Dux Britanniarum by 314. The governor of a province assumed more financial duties (the procurators of the Treasury ministry were slowly phased out in the first three decades of the 4th century). The Dux was commander of the troops of the Northern Region, primarily along Hadrian's Wall and his responsibilities included protection of the frontier. He had significant autonomy due in part to the distance from his superiors.
The tasks of the vicarius were to control and coordinate the activities of governors; monitor but not interfere with the daily functioning of the Treasury and Crown Estates, which had their own administrative infrastructure; and act as the regional quartermaster-general of the armed forces. In short, as the sole civilian official with superior authority, he had general oversight of the administration, as well as direct control, while not absolute, over governors who were part of the prefecture; the other two fiscal departments were not.
The early-4th-century Verona List, the late-4th-century work of Sextus Rufus, and the early-5th-century List of Offices and work of Polemius Silvius all list four provinces by some variation of the names Britannia I, Britannia II, Maxima Caesariensis, and Flavia Caesariensis; all of these seem to have initially been directed by a governor (praeses) of equestrian rank. The 5th-century sources list a fifth province named Valentia and give its governor and Maxima's a consular rank. Ammianus mentions Valentia as well, describing its creation by Count Theodosius in 369 after the quelling of the Great Conspiracy. Ammianus considered it a re-creation of a formerly lost province, leading some to think there had been an earlier fifth province under another name (may be the enigmatic "Vespasiana"), and leading others to place Valentia beyond Hadrian's Wall, in the territory abandoned south of the Antonine Wall.
Reconstructions of the provinces and provincial capitals during this period partially rely on ecclesiastical records. On the assumption that the early bishoprics mimicked the imperial hierarchy, scholars use the list of bishops for the 314 Council of Arles. The list is patently corrupt: the British delegation is given as including a Bishop "Eborius" of Eboracum and two bishops "from Londinium" (one de civitate Londinensi and the other de civitate colonia Londinensium). The error is variously emended: Bishop Ussher proposed Colonia, Selden Col. or Colon. Camalodun., and Spelman Colonia Cameloduni (all various names of Colchester); Gale and Bingham offered colonia Lindi and Henry Colonia Lindum (both Lincoln); and Bishop Stillingfleet and Francis Thackeray read it as a scribal error of Civ. Col. Londin. for an original Civ. Col. Leg. II (Caerleon). On the basis of the Verona List, the priest and deacon who accompanied the bishops in some manuscripts are ascribed to the fourth province.
In the 12th century, Gerald of Wales described the supposedly metropolitan sees of the early British church established by the legendary SS Fagan and "Duvian". He placed Britannia Prima in Wales and western England with its capital at "Urbs Legionum" (Caerleon); Britannia Secunda in Kent and southern England with its capital at "Dorobernia" (Canterbury); Flavia in Mercia and central England with its capital at "Lundonia" (London); "Maximia" in northern England with its capital at Eboracum (York); and Valentia in "Albania which is now Scotland" with its capital at St Andrews. Modern scholars generally dispute the last: some place Valentia at or beyond Hadrian's Wall but St Andrews is beyond even the Antonine Wall and Gerald seems to have simply been supporting the antiquity of its church for political reasons.
A common modern reconstruction places the consular province of Maxima at Londinium, on the basis of its status as the seat of the diocesan vicarius; places Prima in the west according to Gerald's traditional account but moves its capital to Corinium of the Dobunni (Cirencester) on the basis of an artifact recovered there referring to Lucius Septimius, a provincial rector; places Flavia north of Maxima, with its capital placed at Lindum Colonia (Lincoln) to match one emendation of the bishops list from Arles;[d] and places Secunda in the north with its capital at Eboracum (York). Valentia is placed variously in northern Wales around Deva (Chester); beside Hadrian's Wall around Luguvalium (Carlisle); and between the walls along Dere Street.
4th century
Emperor Constantius returned to Britain in 306, despite his poor health, with an army aiming to invade northern Britain, the provincial defences having been rebuilt in the preceding years. Little is known of his campaigns with scant archaeological evidence, but fragmentary historical sources suggest he reached the far north of Britain and won a major battle in early summer before returning south. His son Constantine (later Constantine the Great) spent a year in northern Britain at his father's side, campaigning against the Picts beyond Hadrian's Wall in the summer and autumn. Constantius died in York in July 306 with his son at his side. Constantine then successfully used Britain as the starting point of his march to the imperial throne, unlike the earlier usurper, Albinus.
In the middle of the century, the province was loyal for a few years to the usurper Magnentius, who succeeded Constans following the latter's death. After the defeat and death of Magnentius in the Battle of Mons Seleucus in 353, Constantius II dispatched his chief imperial notary Paulus Catena to Britain to hunt down Magnentius's supporters. The investigation deteriorated into a witch-hunt, which forced the vicarius Flavius Martinus to intervene. When Paulus retaliated by accusing Martinus of treason, the vicarius attacked Paulus with a sword, with the aim of assassinating him, but in the end he committed suicide.
As the 4th century progressed, there were increasing attacks from the Saxons in the east and the Scoti (Irish) in the west. A series of forts had been built, starting around 280, to defend the coasts, but these preparations were not enough when, in 367, a general assault of Saxons, Picts, Scoti and Attacotti, combined with apparent dissension in the garrison on Hadrian's Wall, left Roman Britain prostrate. The invaders overwhelmed the entire western and northern regions of Britannia and the cities were sacked. This crisis, sometimes called the Barbarian Conspiracy or the Great Conspiracy, was settled by Count Theodosius from 368 with a string of military and civil reforms. Theodosius crossed from Bononia (Boulogne-sur-Mer) and marched on Londinium where he began to deal with the invaders and made his base.[ An amnesty was promised to deserters which enabled Theodosius to regarrison abandoned forts. By the end of the year Hadrian's Wall was retaken and order returned. Considerable reorganization was undertaken in Britain, including the creation of a new province named Valentia, probably to better address the state of the far north. A new Dux Britanniarum was appointed, Dulcitius, with Civilis to head a new civilian administration.
Another imperial usurper, Magnus Maximus, raised the standard of revolt at Segontium (Caernarfon) in north Wales in 383, and crossed the English Channel. Maximus held much of the western empire, and fought a successful campaign against the Picts and Scots around 384. His continental exploits required troops from Britain, and it appears that forts at Chester and elsewhere were abandoned in this period, triggering raids and settlement in north Wales by the Irish. His rule was ended in 388, but not all the British troops may have returned: the Empire's military resources were stretched to the limit along the Rhine and Danube. Around 396 there were more barbarian incursions into Britain. Stilicho led a punitive expedition. It seems peace was restored by 399, and it is likely that no further garrisoning was ordered; by 401 more troops were withdrawn, to assist in the war against Alaric I.
End of Roman rule
The traditional view of historians, informed by the work of Michael Rostovtzeff, was of a widespread economic decline at the beginning of the 5th century. Consistent archaeological evidence has told another story, and the accepted view is undergoing re-evaluation. Some features are agreed: more opulent but fewer urban houses, an end to new public building and some abandonment of existing ones, with the exception of defensive structures, and the widespread formation of "dark earth" deposits indicating increased horticulture within urban precincts. Turning over the basilica at Silchester to industrial uses in the late 3rd century, doubtless officially condoned, marks an early stage in the de-urbanisation of Roman Britain.
The abandonment of some sites is now believed to be later than had been thought. Many buildings changed use but were not destroyed. There was a growing number of barbarian attacks, but these targeted vulnerable rural settlements rather than towns. Some villas such as Chedworth, Great Casterton in Rutland and Hucclecote in Gloucestershire had new mosaic floors laid around this time, suggesting that economic problems may have been limited and patchy. Many suffered some decay before being abandoned in the 5th century; the story of Saint Patrick indicates that villas were still occupied until at least 430. Exceptionally, new buildings were still going up in this period in Verulamium and Cirencester. Some urban centres, for example Canterbury, Cirencester, Wroxeter, Winchester and Gloucester, remained active during the 5th and 6th centuries, surrounded by large farming estates.
Urban life had generally grown less intense by the fourth quarter of the 4th century, and coins minted between 378 and 388 are very rare, indicating a likely combination of economic decline, diminishing numbers of troops, problems with the payment of soldiers and officials or with unstable conditions during the usurpation of Magnus Maximus 383–87. Coinage circulation increased during the 390s, but never attained the levels of earlier decades. Copper coins are very rare after 402, though minted silver and gold coins from hoards indicate they were still present in the province even if they were not being spent. By 407 there were very few new Roman coins going into circulation, and by 430 it is likely that coinage as a medium of exchange had been abandoned. Mass-produced wheel thrown pottery ended at approximately the same time; the rich continued to use metal and glass vessels, while the poor made do with humble "grey ware" or resorted to leather or wooden containers.
Sub-Roman Britain
Towards the end of the 4th century Roman rule in Britain came under increasing pressure from barbarian attacks. Apparently, there were not enough troops to mount an effective defence. After elevating two disappointing usurpers, the army chose a soldier, Constantine III, to become emperor in 407. He crossed to Gaul but was defeated by Honorius; it is unclear how many troops remained or ever returned, or whether a commander-in-chief in Britain was ever reappointed. A Saxon incursion in 408 was apparently repelled by the Britons, and in 409 Zosimus records that the natives expelled the Roman civilian administration. Zosimus may be referring to the Bacaudic rebellion of the Breton inhabitants of Armorica since he describes how, in the aftermath of the revolt, all of Armorica and the rest of Gaul followed the example of the Brettaniai. A letter from Emperor Honorius in 410 has traditionally been seen as rejecting a British appeal for help, but it may have been addressed to Bruttium or Bologna. With the imperial layers of the military and civil government gone, administration and justice fell to municipal authorities, and local warlords gradually emerged all over Britain, still utilizing Romano-British ideals and conventions. Historian Stuart Laycock has investigated this process and emphasised elements of continuity from the British tribes in the pre-Roman and Roman periods, through to the native post-Roman kingdoms.
In British tradition, pagan Saxons were invited by Vortigern to assist in fighting the Picts, Scoti, and Déisi. (Germanic migration into Roman Britannia may have begun much earlier. There is recorded evidence, for example, of Germanic auxiliaries supporting the legions in Britain in the 1st and 2nd centuries.) The new arrivals rebelled, plunging the country into a series of wars that eventually led to the Saxon occupation of Lowland Britain by 600. Around this time, many Britons fled to Brittany (hence its name), Galicia and probably Ireland. A significant date in sub-Roman Britain is the Groans of the Britons, an unanswered appeal to Aetius, leading general of the western Empire, for assistance against Saxon invasion in 446. Another is the Battle of Deorham in 577, after which the significant cities of Bath, Cirencester and Gloucester fell and the Saxons reached the western sea.
Historians generally reject the historicity of King Arthur, who is supposed to have resisted the Anglo-Saxon conquest according to later medieval legends.
Trade
During the Roman period Britain's continental trade was principally directed across the Southern North Sea and Eastern Channel, focusing on the narrow Strait of Dover, with more limited links via the Atlantic seaways. The most important British ports were London and Richborough, whilst the continental ports most heavily engaged in trade with Britain were Boulogne and the sites of Domburg and Colijnsplaat at the mouth of the river Scheldt. During the Late Roman period it is likely that the shore forts played some role in continental trade alongside their defensive functions.
Exports to Britain included: coin; pottery, particularly red-gloss terra sigillata (samian ware) from southern, central and eastern Gaul, as well as various other wares from Gaul and the Rhine provinces; olive oil from southern Spain in amphorae; wine from Gaul in amphorae and barrels; salted fish products from the western Mediterranean and Brittany in barrels and amphorae; preserved olives from southern Spain in amphorae; lava quern-stones from Mayen on the middle Rhine; glass; and some agricultural products. Britain's exports are harder to detect archaeologically, but will have included metals, such as silver and gold and some lead, iron and copper. Other exports probably included agricultural products, oysters and salt, whilst large quantities of coin would have been re-exported back to the continent as well.
These products moved as a result of private trade and also through payments and contracts established by the Roman state to support its military forces and officials on the island, as well as through state taxation and extraction of resources. Up until the mid-3rd century, the Roman state's payments appear to have been unbalanced, with far more products sent to Britain, to support its large military force (which had reached c. 53,000 by the mid-2nd century), than were extracted from the island.
It has been argued that Roman Britain's continental trade peaked in the late 1st century AD and thereafter declined as a result of an increasing reliance on local products by the population of Britain, caused by economic development on the island and by the Roman state's desire to save money by shifting away from expensive long-distance imports. Evidence has been outlined that suggests that the principal decline in Roman Britain's continental trade may have occurred in the late 2nd century AD, from c. 165 AD onwards. This has been linked to the economic impact of contemporary Empire-wide crises: the Antonine Plague and the Marcomannic Wars.
From the mid-3rd century onwards, Britain no longer received such a wide range and extensive quantity of foreign imports as it did during the earlier part of the Roman period; vast quantities of coin from continental mints reached the island, whilst there is historical evidence for the export of large amounts of British grain to the continent during the mid-4th century. During the latter part of the Roman period British agricultural products, paid for by both the Roman state and by private consumers, clearly played an important role in supporting the military garrisons and urban centres of the northwestern continental Empire. This came about as a result of the rapid decline in the size of the British garrison from the mid-3rd century onwards (thus freeing up more goods for export), and because of 'Germanic' incursions across the Rhine, which appear to have reduced rural settlement and agricultural output in northern Gaul.
