Vitudurum — Roman Settlement

The Roman military settlement that preceded modern Winterthur

Before Winterthur was Winterthur, it was Vitudurum — a Roman vicus, or civilian settlement, that grew up alongside a military road station in the 1st century AD. The site, now in the district of Oberwinterthur a few kilometres northeast of the city centre, was one of the most important road junctions in Roman Switzerland, connecting routes toward the Rhine and into Raetia.

Excavations have uncovered the outline of the forum, bath houses, and numerous artefacts now held in the Stadtmuseum Winterthur. A small outdoor archaeological site marks the approximate location of the forum, and information boards explain what stood where. It is modest as Roman sites go, but the Stadtmuseum's holdings make the full picture clearer: Winterthur's Roman past is deeper and more significant than the average visitor realises.

things to do sight historic
A story
Vitudurum