Economy
Mineral extraction sites such as the Dolaucothi gold mine were probably first worked by the Roman army from c. 75, and at some later stage passed to civilian operators. The mine developed as a series of opencast workings, mainly by the use of hydraulic mining methods. They are described by Pliny the Elder in his Natural History in great detail. Essentially, water supplied by aqueducts was used to prospect for ore veins by stripping away soil to reveal the bedrock. If veins were present, they were attacked using fire-setting and the ore removed for comminution. The dust was washed in a small stream of water and the heavy gold dust and gold nuggets collected in riffles. The diagram at right shows how Dolaucothi developed from c. 75 through to the 1st century. When opencast work was no longer feasible, tunnels were driven to follow the veins. The evidence from the site shows advanced technology probably under the control of army engineers.
The Wealden ironworking zone, the lead and silver mines of the Mendip Hills and the tin mines of Cornwall seem to have been private enterprises leased from the government for a fee. Mining had long been practised in Britain (see Grimes Graves), but the Romans introduced new technical knowledge and large-scale industrial production to revolutionise the industry. It included hydraulic mining to prospect for ore by removing overburden as well as work alluvial deposits. The water needed for such large-scale operations was supplied by one or more aqueducts, those surviving at Dolaucothi being especially impressive. Many prospecting areas were in dangerous, upland country, and, although mineral exploitation was presumably one of the main reasons for the Roman invasion, it had to wait until these areas were subdued.
By the 3rd and 4th centuries, small towns could often be found near villas. In these towns, villa owners and small-scale farmers could obtain specialist tools. Lowland Britain in the 4th century was agriculturally prosperous enough to export grain to the continent. This prosperity lay behind the blossoming of villa building and decoration that occurred between AD 300 and 350.
Britain's cities also consumed Roman-style pottery and other goods, and were centres through which goods could be distributed elsewhere. At Wroxeter in Shropshire, stock smashed into a gutter during a 2nd-century fire reveals that Gaulish samian ware was being sold alongside mixing bowls from the Mancetter-Hartshill industry of the West Midlands. Roman designs were most popular, but rural craftsmen still produced items derived from the Iron Age La Tène artistic traditions. Britain was home to much gold, which attracted Roman invaders. By the 3rd century, Britain's economy was diverse and well established, with commerce extending into the non-Romanised north.
Government
Further information: Governors of Roman Britain, Roman client kingdoms in Britain, and Roman auxiliaries in Britain
Under the Roman Empire, administration of peaceful provinces was ultimately the remit of the Senate, but those, like Britain, that required permanent garrisons, were placed under the Emperor's control. In practice imperial provinces were run by resident governors who were members of the Senate and had held the consulship. These men were carefully selected, often having strong records of military success and administrative ability. In Britain, a governor's role was primarily military, but numerous other tasks were also his responsibility, such as maintaining diplomatic relations with local client kings, building roads, ensuring the public courier system functioned, supervising the civitates and acting as a judge in important legal cases. When not campaigning, he would travel the province hearing complaints and recruiting new troops.
To assist him in legal matters he had an adviser, the legatus juridicus, and those in Britain appear to have been distinguished lawyers perhaps because of the challenge of incorporating tribes into the imperial system and devising a workable method of taxing them. Financial administration was dealt with by a procurator with junior posts for each tax-raising power. Each legion in Britain had a commander who answered to the governor and, in time of war, probably directly ruled troublesome districts. Each of these commands carried a tour of duty of two to three years in different provinces. Below these posts was a network of administrative managers covering intelligence gathering, sending reports to Rome, organising military supplies and dealing with prisoners. A staff of seconded soldiers provided clerical services.
Colchester was probably the earliest capital of Roman Britain, but it was soon eclipsed by London with its strong mercantile connections. The different forms of municipal organisation in Britannia were known as civitas (which were subdivided, amongst other forms, into colonies such as York, Colchester, Gloucester and Lincoln and municipalities such as Verulamium), and were each governed by a senate of local landowners, whether Brythonic or Roman, who elected magistrates concerning judicial and civic affairs. The various civitates sent representatives to a yearly provincial council in order to profess loyalty to the Roman state, to send direct petitions to the Emperor in times of extraordinary need, and to worship the imperial cult.
Demographics
Roman Britain had an estimated population between 2.8 million and 3 million people at the end of the second century. At the end of the fourth century, it had an estimated population of 3.6 million people, of whom 125,000 consisted of the Roman army and their families and dependents.[80] The urban population of Roman Britain was about 240,000 people at the end of the fourth century. The capital city of Londinium is estimated to have had a population of about 60,000 people. Londinium was an ethnically diverse city with inhabitants from the Roman Empire, including natives of Britannia, continental Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. There was also cultural diversity in other Roman-British towns, which were sustained by considerable migration, from Britannia and other Roman territories, including continental Europe, Roman Syria, the Eastern Mediterranean and North Africa. In a study conducted in 2012, around 45 percent of sites investigated dating from the Roman period had at least one individual of North African origin.
Town and country
During their occupation of Britain the Romans founded a number of important settlements, many of which survive. The towns suffered attrition in the later 4th century, when public building ceased and some were abandoned to private uses. Place names survived the deurbanised Sub-Roman and early Anglo-Saxon periods, and historiography has been at pains to signal the expected survivals, but archaeology shows that a bare handful of Roman towns were continuously occupied. According to S.T. Loseby, the very idea of a town as a centre of power and administration was reintroduced to England by the Roman Christianising mission to Canterbury, and its urban revival was delayed to the 10th century.
Roman towns can be broadly grouped in two categories. Civitates, "public towns" were formally laid out on a grid plan, and their role in imperial administration occasioned the construction of public buildings. The much more numerous category of vici, "small towns" grew on informal plans, often round a camp or at a ford or crossroads; some were not small, others were scarcely urban, some not even defended by a wall, the characteristic feature of a place of any importance.
Cities and towns which have Roman origins, or were extensively developed by them are listed with their Latin names in brackets; civitates are marked C
Alcester (Alauna)
Alchester
Aldborough, North Yorkshire (Isurium Brigantum) C
Bath (Aquae Sulis) C
Brough (Petuaria) C
Buxton (Aquae Arnemetiae)
Caerleon (Isca Augusta) C
Caernarfon (Segontium) C
Caerwent (Venta Silurum) C
Caister-on-Sea C
Canterbury (Durovernum Cantiacorum) C
Carlisle (Luguvalium) C
Carmarthen (Moridunum) C
Chelmsford (Caesaromagus)
Chester (Deva Victrix) C
Chester-le-Street (Concangis)
Chichester (Noviomagus Reginorum) C
Cirencester (Corinium) C
Colchester (Camulodunum) C
Corbridge (Coria) C
Dorchester (Durnovaria) C
Dover (Portus Dubris)
Exeter (Isca Dumnoniorum) C
Gloucester (Glevum) C
Great Chesterford (the name of this vicus is unknown)
Ilchester (Lindinis) C
Leicester (Ratae Corieltauvorum) C
Lincoln (Lindum Colonia) C
London (Londinium) C
Manchester (Mamucium) C
Newcastle upon Tyne (Pons Aelius)
Northwich (Condate)
St Albans (Verulamium) C
Silchester (Calleva Atrebatum) C
Towcester (Lactodurum)
Whitchurch (Mediolanum) C
Winchester (Venta Belgarum) C
Wroxeter (Viroconium Cornoviorum) C
York (Eboracum) C
Religion
The druids, the Celtic priestly caste who were believed to originate in Britain, were outlawed by Claudius, and in 61 they vainly defended their sacred groves from destruction by the Romans on the island of Mona (Anglesey). Under Roman rule the Britons continued to worship native Celtic deities, such as Ancasta, but often conflated with their Roman equivalents, like Mars Rigonemetos at Nettleham.
The degree to which earlier native beliefs survived is difficult to gauge precisely. Certain European ritual traits such as the significance of the number 3, the importance of the head and of water sources such as springs remain in the archaeological record, but the differences in the votive offerings made at the baths at Bath, Somerset, before and after the Roman conquest suggest that continuity was only partial. Worship of the Roman emperor is widely recorded, especially at military sites. The founding of a Roman temple to Claudius at Camulodunum was one of the impositions that led to the revolt of Boudica. By the 3rd century, Pagans Hill Roman Temple in Somerset was able to exist peaceably and it did so into the 5th century.
Pagan religious practices were supported by priests, represented in Britain by votive deposits of priestly regalia such as chain crowns from West Stow and Willingham Fen.
Eastern cults such as Mithraism also grew in popularity towards the end of the occupation. The London Mithraeum is one example of the popularity of mystery religions among the soldiery. Temples to Mithras also exist in military contexts at Vindobala on Hadrian's Wall (the Rudchester Mithraeum) and at Segontium in Roman Wales (the Caernarfon Mithraeum).
Christianity
It is not clear when or how Christianity came to Britain. A 2nd-century "word square" has been discovered in Mamucium, the Roman settlement of Manchester. It consists of an anagram of PATER NOSTER carved on a piece of amphora. There has been discussion by academics whether the "word square" is a Christian artefact, but if it is, it is one of the earliest examples of early Christianity in Britain. The earliest confirmed written evidence for Christianity in Britain is a statement by Tertullian, c. 200 AD, in which he described "all the limits of the Spains, and the diverse nations of the Gauls, and the haunts of the Britons, inaccessible to the Romans, but subjugated to Christ". Archaeological evidence for Christian communities begins to appear in the 3rd and 4th centuries. Small timber churches are suggested at Lincoln and Silchester and baptismal fonts have been found at Icklingham and the Saxon Shore Fort at Richborough. The Icklingham font is made of lead, and visible in the British Museum. A Roman Christian graveyard exists at the same site in Icklingham. A possible Roman 4th-century church and associated burial ground was also discovered at Butt Road on the south-west outskirts of Colchester during the construction of the new police station there, overlying an earlier pagan cemetery. The Water Newton Treasure is a hoard of Christian silver church plate from the early 4th century and the Roman villas at Lullingstone and Hinton St Mary contained Christian wall paintings and mosaics respectively. A large 4th-century cemetery at Poundbury with its east–west oriented burials and lack of grave goods has been interpreted as an early Christian burial ground, although such burial rites were also becoming increasingly common in pagan contexts during the period.
The Church in Britain seems to have developed the cust
Bâti sur un castrum romain, le palais ducal illustre plusieurs siècles d'histoire de l'architecture en France.
L'aile Renaissance, construite pour Antoine de Crussol (1528-1573) premier duc d'Uzès et pair de France, a été attribuée à Philibert Delorme. Le décor est d'un grand raffinement avec l'étagement des trois ordres architecturaux du dorique, du ionique et du corinthien.
La chapelle de style gothique flamboyant a été restaurée au XIXe siècle.
Saint-Brisson-sur-Loire (Loiret)
Château de Saint-Brisson-sur-Loire.
La construction du château actuel a du commencer vers la fin XIIe, début XIIIe siècle, par le comte Etienne II de Sancerre. et vice-chambellan royal.
Le site était probablement occupé par un castrum dès le XIe siècle. Le premier seigneur connu, Robert de Saint-Brisson, est mentionné dans les années 1060 : Il fait don de son église Sainte-Marie, qui devait se trouver à l'intérieur du castrum, à l'abbaye de Fleury, don confirmé par le pape en 1072.
Le castrum est mentionné par l'abbé Suger (1080-1151), abbé de Saint-Denis et principal ministre des rois Louis VI le Gros et Louis VII le Jeune. D'après l'abbé, le château appartenait à un seigneur qui se serait livré à des déprédations sur des marchands; ce pourquoi Louis VI aurait détruit le castrum, en 1135, par les flammes et contraint la "turris"* et le seigneur à se rendre.
(Ea quam extremam fecit expedicionem, nobilissimo exercitu castrum Sancti Brictionis super fluvium Ligerim, ob sui rapacitatem et mercatorum depredacionem, et incendio dissolvit et turrim et dominum ad dedicionem coegit)
Du château tel qu'il devait être avant sa destruction en 1135, il ne reste probablement que le plan de masse d'un ensemble fortifié significatif des XIe et XIIe siècles.
En 1181, le château est tenu par Étienne Ier de Blois-Champagne**, comte de Sancerre, qui meurt en 1191 à Saint-Jean d'Acre, lors de la troisième croisade (1189-1192). C'est le frère de la reine mère Adèle de Champage, veuve de Louis VII. A la mort de son père, le comte de Blois Thibaut IV, il hérite de la seigneurie de Sancerre, alors que ses deux frères aînés héritent de la Champagne pour l'une, et Blois et Chartres pour l'autre. Son frère cadet, Guillaume (dit Guillaume aux Blanches Mains), ne reçut rien, rentra dans l'Eglise et devint archevêque de Reims ( et aussi évêque de Chartres et archevêque de Sens). On rapporte que ce dernier combatit l'hérésie dans son diocèse et qu'il fit brûler deux femmes de Reims reconnues comme hérétiques***. Mais il est aussi l'auteur de plusieurs chartes, dont une, la loi de Beaumont, qui organisait l'affranchissement de la commune de Beaumont-en-Argonne, et qui libérait la ville de toute servilité envers le seigneur et organisait l'élection de magistrats locaux.
Après la mort d'Etienne Ier de Sancerre lors du siège de Saint-Jean d'Acre, son fils aîné Guillaume devient comte de Sancerre. Toutefois, les châtellenies de Saint-Brisson et de Châtillon-surLoing sont détachées du comté de Sancerre et deviennent possessions de son frère cadet Étienne. Les deux frères étant trop jeunes sont placés sous tutelle de leur oncle Guillaume aux Blanches Mains, archevêque de Reims et ministre du roi. Guillaume participera à la bataille de Bouvines (27 juillet 2014) qui verra la victoire de Philippe Auguste. Son frère et vassal Etienne (Etienne II de Sancerre) sera à ses côtés. Guillaume sera fait prisonnier du despote d'Epire , Théodore Ier, lors de l'expédition contre l'Empire latin d'Orient (Constantinople) en 1217, il meurt en captivité.
Etienne II de Sancerre (branche cadette des seigneurs de saint-Brisson), seigneur de Charenton-du-Cher, de Châtillon-sur-Loing et de Saint-Brisson-sur-Loire, Marchéville, de Montreuil-Bellay et La Loupe, accordera aux habitants de Saint-Brisson la charte de Lorris qui donne aux habitants des privilèges et franchises****. Il est probablement à l'origine du château dans son aspect actuel, peut-être avec son oncle l'archevêque Guillaume aux Mains Blanches. Il meurt en 1252, à l'âge de 72 ans environ.
La famille de Sancerre restera propriétaire de Saint-Brisson jusque vers 1290. Etienne III de Sancerre, seigneur de saint-Brisson aura deux filles. La cadette, Jeanne de Sancerre, dame de Saint-Brisson, épouse en 1290 Jean Ier de Courtenay. Les Courtenay prennent ainsi possession du lieu.
En 1425, le domaine est érigé en barronie pour Jean IV de Courtenay. Celui-ci dissipa sa fortune et dût vendre, entre autres, Saint-Brisson à Guillaume et Jean Juvenal des Ursins, en 1471. Jean IV de Courtenay fut baptisé de "Sans Terre". (Voir le portrait de Guillaume par Jean Fouquet : collections.louvre.fr/ark:/53355/cl010064846)
En 1473, Jacquette des Ursins, fille de Guillaume hérite du domaine et le donne à son époux Philibert de Beaujeu.
A la mort de Philibert de Beaujeu, le château revient à François de Clèves dernier époux de Catherine d'Amboise ancienne veuve de Philibert de Beaujeu.
En 1567, Pierre Ier Séguier*****, avocat général au parlement de Paris, puis président à mortier au parlement de Paris, rachète le château à Henriette de Clèves et son époux Ludovic de Gonzague, ce dernier étant endetté. La famille Séguier transforme la forteresse en lieu d'habitation.
Sidoine Charles François Séguier, marquis de Saint-Brisson, né en novembre 1738 à Saint-Brisson, officier d'infanterie, homme de lettres, après avoir lu l'Emile, devient disciple de Jean-Jacques Rousseau******, il meurt le 17 avril 1773, à l'âge de 34 ans.
En 1793, Nicolas-Maximilien-Sidoine Séguier de Saint-Brisson, fils posthume de Sidoine François Charles Seguier (il naît en décembre alors que son père est décédé en avril), fait abattre le châtelet d'entrée du château, une partie de la courtine Ouest (jusqu'à l'actuelle terrasse), la tour ronde Sud-Ouest et l'intégralité de la courtine Sud.
À partir de 1819, les descendants font restaurer le château.
En 1987, Anne de Ranst de berchem, donne le château à la commune. Une association des Amis du Château de Saint-Brisson (ACSB) est créée pour financer les réparations et assurer les visites.
En 2015, la mairie, n'étant plus capable d'en assurer l'entretien, décide de vendre le château. Celui-ci est racheté par la famille Guyot (qui possède par ailleurs le château de la Ferté-Saint-Aubin) pour 500 000 €, par l'intermédiaire d'une société, et réouvert en 2016.
* "Turris", tour de défense, et plus généralement toute haute maison, citadelle, etc... Dans le Gaffiot : Tour en bois à étages, ouvrage de siège souvent monté sur roues, maison élevée, château...
** Il est possible que Saint-Brisson soit arrivé dans la famille de Sancerre après 1135, après confiscation par le roi du domaine du seigneur détrousseur et remise au comte de Champagne.
*** L'hérésie a été très tôt présente en Champagne. Déjà en 1048, l'évêque de Châlons-sur-Marne dénonçait une hérésie "manichéenne" dans son diocèse. En mai 1239, sous le règne de Saint-Louis, sur le Mont-Aimé en Champagne, l'archevêque de Reims Henry de Braine, fera brûler 180 hérétiques. (flic.kr/p/27BnnPP)
**** La charte de Lorris, du nom du village de Lorris dans le Gâtinais, auquel le roi Louis VI le Gros avait accordé une charte, en 1134, qui accordait à ce village une large autonomie administrative et judiciaire et des privilèges fiscaux. Cette charte servit ensuite de modèle.
***** En 1555, il s'opposera à l'édit introduisant l'Inquisition en France. Sa descendance sera composée de nombreux hommes de loi. Pierre Séguier fut aussi seigneur de Sorel, L'Étang-la-Ville, Autry (Vieux-Château), Saint-Brisson, La Verrière, et bailli de Saint-Denis.
****** Dans les Confessions, Rousseau, à propos de son exil en Suisse, consacre quelques lignes au marquis de Saint-Brisson :
"Le seul Français qui parut me venir voir par goût pour mes sentiments et pour mes ouvrages fut un jeune officier du régiment de Limousin, appelé M. Séguier de Saint-Brisson, qu’on a vu et qu’on voit peut-être encore briller à Paris et dans le monde par des talents assez aimables, et par des prétentions au bel esprit. Il m’était venu voir à Montmorency l’hiver qui précéda ma catastrophe. Je lui trouvai une vivacité de sentiment qui me plut. Il m’écrivit dans la suite à Motiers, et soit qu’il voulût me cajoler, ou que réellement la tête lui tournât de l’Émile, il m’apprit qu’il quittait le service pour vivre indépendant, et qu’il apprenait le métier de menuisier. Il avait un frère aîné, capitaine dans le même régiment, pour lequel était toute la prédilection de la mère, qui, dévote outrée, et dirigée par je ne sais quel abbé tartufe, en usait très mal avec le cadet, qu’elle accusait d’irréligion, et même du crime irrémissible d’avoir des liaisons avec moi. Voilà les griefs sur lesquels il voulut rompre avec sa mère, et prendre le parti dont je viens de parler, le tout pour faire le petit Émile.
Alarmé de cette pétulance, je me hâtai de lui écrire pour le faire changer de résolution, et je mis à mes exhortations toute la force dont j’étais capable : elles furent écoutées. Il rentra dans son devoir vis-à-vis de sa mère, et il retira des mains de son colonel sa démission, qu’il lui avait donnée, et dont celui-ci avait eu la prudence de ne faire aucun usage, pour lui laisser le temps d’y mieux réfléchir. Saint-Brisson, revenu de ses folies, en fit une un peu moins choquante, mais qui n’était guère plus de mon goût ; ce fut
de se faire auteur. Il donna coup sur coup deux ou trois brochures, qui n’annonçaient pas un homme sans talent, mais sur lesquelles je n’aurai pas à me reprocher de lui avoir donné des éloges bien encourageants pour poursuivre cette carrière.
Quelque temps après, il me vint voir, et nous fîmes ensemble le pèlerinage de l’île de Saint-Pierre. Je le trouvai dans ce voyage différent de ce que je l’avais vu à Montmorency. Il avait je ne sais quoi d’affecté, qui d’abord ne me choqua pas beaucoup mais qui
m’est revenu souvent en mémoire depuis ce temps-là. Il me vint voir encore une fois à l’hôtel de Saint-Simon, à mon passage à
Paris pour aller en Angleterre. J’appris là, ce qu’il ne m’avait pas dit, qu’il vivait dans les grandes sociétés, et qu’il voyait assez souvent Mme de Luxembourg. Il ne me donna aucun signe de vie à Trye et ne me fit rien dire par sa parente, Mlle Ségnier, qui était
ma voisine, et qui ne m’a jamais paru bien favorablement disposée pour moi. En un mot, l’engouement de M. de Saint-Brisson
finit tout d’un coup, comme la liaison de M. de Feins ; mais celuici ne me devait rien, et l’autre me devait quelque chose, à moins
que les sottises que je l’avais empêché de faire n’eussent été qu’un jeu de sa part : ce qui, dans le fond, pourrait très bien être."
www.persee.fr/docAsPDF/bulmo_0007-473x_2017_num_175_3_130...
The Castello Sforzesco is a medieval fortification located in Milan, northern Italy. It was built in the 15th century by Francesco Sforza, Duke of Milan, on the remnants of a 14th-century fortification. Later renovated and enlarged, in the 16th and 17th centuries it was one of the largest citadels in Europe. Extensively rebuilt by Luca Beltrami in 1891–1905, it now houses several of the city's museums and art collections.
The original construction was ordered by Galeazzo II Visconti, a local nobleman, in 1358 – c. 1370;[1] this castle was known as the Castello di Porta Giova (or Porta Zubia), from the name of a gate in walls located nearby.[2] It was built in the same area of the ancient Roman fortification of Castrum Portae Jovis, which served as castra pretoria when the city was the capital of the Roman Empire. It was enlarged by Galeazzo's successors, Gian Galeazzo, Giovanni Maria and Filippo Maria Visconti, until it became a square-plan castle with 200 m-long sides, four towers at the corners and up to 7-metre-thick (23 ft) walls.[2] The castle was the main residence in the city of its Visconti lords, and was destroyed by the short-lived Golden Ambrosian Republic which ousted them in 1447.
In 1450, Francesco Sforza, once he had shattered the republicans, began reconstruction of the castle to turn it into his princely residence. In 1452 he hired the sculptor and architect Filarete to design and decorate the central tower, which is still known as the Torre del Filarete. After Francesco's death, the construction was continued by his son Galeazzo Maria, under the architect Benedetto Ferrini. The decoration was executed by local painters. In 1476, during the regency of Bona of Savoy, the tower bearing her name was built.
In 1494 Ludovico Sforza became lord of Milan, and called on numerous artists to decorate the castle. These include Leonardo da Vinci (who frescoed several rooms, in collaboration with Bernardino Zenale and Bernardino Butinone) and Bramante, who painted frescoes in the Sala del Tesoro; the Sala della Balla was decorated with Francesco Sforza's deeds. Around 1498, Leonardo worked on the ceiling of the Sala delle Asse, painting decorations of vegetable motifs. In the following years, however, the castle was damaged by assaults from Italian, French and German troops; a bastion, known as tenaglia, was added, perhaps designed by Cesare Cesariano. After the French victory in the Battle of Marignano in 1515, the defeated Maximilian Sforza, his Swiss mercenaries, and the cardinal-bishop of Sion retreated into the castle. However, King Francis I of France followed them into Milan, and his sappers placed mines under the castle's foundations, whereupon the defenders capitulated. In 1521, in a period in which it was used as a weapons depot, the Torre del Filarete exploded. When Francesco II Sforza returned briefly to power in Milan, he had the fortress restored and enlarged, and a part of it adapted as a residence for his wife, Christina of Denmark.
Under the Spanish domination which followed, the castle became a citadel, as the governor's seat was moved to the Ducal Palace (1535). Its garrison varied from 1,000 to 3,000 men, led by a Spanish castellan. In 1550 works began to adapt the castle to modern fortification style, as a hexagonal (originally pentagonal) star fort, following the addition of 12 bastions. The external fortifications reached 3 km in length and covered an area of 25.9 hectares. The castle also remained in use as a fort after the Spaniards were replaced by the Austrians in Lombardy.
Most of the outer fortifications were demolished during the period of Napoleonic rule in Milan under the Cisalpine Republic. The semi-circular Piazza Castello was constructed around the city side of the castle, surrounded by a radial street layout of new urban blocks bounded by the Foro Buonaparte. The area on the "country" side of the castle was laid out as a 700-by-700-metre (2,300 by 2,300 ft) square parade ground known as Piazza d'Armi.
After the unification of Italy in the 19th century, the castle was transferred from military use to the city of Milan. Parco Sempione, one of the largest parks in the city, was created on the former parade grounds.
The government of Milan undertook restoration works, directed by Luca Beltrami. The Via Dante was cut through the medieval street layout in the 1880s to provide a direct promenade between the castle and the Duomo on an axis with the main gate. Between 1900 and 1905 the Torre del Filarete was rebuilt, on the basis of 16th-century drawings, as a monument to King Umberto I.
Allied bombardment of Milan in 1943 during World War II severely damaged the castle. The post-war reconstruction of the building for museum purposes was undertaken by the BBPR architectural partnership.
The castle has a quadrangular plan, on a site across the city's walls. The wall which once faced the countryside north of Milan has square towers and an ogival gate. This was once accessed through a drawbridge. The northern tower is known as the Torre della Corte, and its counterpart to the west the Torre del Tesoro; both received wide windows during the Sforza age.
The corner defended by the Torre Ducale is characterized by a loggia bridge, attributed to Bramante, and commissioned by Ludovico Sforza in the late 15th century to connect the Corte Ducale (the court in the area used as a ducal residence) and the Cortile della Ghirlanda. This ghirlanda refers to a wall, protected by a ditch filled with water, built under Francesco Sforza, of which few traces remain today, including the Porta del Soccorso. Remains of two later ravelins can be seen in correspondence of the point in which the castle was joined by the city walls (near the Porta Comasina gate) and the Porta del Carmine. The Porta della Ghirlanda gate was entered through a ravelin (now lost) and had two entrances accessed through runways, which lead to an underground passage which continued along the walls.
The external side which once faced the walled city has two round towers, commissioned by Francesco Sforza to replace the former square ones, which had become less suitable to defend against fire weapons. The central tower, called the Torre del Filarete, is a modern reconstruction. The round towers lost their upper parts under the Austrians, who needed open space for their artillery; the towers' present-day upper sections are modern reconstructions. The Torre del Filarete and the Porta del Santo Spirito, located further to the south, are both preceded by a ravelin.
The main gate leads to a large court from which several internal features can be seen. These include the Tower of Bona of Savoy (1476) and the Rocchetta, a sort of internal defensive ridotto with a gate of its own. At the right of the Porta del Carmine are the remains of two 15th-century courts. The Rocchetta, whose access gate from the main court (a modern addition) features the Sforza coat of arms, has an internal court with, on three sides, a portico with 15th-century arcades. The Corte Ducale is the wing of the castle originally used as a ducal residence; it features a court with two loggias, a smaller one on the left and a larger one at its end, called Loggiato dell'Elefante due to the presence of a fresco of an elephant.
Milan is a city in Northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city has 3.22 million residents The urban area of Milan is the fourth largest in the EU with 5.27 million inhabitants. According to national sources, the population within the wider Milan metropolitan area (also known as Greater Milan), is estimated between 4.9 million and 7.4 million making it by far the largest metropolitan area in Italy and one of the largest in the EU. Milan is the economic capital of Italy and is a global financial centre. Milan is, together with London, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Munich and Paris, one of the six European economic capitals.
Milan is a leading alpha global city, with strengths in the fields of art, chemicals, commerce, design, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media (communication), services, research and tourism. Its business district hosts Italy's stock exchange (Italian: Borsa Italiana), and the headquarters of national and international banks and companies. In terms of GDP, Milan is the wealthiest city in Italy, has the third-largest economy among EU cities after Paris and Madrid, and is the wealthiest among EU non-capital cities. Milan is viewed along with Turin as the southernmost part of the Blue Banana urban development corridor (also known as the "European Megalopolis"), and one of the Four Motors for Europe. Milan is one of the international tourism destinations, appearing among the forty most visited cities in the world, ranking second in Italy after Rome, fifth in Europe and sixteenth in the world. Milan is a major cultural centre, with museums and art galleries that include some of the most important collections in the world, such as major works by Leonardo da Vinci. It also hosts numerous educational institutions, academies and universities, with 11% of the national total of enrolled students.
Founded around 590 BC under the name Medhelanon by a Celtic tribe belonging to the Insubres group and belonging to the Golasecca culture, it was conquered by the ancient Romans in 222 BC, who latinized the name of the city into Mediolanum. The city's role as a major political centre dates back to the late antiquity, when it served as the capital of the Western Roman Empire. From the 12th century until the 16th century, Milan was one of the largest European cities and a major trade and commercial centre; consequently, it became the capital of the Duchy of Milan, one of the greatest political, artistic and fashion forces in the Renaissance. Having become one of the main centres of the Italian Enlightenment during the early modern period, the city subsequently became the industrial and financial capital of modern Italy. Capital of the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy, after the Restoration it was among the most active centres of the Risorgimento, until its entry into the unified Kingdom of Italy.
Milan has been recognized as one of the world's four fashion capitals. Many of the most famous luxury fashion brands in the world have their headquarters in the city, including: Armani, Prada, Versace, Moschino, Valentino and Zegna. It also hosts several international events and fairs, including Milan Fashion Week and the Milan Furniture Fair, which are among the world's biggest in terms of revenue, visitors and growth. The city is served by many luxury hotels and is the fifth-most starred in the world by Michelin Guide. It hosted the Universal Exposition in 1906 and 2015. In the field of sports, Milan is home to two of Europe's most successful football teams, AC Milan and Inter Milan, and one of Europe's main basketball teams, Olimpia Milano. Milan will host the Winter Olympic and Paralympic games for the first time in 2026, together with Cortina d'Ampezzo.
Milan, Italy is an ancient city in northern Italy first settled under the name Medhelanon in about 590 BC by a Celtic tribe belonging to the Insubres group and belonging to the Golasecca culture.[1][2] The settlement was conquered by the Romans in 222 BC and renamed it Mediolanum. Diocletian divided the Roman Empire, choosing the eastern half for himself, making Milan the seat of the western half of the empire, from which Maximian ruled, in the late 3rd and early 4th century AD. In 313 AD Emperors Constantine and Licinius issued the Edict of Milan, which officially ended the persecution of Christians. In 774 AD, Milan surrendered to Charlemagne and the Franks.
During the Middle Ages, the city's history was the story of the struggle between two political factions: the Guelphs and the Ghibellines. Finally the Visconti family took power (signoria) in Milan. In 1395 Emperor Wenceslas made Milan a duchy, thus raising the dignity of the city's citizens. In the mid-15th century the Ambrosian Republic was established, taking its name from St. Ambrose, a beloved patron saint of the city. The two rival factions worked together to create the Ambrosian Republic in Milan. However, the republic fell apart in 1450 when Milan was conquered by Francesco Sforza of the House of Sforza, which ushered Milan into becoming one of the leading cities of the Italian Renaissance.
From the late 15th century until the mid 16th century, Milan was involved in The Italian Wars, a series of conflicts, along with most of the city-states of Italy, the Papal States, the Republic of Venice and later most of Western Europe. In 1629 The Great Plague of Milan killed about 60,000 people out of a total population of about 130,000, by 1631 when the plague subsided. This event is considered one of the last great outbreaks of what was a pandemic that ravaged Europe for several centuries, beginning with the Black Death. In 1713-1714 treaties gave sovereignty to Austria over most of Spain's Italian possessions, including Lombardy and its capital, Milan. Napoleon invaded Italy in 1796, and later declared Milan the capital of the Kingdom of Italy. After Napoleon's occupation ended the Congress of Vienna returned Lombardy and Milan to Austrian control in 1815. This is the period when Milan became a center for lyric opera.
The Milanese staged a rebellion against Austrian rule on March 18, 1848. The Kingdom of Sardinia joined the rebels, and a vote was held in Lombardy which voted to unify with Sardinia. The Austrians defeated the Sardinians on 24 July and reasserted their domination over Milan and northern Italy. Just a few years later another insurgency by Italian nationalists succeeded in ousting the Austrians with the help of Sardinia and France in 1859. Following the Battle of Solferino Milan and the rest of Lombardy joined the Kingdom of Sardinia, which soon achieved control of most of Italy. In 1861 the re-unified city-states and kingdoms became the Kingdom of Italy once again.
With the unification of the country, Milan became the dominant commercial center of northern Italy. In 1919 Benito Mussolini rallied the Blackshirts for the first time in Milan, and later they began their March on Rome from Milan. During World War II Milan was extensively damaged by Allied bombings. Upon the surrender of Italy in 1943 German forces occupied northern Italy until the end of the war in 1945. Members of the Italian resistance in Milan took control of the city and executed Mussolini, his mistress, and other leaders of his Fascist government by hanging in Piazzale Loreto, Milan.
Since the end of World War II, Italy experienced an economic boom. From 1951 until 1967 the population of Milan grew from 1.3 million to 1.7 million. The city was reconstructed, but in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the city suffered from a huge wave of street violence, labor strikes and political terrorism during so called Years of Lead. During the 1980s, Milan became one of the world's fashion capitals. The rise of financial services and the service economy during the late 20th century further strengthened Milan’s position as the Italian economic capital. The city’s renewal in the 21st century was marked, among others, by hosting of the World Expo 2015 or big redevelopment projects such as Puorta Nuova or CityLife.
Antiquity
Around 590 BC, a Celtic tribe belonging to the Insubres group and belonging to the Golasecca culture settled the city under the name Medhelanon. According to Titus Livy's comments, the city was founded around 600 B.C. by Belloveso, chief of the Insubres. Legend has it that Belloveso found a mythological animal known as the scrofa semilanuta (in Italian: "half-woollen boar") which became the ancient emblem of the city of Milan (from semi-lanuta or medio-lanum). Several ancient sources (including Sidonius Apollinaris, Datius, and, more recently, Andrea Alciato) have argued that the scrofa semilanuta is connected to the etymology of the ancient name of Milan, "Mediolanum", and this is still occasionally mentioned in modern sources, although this interpretation has long been dismissed by scholars. Nonetheless, wool production became a key industry in this area, as recorded during the early Middle Ages (see below).
Milan was conquered by the Romans in 222 B.C. due to its strategic position on the northern borders of the Empire and was renamed Mediolanum. When Diocletian decided to divide the Empire in half choosing the Eastern half for himself, Milan became the residence of Maximian, ruler of the Western Roman Empire. The construction of the second city walls, roughly four and a half kilometers long and unfurling at today's Foro Bonaparte, date back to his reign. After the abdication of Maximian (in 305 A.D.) on the same day on which Diocletian also abdicated, there were a series of wars of succession, during which there was a succession of three emperors in just a few short years: first Severus, who prepared the expedition against Maxentius, then Maxentius himself in a war against Constantine, and finally Constantine himself, victor of the war against Maxentius. In 313 A.D. the Emperors Constantine and Licinius issued the Edict of Milan (Edict of Constantine), ending the persecutions against Christians.
The beginning of the 5th century was the start of a tortuous period of barbarian invasions for Milan. After the city was besieged by the Visigoths in 402, the imperial residence was moved to Ravenna. An age of decadence began which worsened when Attila, King of the Huns, sacked and devastated the city in 452 A.D.
Middle Ages
In 539, the Ostrogoths conquered and destroyed Milan during the Gothic War against Byzantine Emperor Justinian I. In the summer of 569, a Germanic tribe, the Lombards (from which the name of the Italian region Lombardy derives), conquered Milan, overpowering the small Byzantine army left for its defense. Some Roman structures remained in use in Milan under Lombard rule, but the city was eclipsed by the nearby Lombard capital of Pavia during the next two centuries.
Milan surrendered to Charlemagne and the Franks in 774. The aristocracy and majority of the clergy had taken refuge in Genoa. In 774, when Charlemagne took the title of "King of the Lombards", he established his imperial capital of Aachen in what is today Germany. Before then the Germanic kingdoms had frequently conquered each other, but none had adopted the title of King of another people. The Iron Crown of Lombardy (i.e. referring to Charlemagne's kingdom and not to the Italian region), which was worn by Charlemagne, dates from this period. Milan's domination under the Franks led by Charlemagne did nothing to improve the city's fortune, and the city's impoverishment increased and Milan became a county seat.
The 11th century saw a reaction against the control of the Holy Roman Emperors. The city-state was born, an expression of the new political power of the city and its will to fight against feudal overlords. Milan was no exception. It did not take long, however, for the city states to begin fighting each other to try to limit neighbouring powers. The Milanese destroyed Lodi and continuously warred with Pavia, Cremona and Como, who in turn asked Frederick I Barbarossa for help. In a sally, they captured Empress Beatrice and forced her to ride a donkey backwards out through the city. These acts brought the destruction of much of Milan in 1162. A fire destroyed the storehouses containing the entire food supply: and within just a few days Milan was forced to surrender.
A period of peace followed and Milan prospered as a centre of trade due to its position. As a result of the independence that the Lombard cities gained in the Peace of Constance in 1183, Milan returned to the commune form of local government first established in the 11th century. In 1208 Rambertino Buvalelli served a term as podestà of the city, in 1242 Luca Grimaldi, and in 1282 Luchetto Gattilusio. The position was a dangerous one: in 1252 Milanese heretics assassinated the Church's Inquisitor, later known as Saint Peter Martyr, at a ford in the nearby contado; the killers bribed their way to freedom, and in the ensuing riot the podestà was almost lynched. In 1256 the archbishop and leading nobles were expelled from the city. In 1259 Martino della Torre was elected Capitano del Popolo by members of the guilds; he took the city by force, expelled his enemies, and ruled by dictatorial powers, paving streets, digging canals, and taxing the countryside. He also brought the Milanese treasury to collapse; the use of often reckless mercenary units further angered the population, granting an increasing support for the della Torre's traditional enemies, the Visconti. The most important industries in this period were armaments and wool production, a whole catalogue of activities and trades is given in Bonvesin della Riva's "de Magnalibus Urbis Mediolani".
On 22 July 1262, Ottone Visconti was made archbishop of Milan by Pope Urban IV, against the candidacy of Raimondo della Torre, Bishop of Como. The latter started to publicise allegations that the Visconti had ties to the heretic Cathars and charged them with high treason: the Visconti, who accused the della Torre of the same crimes, were then banned from Milan and their properties confiscated. The ensuing civil war caused more damage to Milan's population and economy, lasting for more than a decade. Ottone Visconti unsuccessfully led a group of exiles against the city in 1263, but after years of escalating violence on all sides, in the Battle of Desio (1277) he won the city for his family. The Visconti succeeded in ousting the della Torre permanently, and proceeded to rule Milan and its possessions until the 15th century.
Much of the prior history of Milan was the tale of the struggle between two political factions: the Guelphs and the Ghibellines. Most of the time the Guelphs were successful in the city of Milan. Eventually, however, the Visconti family were able to seize power (signoria) in Milan, based on their "Ghibelline" friendship with the Holy Roman Emperors. In 1395, one of these emperors, Wenceslaus IV of Bohemia (1378–1400), raised Milan to the dignity of a duchy. Also in 1395, Gian Galeazzo Visconti became Duke of Milan. The Ghibelline Visconti family was to retain power in Milan for a century and a half from the early 14th century until the middle of the 15th century.
In 1447 Filippo Maria Visconti, Duke of Milan, died without a male heir; following the end of the Visconti line, the Ambrosian Republic was enacted. The Ambrosian Republic took its name from St. Ambrose, popular patron saint of the city of Milan. Both the Guelph and the Ghibelline factions worked together to bring about the Ambrosian Republic in Milan. Nonetheless, the Republic collapsed when, in 1450, Milan was conquered by Francesco Sforza, of the House of Sforza, who made Milan one of the leading cities of the Italian Renaissance.
Early modern
The Italian Wars were a series of conflicts from 1494 to 1559 that involved, at various times, most of the city-states of Italy, the Papal States, the Republic of Venice, and later most of the major states of Western Europe. Milan's last independent ruler, Lodovico Sforza, called French king Charles VIII into Italy in the expectation that France might be an ally in inter-Italian wars. The future King of France, Louis of Orléans, took part in the expedition and realised Italy was virtually defenceless. This prompted him to return a few years later in 1500, and claim the Duchy of Milan for himself, his grandmother having been a member of the ruling Visconti family. At that time, Milan was also defended by Swiss mercenaries. After the victory of Louis's successor Francis I over the Swiss at the Battle of Marignan, the duchy was promised to the French king. When the Habsburg Emperor Charles V defeated Francis I at the Battle of Pavia in 1525, northern Italy, including Milan, returned to Francesco II Sforza, passing to Habsburg Spain ten years later on his death and the extinction of the Sforza line.
In 1556, Charles V abdicated in favour of his son Philip II and his brother Ferdinand I. Charles's Italian possessions, including Milan, passed to Philip II and remained with the Spanish line of Habsburgs, while Ferdinand's Austrian line of Habsburgs ruled the Holy Roman Empire.
Great Plague of Milan
The Great Plague of Milan in 1629–31 killed an estimated 60,000 people out of a population of 130,000. This episode is considered one of the last outbreaks of the centuries-long pandemic of plague that began with the Black Death.
War of the Spanish Succession
In 1700 the Spanish line of Habsburgs was extinguished with the death of Charles II. After his death, the War of the Spanish Succession began in 1701 with the occupation of all Spanish possessions by French troops backing the claim of the French Philippe of Anjou to the Spanish throne. In 1706, the French were defeated at the Battle of Turin and were forced to yield northern Italy to the Austrian Habsburgs. In 1713–1714 the Treaties of Utrecht and Rastatt formally confirmed Austrian sovereignty over most of Spain's Italian possessions including Lombardy and its capital, Milan.
Napoleon invaded Italy in 1796, and Milan was declared the capital of the Cisalpine Republic. Later, he declared Milan the capital of the Kingdom of Italy and was crowned in the Duomo. Once Napoleon's occupation ended, the Congress of Vienna returned Lombardy, and Milan, along with Veneto, to Austrian control in 1814. During this period, Milan became a centre of lyric opera. Here in the 1770s Mozart had premiered three operas at the Teatro Regio Ducale. Later La Scala became the reference theatre in the world, with its premières of Bellini, Donizetti, Rossini and Verdi. Verdi himself is interred in the Casa di Riposo per Musicisti, his present to Milan. In the 19th century, other important theatres were La Cannobiana and the Teatro Carcano.
Wars of the 19th century
On 18 March 1848, the Milanese rebelled against Austrian rule, during the so-called "Five Days" (Italian: Le Cinque Giornate), and Field Marshal Radetzky was forced to withdraw from the city temporarily. The Kingdom of Sardinia stepped in to help the insurgents; a plebiscite held in Lombardy decided in favour of unification with Sardinia. However, after defeating the Sardinian forces at Custoza on 24 July, Radetzky was able to reassert Austrian control over Milan and northern Italy. A few years on, however, Italian nationalists again called for the removal of Austria and Italian unification, with riots consuming the city in 1853. In 1859 Sardinia and France formed an alliance and defeated Austria at the Battle of Solferino. Following this battle, Milan and the rest of Lombardy were incorporated into the Kingdom of Sardinia, which soon gained control of most of Italy and in 1861 was rechristened as the Kingdom of Italy.
Early industrialization
The political unification of Italy cemented Milan's commercial dominance over northern Italy. It also led to a flurry of railway construction that had started under Austrian patronage (Venice–Milan; Milan–Monza) that made Milan the rail hub of northern Italy. Thereafter with the opening of the Gotthard (1881) and Simplon (1906) railway tunnels, Milan became the major South European rail focus for business and passenger movements e.g. the Simplon Orient Express. Rapid industrialization and market expansion put Milan at the centre of Italy's leading industrial region, including extensive stone quarries that have led to much of the air pollution we see today in the region. In the 1890s, Milan was shaken by the Bava-Beccaris massacre, a riot related to a high inflation rate. Meanwhile, as Milanese banks dominated Italy's financial sphere, the city became the country's leading financial centre.
Late modern and contemporary
In 1919, Benito Mussolini's Blackshirts rallied for the first time in Piazza San Sepolcro and later began their March on Rome in Milan. During the Second World War Milan suffered extensive damage from Allied bombings.[18] When Italy surrendered in 1943, German forces occupied most of Northern Italy until 1945. As a result, resistance groups formed. As the war came to an end, the American 1st Armored Division advanced on Milan – but before they arrived, the resistance seized control of the city and executed Mussolini along with several members of his government. On 29 April 1945, the corpses of Mussolini, his mistress Clara Petacci and other Fascist leaders were hanged in Piazzale Loreto.
During the post-war economic boom, a large wave of internal migration (especially from rural areas of Southern Italy), moved to Milan. The population grew from 1.3 million in 1951 to 1.7 million in 1967. During this period, Milan was largely reconstructed, with the building of several innovative and modernist skyscrapers, such as the Torre Velasca and the Pirelli Tower. The economic prosperity was however overshadowed in the late 1960s and early 1970s during the so-called Years of Lead, when Milan witnessed an unprecedented wave of street violence, labour strikes and political terrorism. The apex of this period of turmoil occurred on 12 December 1969, when a bomb exploded at the National Agrarian Bank in Piazza Fontana, killing seventeen people and injuring eighty-eight.
In the 1980s, with the international success of Milanese houses (like Armani, Versace, and Dolce & Gabbana), Milan became one of the world's fashion capitals. The city saw also a marked rise in international tourism, notably from America and Japan, while the stock exchange increased its market capitalisation more than five-fold. This period led the mass media to nickname the metropolis "Milano da bere", literally "Milan to drink". However, in the 1990s, Milan was badly affected by Tangentopoli, a political scandal in which many politicians and businessmen were tried for corruption. The city was also affected by a severe financial crisis and a steady decline in textiles, automobile, and steel production.
In the early 21st century, Milan underwent a series of sweeping redevelopments. Its exhibition centre moved to a much larger site in Rho. New business districts such as Porta Nuova and CityLife were constructed. With the decline in manufacturing, the city has sought to develop on its other sources of revenue, including publishing, finance, banking, fashion design, information technology, logistics, transport, and tourism. In addition, the city's decades-long population decline seems to have come to an end in recent years, with signs of recovery as it grew by seven percent since the last census.
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Das Heidelberger Schloss ist eine der berühmtesten Ruinen Deutschlands und das Wahrzeichen der Stadt Heidelberg. Bis zu seiner Zerstörung im Pfälzischen Erbfolgekrieg war es die Residenz der Kurfürsten von der Pfalz. Seit den Zerstörungen durch die Soldaten Ludwigs XIV. 1689 und der Sprengung durch französische Pioniere am 6. September 1693 wurde das Heidelberger Schloss nur teilweise restauriert. Nachdem am 24. Juni 1764 Blitze die teilweise renovierte Anlage in Brand gesetzt hatten, wurde die Wiederherstellung aufgegeben.[1] Die Schlossruine aus rotem Neckartäler Sandstein erhebt sich 80 Meter über dem Talgrund am Nordhang des Königstuhls und dominiert von dort das Bild der Altstadt. Der Ottheinrichsbau, einer der Palastbauten des Schlosses, zählt zu den bedeutendsten deutschen Bauwerken der Renaissance.[2]
Geschichte
Bis zu den Zerstörungen
Erste Erwähnungen
Erste Darstellung des Schlosses von Sebastian Münster
Um das Jahr 1182 verlegte Konrad der Staufer, Halbbruder von Kaiser Friedrich I. Barbarossa und seit 1156 Pfalzgraf bei Rhein, seine Hofhaltung von der Burg Stahleck bei Bacharach am Mittelrhein auf die Burg Heidelberg.[3]
Die Stadt Heidelberg wird im Jahr 1196 zum ersten Mal in einer Urkunde genannt. Eine Burg in Heidelberg („castrum in Heidelberg cum burgo ipsius castri“) wird im Jahr 1225 erwähnt, als Ludwig I. diese Burg vom Bischof Heinrich von Worms als Lehen erhielt. 1214 waren die Herzöge von Bayern aus dem Haus Wittelsbach mit der Pfalzgrafschaft belehnt worden.
Von einer Burg ist zuletzt im Jahr 1294 die Rede. In einer Urkunde des Jahres 1303 werden zum ersten Mal zwei Burgen aufgeführt: die obere Burg auf dem Kleinen Gaisberg bei der jetzigen Molkenkur und die untere Burg auf dem Jettenbühl. Lange Zeit hatte sich deshalb in der Forschung die Auffassung durchgesetzt, dass die Gründung der unteren Burg zwischen 1294 und 1303 entstanden sein müsse, zumal die vom Schlossbaubüro in der zweiten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts akribisch durchgeführte Bauaufnahme zum Schluss gelangte, dass die Bausubstanz keine Datierung des Schlosses vor das 15. Jahrhundert gerechtfertigt habe. Aufgrund von Architekturfunden und neueren bauarchäologischen Untersuchungen wird in der jüngeren Forschung zum Heidelberger Schloss die Entstehung der unteren Burg dagegen mittlerweile auf die erste Hälfte des 13. Jahrhunderts datiert. Bereits 1897 wurde ein vermauertes spätromanisches Fenster in der Trennwand zwischen Gläsernem Saalbau und Friedrichsbau entdeckt. 1976 förderten Ausschachtungsarbeiten an der Nordostecke des Ruprechtbaues in einer um 1400 abgelagerten Schutt- und Abbruchschicht ein Fensterfragment in Form eines Kleeblattbogens zutage, wie es sich in ähnlicher Form in den Arkadenfenstern der Burg Wildenberg findet. Eine 1999 im Bereich des Ludwigsbaus durchgeführte archäologische Untersuchung verdichtete die Hinweise auf eine Bebauung des Schlossareals in der ersten Hälfte des 13. Jahrhunderts.[4]
Schloss im Thesaurus Picturarum
Schloss und Stadt von Matthäus Merian, (Ausschnitt)
Die ältesten Werke, die das Heidelberger Schloss erwähnen, sind:
der Thesaurus Picturarum des pfälzischen Kirchenrats Markus zum Lamb (1559 bis 1606)
die Annales Academici Heidelbergenses des Heidelberger Bibliothekars und Professors Pithopoeus (1587 begonnen)
der Originum Palatinarum Commentarius von Marquard Freher (1599)
das Teutsche Reyssebuch von Martin Zeiller (Straßburg 1632, als Itinerarium Germaniae 1674 wieder abgedruckt)
Alle diese Werke sind meist oberflächlich und enthalten nichts Ernsthaftes. Anders verhält es sich mit Merians Topographia Palatinatus Rheni aus dem Jahr 1615, in der Kurfürst Ludwig V. als derjenige genannt wird, der „vor hundert und etlichen Jahren hat ein neu Schloß angefangen zu bauen“. Auf Merians Angaben stützen sich die meisten Beschreibungen des Schlosses bis ins 18. Jahrhundert hinein. Das Bestreben, die Gründungszeit des Schlosses weiter rückwärts zu verlegen, führt später zu Hinweisen, dass bereits unter Ruprecht I. die berühmte Hofkapelle auf dem Jettenbühl errichtet worden sei.
Königsschloss und Papstgefängnis
Als Ruprecht III. im Jahr 1401 Deutscher König (Ruprecht I.) wurde, herrschte im Schloss so großer Raummangel, dass er bei seiner Rückkehr von der Königskrönung sein Hoflager im Augustinerkloster (heute: Universitätsplatz) aufschlagen musste. Jetzt galt es, Raum zur Repräsentation und zur Unterbringung des Beamten- und Hofstaates zu schaffen. Gleichzeitig musste die Burg zu einer Festung ausgebaut werden.
Nach Ruprechts Tod im Jahr 1410 wurde der Herrschaftsbereich unter seinen vier Söhnen aufgeteilt. Die pfälzischen Stammlande gingen an den ältesten Sohn Ludwig III. Nach dem Konzil von Konstanz brachte dieser als Stellvertreter des Kaisers und oberster Richter im Jahr 1415 im Auftrag König Sigismunds den abgesetzten Papst Johannes XXIII. auf dem Schloss in Gewahrsam, bevor er auf Burg Eichelsheim (heute Mannheim-Lindenhof) gebracht wurde.
Der französische Dichter Victor Hugo besuchte 1838 Heidelberg und spazierte dabei besonders gerne in den Ruinen des Schlosses herum, dessen Geschichte er in einem Brief zusammenfasst:
„Lassen Sie mich nur von seinem Schloß sprechen. (Das ist absolut unerläßlich, und eigentlich hätte ich damit beginnen sollen). Was hat es nicht alles durchgemacht! Fünfhundert Jahre lang hat es die Rückwirkungen von allem hinnehmen müssen, was Europa erschüttert hat, und am Ende ist es darunter zusammengebrochen. Das liegt daran, daß dieses Heidelberger Schloß, die Residenz des Pfalzgrafen, der über sich nur Könige, Kaiser und Päpste hatte und zu bedeutend war, um sich unter deren Füßen zu krümmen, aber nicht den Kopf heben konnte, ohne mit ihnen aneinanderzugeraten, das liegt daran, meine ich, daß das Heidelberger Schloß immer irgendeine Oppositionshaltung gegenüber den Mächtigen eingenommen hat. Schon um 1300, der Zeit seiner Gründung, beginnt es mit einer Thebais; in dem Grafen Rudolf und dem Kaiser Ludwig, diesen beiden entarteten Brüdern, hat es seinen Eteokles und seinen Polyneikes. Darin nimmt der Kurfürst an Macht zu. Im Jahre 1400 setzt der Pfälzer Ruprecht II., unterstützt von drei rheinischen Kurfürsten, Kaiser Wenzeslaus ab und nimmt dessen Stelle ein; hundertzwanzig Jahre später, 1519, sollte Pfalzgraf Friedrich II. den jungen König Karl I. von Spanien zu Kaiser Karl V. machen.“
– Victor Hugo: Heidelberg[5]
Badisch-Pfälzischer Krieg
Im Badisch-Pfälzischen Krieg 1462 setzte Kurfürst Friedrich I. von der Pfalz (der „Pfälzer Fritz“) den Markgrafen Karl I. von Baden, den Bischof Georg von Metz und den Grafen Ulrich V. von Württemberg auf dem Schloss fest. Friedrich ließ die Gefangenen bei harter Kost in Ketten legen, bis sie bereit waren, die geforderten Lösegeldzahlungen zu leisten.
Markgraf Karl I. musste zur Freilassung 25.000 Gulden zahlen, seinen Anteil an der Grafschaft Sponheim als Pfand abgeben und Pforzheim zum pfälzischen Lehen erklären. Der Metzer Bischof musste 45.000 Gulden zahlen. Das Wichtigste war aber, dass Friedrich I. von der Pfalz seinen Anspruch als Kurfürst gesichert hatte.
Die Sage berichtet, Friedrich habe seinen unfreiwilligen Gästen das Fehlen von Brot bei der Mahlzeit dadurch begreiflich gemacht, dass er sie durch das Fenster auf das verwüstete Land hinab blicken ließ. Dies wird in einem Gedicht von Gustav Schwab mit dem Titel „Das Mahl zu Heidelberg“ nacherzählt.
Wikisource: Das Mahl zu Heidelberg – Quellen und Volltexte
Reformation und Dreißigjähriger Krieg
Befestigungsplan aus dem Jahr 1622
Während der Regierung Ludwigs V. besichtigte Martin Luther, der zu einer Verteidigung seiner Thesen (Heidelberger Disputation) nach Heidelberg gekommen war, das Schloss. Er wurde dabei von Pfalzgraf Wolfgang, dem Bruder Ludwigs V., herumgeführt und lobte später in einem Brief an seinen Freund Georg Spalatin vom 18. Mai 1518 die Schönheit und kriegerische Ausrüstung des Schlosses.
Im Dreißigjährigen Krieg flogen zum ersten Mal Kugeln gegen das Heidelberger Schloss. Hiermit endet auch die eigentliche Geschichte des Schlossbaus. Die folgenden Jahrhunderte bringen hauptsächlich Zerstörungen und Wiederherstellungen.
Friedrich V. von der Pfalz nahm – trotz vieler Bedenken – die Königswürde von Böhmen an und löste damit eine Katastrophe aus. Nach der Schlacht am Weißen Berge war er als Geächteter auf der Flucht und hatte voreilig seine Truppen entlassen, so dass General Tilly, der Oberbefehlshaber der katholischen Liga-Truppen im Dienst des Kurfürsten von Bayern, eine unverteidigte Pfalz vor sich hatte. Am 26. August 1622 eröffnete er die Beschießung Heidelbergs und nahm am 16. September die Stadt und wenige Tage darauf das Schloss ein. Nachdem die Schweden am 5. Mai 1633 die Stadt Heidelberg eingenommen und vom Königstuhl aus das Feuer auf das Schloss eröffnet hatten, übergab der kaiserliche Kommandant am 26. Mai die Festung. Schon im folgenden Jahr versuchten Truppen des Kaisers erneut, das Schloss zurückzuerobern, aber erst im Juli 1635 fiel es wieder in ihre Gewalt, in der es dann bis zum Friedensschluss blieb. Erst am 7. Oktober 1649 zog der neue Herrscher wieder in das zerstörte Stammschloss seiner Familie ein.
Im Pfälzischen Erbfolgekrieg
Darstellung der Zerstörung, 1693
Der französische König Ludwig XIV. verlangte nach dem Tode des kinderlosen Kurfürsten Karl II., des letzten Fürsten der Linie Pfalz-Simmern, im Namen der Herzogin von Orléans die Herausgabe des pfälzischen Allodialgutes. Am 29. September 1688 rückten die französischen Heere im Pfälzischen Erbfolgekrieg in die Pfalz und zogen am 24. Oktober in das von Philipp Wilhelm, dem neuen Kurfürsten aus der Linie Pfalz-Neuburg, verlassene Heidelberg ein.
Gegen die verbündeten europäischen Mächte beschloss der französische Kriegsrat, durch Zerstörung aller Festungswerke und durch Verwüstung des pfälzischen Landes dem Feinde die Möglichkeit des Angriffes von dieser Gegend her zu entziehen. Beim Ausrücken aus der Stadt am 2. März 1689 steckten die Franzosen das Schloss und auch die Stadt an vielen Ecken zugleich in Brand.
Johann Wilhelm ließ sofort nach seinem Einzug in die verwüstete Stadt die Mauern und Türme wiederherstellen. Als die Franzosen 1691 und 1692 erneut bis vor die Tore Heidelbergs gelangten, fanden sie die Stadt in einem so guten Verteidigungszustand vor, dass sie unverrichteter Dinge abziehen mussten. Am 18. Mai 1693 standen die Franzosen allerdings wieder vor der Stadt und nahmen sie am 22. Mai ein. Sie versuchten vermutlich, mit der Zerstörung der Stadt die Hauptoperationsbasis gegen das Schloss zu schaffen. Am folgenden Tage kapitulierte die Schlossbesatzung, und nun holten die Franzosen nach, was sie 1689 in der Eile ihres Abzugs nur unvollständig ausgeführt hatten: sie sprengten nun durch Minen die Türme und Mauern, die beim letzten Mal der Zerstörung entgangen waren. Das Heidelberger Schloss wurde eine Ruine.
Verlegung der Residenz nach Mannheim
Glockenturm des Heidelberger Schlosses mit der Heiliggeistkirche auf einem Gemälde von Jacques Fouquières (1618). Die Kirche bekrönte damals noch ein gotischer Spitzhelm.
Der Frieden von Rijswijk, mit dem der Pfälzische Erbfolgekrieg beendet wurde, brachte im Jahr 1697 endlich etwas Ruhe. Es war geplant, das Schloss abzureißen und die brauchbaren Teile zur Errichtung eines neuen Palastes im Tal zu verwenden. Als sich aber der Durchführung dieses Planes Schwierigkeiten entgegenstellten, wurde das Schloss notdürftig wiederhergestellt. Gleichzeitig trug sich Karl Philipp mit dem Gedanken eines vollständigen Umbaues des Schlosses, aber der Mangel an finanziellen Mitteln schob dieses Projekt auf, und als der Kurfürst 1720 mit den Protestanten der Stadt wegen Überlassung der Heiliggeistkirche an die Katholiken in Streit geriet, der die Verlegung der Residenz nach Mannheim zur Folge hatte, endete das Interesse des Kurfürsten am Heidelberger Schloss. Seine Absicht war es, die Heiliggeistkirche zur katholischen Hofkirche umzuwidmen, was die Heidelberger Reformierten mit allen Mitteln zu verhindern suchten. Als er am 12. April 1720 die Verlegung seiner Residenz mit allen Behörden nach Mannheim verkündete, überließ der Kurfürst die alte Hauptstadt ihrem Schicksal und wünschte ihr, dass „Gras auf ihren Straßen wachsen“ solle. Der religiöse Konflikt war vermutlich aber nur der letzte Anstoß gewesen, das alte, schwer zu einer barocken Anlage umzubauende Bergschloss aufzugeben und in die Ebene zu ziehen, wo er eine ganz seinem Willen entspringende Neugründung vornehmen konnte.
Sein Nachfolger Karl Theodor plante vorübergehend, seinen Wohnsitz wieder ins Heidelberger Schloss zu verlegen. Er nahm davon allerdings wieder Abstand, als am 24. Juni 1764 der Blitz zweimal hintereinander in den Saalbau einschlug und das Schloss abermals brannte. Victor Hugo hielt dies später für einen Wink des Himmels:
„Man könnte sogar sagen, daß der Himmel sich eingemischt hat. Am 23. Juni 1764, einen Tag, bevor Karl-Theodor in das Schloß einziehen und es zu seiner Residenz machen sollte (was, nebenbei gesagt, ein großes Unglück gewesen wäre; denn wenn Karl-Theodor seine dreißig Jahre dort verbracht hätte, wäre die strenge Ruine, die wir heute bewundern, sicher mit einer schrecklichen Pompadour-Verzierung versehen worden), an diesem Vortag also, als die Möbel des Fürsten bereits vor der Tür, in der Heiliggeistkirche, standen, traf das Feuer des Himmels den achteckigen Turm, setzte das Dach in Brand und zerstörte in wenigen Stunden dieses fünfhundert Jahre alte Schloß.“
– Victor Hugo: Heidelberg.[5]
In den folgenden Jahrzehnten wurden zwar noch notwendige Erneuerungen vorgenommen, aber das Heidelberger Schloss blieb von nun an hauptsächlich eine Ruine.
Seit den Zerstörungen
Langsamer Zerfall und romantische Begeisterung
Romantische Darstellung von William Turner
Im Jahr 1777 verlegte Kurfürst Karl Theodor seine Residenz von Mannheim nach München. Damit verlor er das Heidelberger Schloss noch mehr aus den Augen. Die überdachten Räume wurden nun von Handwerksbetrieben genutzt. Schon 1767 hatte man begonnen, die Quader des Südwalles als Baumaterial für das Schwetzinger Schloss zu verwenden. Im Jahr 1784 wurden gar die Gewölbe im Erdgeschoss des Ottheinrichsbaus eingelegt und das Schloss als Steinbruch verwendet.
Durch den Reichsdeputationshauptschluss von 1803 gingen Heidelberg und Mannheim an Baden über. Der große Gebietszuwachs war Großherzog Karl Friedrich willkommen, das Heidelberger Schloss betrachtete er jedoch als unerwünschte Zugabe. Die Bauten verfielen, Heidelberger Bürger holten aus dem Schloss Steine, Holz und Eisen zum Bau ihrer Häuser. Auch Figuren und Verzierungen wurden abgeschlagen. August von Kotzebue äußerte sich 1803 voller Empörung über die Absicht der badischen Regierung, die Ruinen abtragen zu lassen. Das zerstörte Schloss wurde am Beginn des 19. Jahrhunderts zum Sinnbild für die patriotische Gesinnung, die sich gegen die napoleonische Unterdrückung richtete.
Schon vor 1800 erkannten Maler und Zeichner in der Schlossruine und der bergigen Flusslandschaft ein idealtypisches Ensemble. Den Höhepunkt bilden die Gemälde des Engländers William Turner, der sich zwischen 1817 und 1844 mehrfach in Heidelberg aufhielt und etliche Gemälde von Heidelberg und dem Schloss anfertigte. Ihm und anderen Künstlern der Romantik ging es dabei nicht um eine detailgetreue Bauaufnahme. Sie pflegten eher einen recht freien Umgang mit der Wirklichkeit. So ist bei seinem Gemälde des Schlosses das Gelände mehrfach überhöht dargestellt.
Der Retter des Schlosses war der französische Graf Charles de Graimberg. Er kämpfte gegen Pläne der badischen Regierung, für die das Heidelberger Schloss das „alte Gemäuer mit seinen vielfältigen, geschmacklosen, ruinösen Verzierungen“ war, für die Erhaltung der Schlossruinen. Er versah bis 1822 das Amt eines freiwilligen Schlosswächters und wohnte eine Zeit lang im Vorbau des Gläsernen Saalbaues, von dem aus er den Schlosshof am besten übersehen konnte. Lange bevor es in Deutschland eine Denkmalpflege gab, war er der erste, der sich um den Erhalt und die Dokumentation des Schlosses kümmerte, als bei der romantischen Schwärmerei noch niemand daran dachte, den Verfall zu unterbinden. In Auftrag Graimbergs verfasste Thomas A. Leger den ersten Schlossführer. Mit seinen in hoher Auflage produzierten druckgraphischen Ansichten verhalf Graimberg der Schlossruine zu einem Bekanntheitsgrad, der den Fremdenverkehr nach Heidelberg lenkte.
Bestandsaufnahme und Restaurierung – der Heidelberger Schlossstreit
Bestandsaufnahme von Julius Koch und Fritz Seitz
Die Frage, ob das Schloss vollständig wiederhergestellt werden solle, führte zu langen Diskussionen. Der Dichter Wolfgang Müller von Königswinter machte sich im Jahr 1868 für eine vollständige Erneuerung stark und rief damit heftige Reaktionen hervor, die in der Presse und in Versammlungen ausgetragen wurden. Aus dem Streit um den richtigen Umgang mit der Schlossruine entwickelte sich eine Grundsatzdiskussion über die Aufgaben der Denkmalpflege. Die Ergebnisse dieser Debatte, die als der „Heidelberger Schlossstreit“ in die Geschichte eingegangen sind, prägten die Prinzipien der Bewahrung historischer Bauwerke nachhaltig.[6]
Die Großherzogliche badische Regierung errichtete im Jahr 1883 ein „Schloßbaubüro“, das unter Oberaufsicht des Baudirektors Josef Durm in Karlsruhe vom Bezirksbauinspektor Julius Koch und dem Architekten Fritz Seitz geleitet wurde. Aufgabe des Büros war, eine möglichst genaue Bestandsaufnahme zu machen und zugleich Maßnahmen zur Erhaltung oder Instandsetzung der Hauptgebäude vorzuschlagen. Die Arbeiten dieses Büros endeten 1890 und bildeten die Grundlage für eine Kommission von Fachleuten aus ganz Deutschland, deren einhellige Überzeugung war, dass eine völlige oder teilweise Wiederherstellung des Schlosses nicht in Betracht komme, dagegen eine Erhaltung des jetzigen Zustandes mit allen Mitteln zu erstreben sei. Nur der Friedrichsbau, dessen Innenräume zwar durch Feuer zerstört worden waren, der aber nie Ruine war, sollte wiederhergestellt werden. Diese Wiederherstellung geschah schließlich in der Zeit von 1897 bis 1900 durch Carl Schäfer mit dem enormen Kostenaufwand von 520.000 Mark.
Schlossruine und Tourismus
Ausschnitt aus einer Gesamtansicht von Theodor Verhas, 1856
Schon die älteste Beschreibung Heidelbergs aus dem Jahr 1465 erwähnt, dass die Stadt „vielbesucht von Fremden“ sei. Doch ein eigentlicher Städtetourismus setzte frühestens zu Beginn des 19. Jahrhunderts ein. Graf Graimberg sorgte mit seinen Zeichnungen dafür, dass das Schloss als Bildmotiv eine große Verbreitung fand. Sie wurden praktisch zu Vorläufern der Postkarte. Zur gleichen Zeit gab es auch schon das Schloss als Souvenir auf Tassen. Den entscheidenden Schub erhielt der Tourismus aber erst mit dem Anschluss Heidelbergs ans Eisenbahnnetz im Jahr 1840.
Mark Twain beschrieb 1878 in seinem Buch Bummel durch Europa (A Tramp Abroad) das Heidelberger Schloss folgendermaßen:
„Um gut zu wirken, muss eine Ruine den richtigen Standort haben. Diese hier hätte nicht günstiger gelegen sein können. Sie steht auf einer die Umgebung beherrschenden Höhe, sie ist in grünen Wäldern verborgen, um sie herum gibt es keinen ebenen Grund, sondern im Gegenteil bewaldete Terrassen, man blickt durch glänzende Blätter in tiefe Klüfte und Abgründe hinab, wo Dämmer herrscht und die Sonne nicht eindringen kann. Die Natur versteht es, eine Ruine zu schmücken, um die beste Wirkung zu erzielen.“
– Mark Twain: Bummel durch Europa.[7]
Ansicht des Schlosses von Süden vom Schloss-Wolfsbrunnenweg aus
Bei einem am 18. Mai 1978 verübten Brandanschlag, der den Revolutionären Zellen zugerechnet wird, entstand ein Sachschaden von 97.000 DM am Schloss.
Im 20. Jahrhundert verfielen die US-Amerikaner noch mehr dem Heidelberg-Mythos und trugen ihn hinaus in die Welt. So kommt es, dass auch viele andere Nationalitäten das Heidelberger Schloss auf ihren Kurzreisen durch Europa zu den wenigen Zwischenstopps zählen.
Heidelberg hat zu Beginn des 21. Jahrhunderts jährlich mehr als eine Million Besucher und etwa 900.000 Übernachtungen. Wichtigster Anlaufpunkt ist laut einer Befragung des geografischen Instituts der Universität Heidelberg das Schloss mit seinen Aussichtsterrassen.
Das Besucherzentrum am Heidelberger Schloss von Max Dudler
Das Heidelberger Schloss zählt heute zu den landeseigenen Monumenten und wird von der Einrichtung „Staatliche Schlösser und Gärten Baden-Württemberg“ betreut. Aus dem Landesinfrastrukturprogramm Baden-Württemberg wurden für den Neubau eines von Max Dudler entworfenen Besucherzentrums 3 Millionen Euro zur Verfügung gestellt.[8] Es wurde 2012 eröffnet.[9]
Zudem ist das Schloss nach Angaben der Schlösserverwaltung das größte Fledermaus-Winterquartier in Nordbaden. Wegen der dort überwinternden Zwergfledermaus sowie dem Großen Mausohr wurde im Jahr 2016 der im Stückgarten vor dem Schloss stattfindende Teil des Weihnachtsmarktes auf den Friedrich-Ebert-Platz verlegt.[10]
Vorhof
Den Vorhof des Schlosses bildet in etwa das Gelände zwischen Haupttor und Oberem Fürstenbrunnen, dem Elisabethentor zum Stückgarten, dem Brückentor zum Schloss sowie dem Eingang zur Gartenanlage. Um 1800 diente der Schlosshof dem Burgvogt als Bleiche, auf der Wäschestücke ausgelegt wurden. Später wurde der Vorhof als „Gras- und Futterplatz“ für Vieh versteigert. Auch Hühner und Gänse hatten hier freien Auslauf.
Haupttor
Der Weg in den ehemaligen Vorhof des Schlosses führt über eine steinerne Brücke über einen zum Teil zugeschütteten Graben. Das Haupttor wurde im Jahr 1528 erbaut, das Wachthaus wurde im Pfälzischen Erbfolgekrieg zerstört und 1718 durch das heutige rundbogige Eingangstor ersetzt. Die Pforte links vom Haupteingang war durch eine Zugplanke verschlossen, die für einzelne Fußgänger herabgelassen werden konnte.
Goethegedenktafel
Marianne von Willemer
An einem Mauerrest des Vogelhauses wurde 1961 eine Steintafel angebracht, die eine ältere Tafel ersetzte. Die Inschrift mit Versen Marianne von Willemers soll an ihr letztes Treffen mit Johann Wolfgang Goethe Ende September 1815 erinnern. Von den neun Strophen, die sie am 28. August 1824, dem 75. Geburtstag Goethes, hier auf dem Schloss niederschrieb, sind drei wiedergegeben:
Auf der Terrasse hoch gewölbten Bogen
War eine Zeit sein Kommen und sein Gehn
Die Chiffre von der lieben Hand gezogen
Ich fand sie nicht sie ist nicht mehr zu sehn
Diese Verse schrieb Marianne von Willemer
In Erinnerung an ihre letzte Begegnung mit
Goethe in den Herbsttagen des Jahres 1815
Unmittelbar gegenüber der Goethe-Gedenktafel stand einst ein Ginkgo, den Goethe kannte. Es ist überliefert, dass sich Goethe mit Freunden die Blätter des Heidelberger Ginkgos betrachtete und über deren Form fachsimpelte. Das Ginkgo-Symbol verband Goethe mit Marianne von Willemer, die ihn mit ihrem Ehemann am 23. September 1815 überraschend in Heidelberg besuchte. Von dem 1795 gepflanzten Ginkgo hieß es 1928, dass er im Schlossgarten wohl „noch derselbe ist, dem Goethe die Anregung zu seinem schönen Gedicht verdankte“. Wahrscheinlich stand der Baum sogar noch im Jahr 1936. Marianne von Willemer war die dritte Ehefrau seines Frankfurter Freundes, des Bankiers Johann Jakob von Willemer, die mehr als zwanzig Jahre jünger war als er selbst. Goethe traf seine Geliebte mehrmals am ehemaligen Schaumaintor, als er Mitte September 1815 in Frankfurt weilte. Dort widmete er ihr am 15. September 1815 das Gedicht Gingo Biloba und legte als Ausdruck seiner Zuneigung zwei Ginkgo-Blätter bei. Das Baum-Gedicht wurde später in das Buch „Suleika“ im Westöstlichen Divan aufgenommen.
Originalschrift des Goethe-Gedichts
Der mit Goethe befreundete Kunstsammler und Schriftsteller Sulpiz Boisserée erwähnt in einer Tagebucheintragung vom 16. September 1815 – er weilte bis zum 17. September mit Goethe in der Gerbermühle bei Frankfurt – zur Entstehungsgeschichte des Gedichtes Gin(k)go biloba:
„Heitrer Abend. G. hatte der Wilemer ein Blatt der Ginkho (sic) biloba als Sinnbild der Freundschaft geschikt aus der Stadt. Man weiß nicht ob es eins das sich in 2 theilt, oder zwey die sich in eins verbinden. So war der Inhalt des Verses.“
Der Text des Gedichts lautet:
Gingo Biloba
Dieses Baums Blatt, der von Osten
Meinem Garten anvertraut,
Giebt geheimen Sinn zu kosten,
Wie's den Wissenden erbaut,
…
Der Brief mit dem Gedicht und den beigelegten Blättern ist im Goethe-Museum Düsseldorf zu sehen.
Sattelkammer
Die ehemalige Sattelkammer, ursprünglich eine Remise, war wohl anfänglich ein Befestigungswerk. Sie wurde nach dem Dreißigjährigen Krieg für Stallungen sowie als Geräte-, Wagen- und Kutschenhaus benutzt. Im 18. Jahrhundert stürzte das Gewölbe ein und wurde erst in den Jahren 1977 bis 1979 wieder aufgerichtet. Sie wird seither als Cafeteria für die Schlossbesucher genutzt.
Oberer Fürstenbrunnen
Treppe zum Oberen Fürstenbrunnen
Der Obere Fürstenbrunnen wurde unter Kurfürst Karl Philipp neu gefasst und überbaut. Über der Tür des Brunnenhauses ist sein Monogramm mit der Jahreszahl 1738 eingemeißelt. An der rechten Seite des Treppenabgangs steht die folgende Inschrift:
„[DIreCtione] ALeXanDro BIbIena CVra et opera HenrICI Neeb Fons hIC PrInCIpaLIs reparat(Vs) PVrIor sCatVrIt“
„Unter der Oberaufsicht von Alessandro Galli da Bibiena und ausgeführt von Heinrich Neeb wurde dieser Brunnen erneuert und sprudelt nun reiner.“
Die Inschrift ist ein Chronogramm, aus dem sich die Jahreszahl 1741 ergibt. Durch diesen und den Unteren Fürstenbrunnen wurde der Wasserbedarf des kurfürstlichen Hofs in Mannheim bis ins 19. Jahrhundert hinein gedeckt.
Johann Andreas von Traitteur erinnert 1798 an diese Wassertransporte:
„Wegen Mangel eines gesunden, guten Brunnenwassers wurde, so lang die Hofhaltung in Mannheim war, täglich das nöthige Wasser für dieselbe aus dem Gebirg beigeführt. Bekanntlich mußte die Hofkammer einen besonderen dazu eingerichteten Wasserwagen halten, welcher täglich nach Heidelberg fuhr, und das Wasser aus dem Fürstenbrunnen oben im Schloßhof ablangte.“
– Hans Weckesser: Geliebter Wasserturm.[11]
Die Wasserqualität in Mannheim war so schlecht, dass sich die vornehmen Familien der Hofgesellschaft, die es sich leisten konnten, diesem Verfahren anschlossen und ebenfalls Wassertransporte von Heidelberg nach Mannheim finanzierten. In der kurfürstlichen Residenz gab es noch im Jahr 1777 unter den Hofbediensteten einen „Heidelberger Wasserfüller“.
Schlossgebäude
Grundriss des Heidelberger Schlosses (aus Meyers Konversationslexikon, 1888)
Über das Aussehen der mittelalterlichen Burg ist nichts bekannt. Sie erstreckte sich über das Areal des heutigen Schlosshofes ohne die späteren Erweiterungen nach Westen (Dicker Turm, Nordwall (Englischer Bau) und Westwall mit Rondell) und innerhalb der inneren Ringmauer, deren spärliche Reste in der Ostwand des Ludwigbaues, der Ost- und Südwand des Wirtschaftsgebäudes sowie der Westwand von Ruprechtbau und Frauenzimmerbau noch vorhanden sind. Das spätere Schloss bildete mit der 1537 niedergebrannten Burg auf Höhe der heutigen Molkenkur eine Verteidigungslinie, mit der das Neckartal gut „beherrscht“ werden konnte.
Ab etwa Mitte des 15. Jahrhunderts wurde die Burg zur Festung ausgebaut, indem an der Ostseite drei Türme für Geschütze und die äußere Ringmauer errichtet wurden.[12] Ludwig V. erweiterte dann in der ersten Hälfte des 16. Jahrhunderts das Schlossareal beträchtlich nach Westen und ließ neue starke Festungswerke sowie einzelne Wohngebäude errichten. Danach erfolgte sukzessive der Ausbau des Schlosses unter repräsentativen Gesichtspunkten. Die Wehrhaftigkeit trat unter seinen Nachfolgern in den Hintergrund.
Erst nach und nach wurde aus dem Schloss von Generation zu Generation eine Ansammlung großzügiger Wohngebäude. Die Altstadt kam erst lange danach. Zunächst gab es eine Bergstadt für Bedienstete und Beamte am Hangweg.
Der renommierte Kunsthistoriker Georg Dehio beschreibt das Heidelberger Schloss folgendermaßen:
„Als Konglomerat zahlreicher Bauten, deren Stilgemisch lediglich durch die Ruinenhaftigkeit gemildert wird und deren einheitlicher Eindruck auf der engen Gedrängtheit um den gemeinsamen Hof beruht, thront das Schloß hoch über der Stadt auf der vorgeschobenen Jettenbühl-Terrasse des Königstuhles. Dem Charakter eines Wehrbaues entsprechend, wenden sich die Schauseiten im Westen, Süden und Osten gegen den Hof; lediglich die Gebäude der stadtzugewandten, sturmfreien Nordseite besitzen eine zweite, nach außen gekehrte Prunkfassade.“
– Georg Dehio: Handbuch der Deutschen Kunstdenkmäler. Baden-Württemberg I. Die Regierungsbezirke Stuttgart und Karlsruhe[13]
Nach Personen benannte Gebäude
Ruprechtsbau
Schlosshof, Ruine des Ruprechtsbaus (rechts)
Engelswappen
Der Bau ist nach dem Pfalzgrafen und König Ruprecht benannt.
Der Ruprechtsbau gehört zu den ältesten Gebäuden des Heidelberger Schlosses. Er wurde erbaut von Kurfürst Ruprecht III., der zu Beginn des 15. Jahrhunderts deutscher König war und um diese Zeit mit dem Bau der bis heute noch erhaltenen Teile des Heidelberger Schlosses begann.
Lange Zeit glaubte man, dass die Geschichte des Heidelberger Schlosses mit diesem Bauwerk beginne. Doch bei umfangreichen archäologischen Untersuchungen, die während Renovierungsarbeiten Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts durchgeführt wurden, fand man Fragmente romanischer und frühgotischer Fenster. Der Baubeginn des Schlosses wird somit auf die Jahre um 1300 geschätzt.
1534 wurde der Ruprechtsbau durch Ludwig V. um ein steinernes Obergeschoss erweitert. Ein Absatz in der Mauerung an der vorderen Kante sowie die Jahreszahl 1534 im Inneren des Gebäudes künden noch heute von dem Umbau.
Ein Engelswappen über dem Portal ziert das Bauwerk. Es wird vermutet, dass es sich hierbei um das Abzeichen des Bauherrn handelt, der sich auf diese Weise für die Nachwelt verewigt hat. Der Überlieferung nach handelt es sich bei den beiden Engeln auf dem Wappen um eine Darstellung der Kinder des Baumeisters, die bei den Bauarbeiten am Schloss von einem Gerüst stürzten und ums Leben kamen. Der Meister wurde darüber so schwermütig, dass der Bau ins Stocken kam.
Wilhelm Sigmund erzählt diese Legende folgendermaßen:
„Kaiser Ruprecht aber ward böse, daß der Bau so langsam fortschritt und ließ durch den Priester, der die Kinder beerdigt hat, den Meister vermahnen. Der sagte, es sei alles fertig, aber wie er den Abschluß des Tores machen solle, falle ihm in seinem Gram nicht bei.
Alsbald ward dem Meister offenbar, wie er den Abschluß des Tores zu bilden habe. Er meißelte seine Knaben, wie sie ihm erschienen waren, als liebliche Engelkinder, die einen Rosenkranz tragen. In der Mitte des Kranzes setzte er den Zirkel, das Sinnbild seiner Kunst, von der er für immer Abschied nahm.“
– Wilhelm Sigmund[14]
Als Ruprecht III. im Jahr 1400 als Ruprecht I. deutscher König wurde, diente das Gebäude zu Repräsentationszwecken. Deshalb ist auch am Ruprechtsbau eine Wappentafel mit dem Reichsadler angebracht, der auf das Königtum verweist. Im Inneren des Ruprechtsbaus befindet sich ein Renaissance-Kamin, eines der wenigen Elemente der Innenausstattung, die noch heute erhalten sind.
Ruprecht III.
Ruprecht III. und Elisabeth von Hohenzollern-Nürnberg in der Heiliggeistkirche
Ruprecht III. war der einzige Sohn des Kurfürsten Ruprecht II. von der Pfalz. Er stand zusammen mit dem Mainzer Erzbischof seit 1398 an der Spitze der Fürsten, welche am 20. August 1400 König Wenzel absetzten. Der Kölner Erzbischof Friedrich III. von Saarwerden krönte Ruprecht nach seiner Wahl in Köln, da Aachen und auch Frankfurt am Main ihm nicht die Tore öffneten, zum römisch-deutschen König. Im Reich fand er wenigstens in den königsnahen Gebieten schnell Anerkennung, zumal Wenzel nichts weiter unternahm. Allerdings war Ruprechts Wirkungskreis eng begrenzt.
Ruprecht ließ das älteste erkennbare Wohngebäude des Schlosses, den nach ihm benannten Ruprechtsbau errichten. Außerdem begann er den Bau der Heiliggeistkirche.
Friedrichsbau
Friedrichsbau
Name: benannt nach Kurfürst Friedrich IV., dem Begründer der Stadt Mannheim
Kurfürst Friedrich IV. ließ den Friedrichsbau von 1601 bis 1607 errichten, nachdem das zuvor an dieser Stelle befindliche Wohngebäude mit der Schlosskapelle einzustürzen drohte. Johannes Schoch war der Architekt des Bauwerks. In die Hoffassade des Friedrichsbaus sind Statuen der Ahnen der Kurfürsten eingearbeitet. Bildhauer dieser Ahnengalerie des Bauherrn war Sebastian Götz aus Chur. Auf der Hofseite sind die Ahnen Friedrichs dargestellt. Dies sind beginnend oben links:
Zwerchgiebel: Karl der Große, Otto von Wittelsbach, Ludwig der Kelheimer, Rudolf der Stammler
Oberstes Vollgeschoss, vier gekrönte Wittelsbacher: Ludwig der Baier, Ruprecht I., Otto von Ungarn, Christoph von Dänemark
Mittleres Vollgeschoss, die Universitätsgründer Ruprecht I., Friedrich I., Friedrich der Weise, Ottheinrich
Unteres Geschoss: Friedrich der Fromme, Ludwig VI., Johann Casimir, Friedrich IV.
Die Zwerchgiebel zeigen außerdem allegorische Darstellungen von Frühling und Sommer, Sinnbilder für die Vergänglichkeit alles Irdischen.
Der Friedrichsbau ist der erste Palast des Schlosses, der auch mit einer repräsentativen Fassade zur Stadtseite hin errichtet wurde. Im Erdgeschoss des Bauwerks befindet sich die Schlosskirche, welche noch heute unbeeinträchtigt erhalten ist. Die Obergeschosse des Gebäudes wurden als Wohnraum genutzt.
Nach den verheerenden Bränden 1693 und 1764 wurde dieser Teil des Schlosses als einziger Teil wieder aufgebaut. 1890 bis 1900 wurde der Friedrichsbau nach Entwürfen des Karlsruher Professors Carl Schäfer grundlegend im Stil des Historismus erneuert. Damals entzündete sich eine sehr kontroverse Diskussion darüber, wie die Innenräume gestaltet werden sollten. Insbesondere der Kunsthistoriker Georg Dehio hatte sich dafür ausgesprochen, das Bauwerk in seiner gewachsenen Struktur zu erhalten. Letztendlich entschied man sich für eine Innenausstattung im Neorenaissance-Stil. Viele Räume des Friedrichbaus zeigen heute in freier Komposition einen Stilpluralismus. Letztlich wurden die Räume aber nie wieder als Wohnräume genutzt, sondern fungierten als musealer Bau.
Friedrich IV. in der Ahnengalerie des Friedrichsbaus, Schloss Heidelberg
Friedrich IV.
Friedrich IV. übernahm 1608 die Führung der Union der Protestanten, wodurch sich der Konflikt zwischen katholischen und protestantischen Fürstentümern erheblich verstärkte. Friedrich zeigte trotz seiner mangelhaften Ausbildung großes Interesse an den Geisteswissenschaften und ließ an der Heidelberger Universität Lehrstühle für Geschichte und für Orientalistik einrichten.
Friedrich gab sich reichlich seinem Vergnügen hin und ruinierte die Finanzen seines Landes. Seine Ausschweifungen und den Kater danach beschreibt er in eigenen Worten: „bin wohl wieder voll gewest“.
Bleibende Bedeutung hat Kurfürst Friedrich IV., da er in den Jahren 1606 / 1607 die nach ihm benannte Festung Friedrichsburg gründete, aus der die Residenz und Stadt Mannheim hervorging. Seine Haupttätigkeiten am Heidelberger Schloss waren die Errichtung des nach ihm benannten Friedrichsbaus und des Altanbaus sowie der Ausbau der drei Türme an der Ostseite.
Ottheinrichsbau
Ottheinrichsbau, 1894
Fassade des Ottheinrichsbaus, das erste Renaissancegebäude nördlich der Alpen
Name: benannt nach Kurfürst Ottheinrich (Otto-Heinrich)
Erster Baumeister: Hans Engelhardt – Entwurf, zumindest partiell von Peter Flötner
Zweiter Baumeister: Caspar Vischer
Der Ottheinrichsbau wurde unter Ottheinrich erbaut, nachdem dieser 1556 Kurfürst geworden war. Der neue Palast war eines der ersten Renaissancebauwerke auf deutschem Boden und ist ein wichtiges Bauwerk des deutschen Manierismus. Für den Ottheinrichsbau wurden ältere Bauten teilweise verdeckt (Gläserner Saalbau) oder abgerissen (nördliche Hälfte des Ludwigsbaues). Im Osten ruht der Bau auf den Fundamenten älterer Gebäude und auf der äußeren Wehrmauer.
Die Fassade des vier Geschosse hohen Gebäudes ist durch 16 allegorische Figuren verziert, die das Regierungsprogramm des Kurfürsten symbolisieren. Die Figuren stammen von dem Niederländer Alexander Colin, der später für die Habsburger arbeitete. Als Ottheinrich 1559 starb, war der Bau noch nicht fertiggestellt. Frühere Abbildungen (in Matthäus Merians Kurpfälzisches Skizzenbuch) zeigen, dass der Ottheinrichbau vor dem Dreißigjährigen Krieg zwei überdimensionierte Doppelgiebel erhalten hatte, die mit der horizontalen Gliederung des Baues, der sich wesentlich an italienischen Vorbildern der Frührenaissance orientierte, schlecht harmonierten. Dies war offenbar auf einen von Kurfürst Friedrich III. veranlassten Planwechsel zurückzuführen und nicht in der ursprünglichen Bauplanung vorgesehen. Unter Karl Ludwig erhielt der Ottheinrichsbau nach dem Dreißigjährigen Krieg eine neue Bedachung, die riesigen Doppelgiebel verschwanden.
Samson aus Heilbronner Sandstein am Ottheinrichsbau
Figurenprogramm an der Fassade des Ottheinrichsbaus
Die 16 Standbilder (außer den vier Portalfiguren) sind allegorische Darstellungen und Gestalten aus dem Alten Testament und der Götterwelt. Von letzteren hatte der Ottheinrichsbau noch im 18. Jahrhundert den Namen der heidnische Bau:
Parterre: mythische Helden (Josua, Samson, Herakles und David) und römische Kaiser als Sinnbild politischer und militärischer Macht. In den Dreiecksgiebeln der Fenster befinden sich die Portraits berühmter Römer, die nach Vorlagen aus der Münzsammlung angefertigt wurden.
1. Geschoss: Tugenden eines christlichen Herrschers (Stärke, Glaube, Liebe, Hoffnung und Gerechtigkeit)
2. Geschoss: Personifikationen der sieben klassischen Planeten, Saturn, Mars, Venus, Merkur, Jupiter, Sol und Luna
Die vier Standbilder des Erdgeschosses werden durch unbeholfene Verse in gotischer Schrift erklärt:
Der hertzog Josua / durch Gotteß macht Ein und dreissig kü / nig hat umbracht.
Samson der starck ein / Nasir Gotteß war Beschirmet Israhel / wol zwentzig Jar.
Joviß sun Herculeß / bin Ich genandt. Durch mein herliche / thaten wol bekandt.
David war ein Jüng / ling gehertzt und klug Dem frechen Goliath / den kopff abschlug.
Den Sinn dieses Figurenprogramms erklärte der Heidelberger Archäologe K. B. Stark folgendermaßen:
„Die plastischen Darstellungen der Fassade des Palastes bilden zusammen einen schönen Spiegel fürstlicher Regierung. Auf der Kraft der Persönlichkeit, auf dem Heldentum des Volkes baut sich die fürstliche Gewalt sicher auf; sie hat ihr Zentrum in der Übung der christlichen Tugenden, vereint mit Stärke und Gerechtigkeit, steht endlich unter dem Einfluss höherer Mächte, einer himmlischen Leitung, die sich im Lauf der Gestirne kundgibt“
– K. B. Stark[15]
Ottheinrich
Ottheinrich
Ottheinrich führte 1557 den Protestantismus in der Kurpfalz ein, förderte die Wissenschaft und verpflichtete angehende Mediziner zum Sezieren von Leichen. Seine Bibliothek, die Bibliotheca Palatina, galt als eine der bedeutendsten seiner Zeit.
Aufgrund seiner aufwändigen Lebensführung drohte Ottheinrich der Bankrott. In seinen Besitz kam auch ein Schuldschein aus dem Nachlass seiner Großmutter Hedwig. Dieser Schuldschein über 32.000 Gulden, ausgestellt von König Kasimir IV. von Polen aus Anlass der Heirat seiner Tochter Hedwig mit Georg dem Reichen, war vom polnischen Königshof jedoch nie ausgezahlt worden. Ottheinrich ließ Zins und Zinseszins errechnen und kam auf die Summe von 200.000 Gulden. So brach Ottheinrich 1536 zu seinem Großonkel, dem polnischen König Sigismund I., nach Krakau auf. Während der dreiwöchigen Verhandlungen konnte Ottheinrich zwar die Ausbezahlung des Schuldscheins erreichen, nicht jedoch die Auszahlung der Zinsen.
Ottheinrich regierte nur drei Jahre und gehört dennoch zu den bedeutendsten Kurfürsten. Am Schloss ließ er den nach ihm benannten Ottheinrichsbau errichten, der als herausragendes Beispiel deutscher Renaissance-Architektur gilt.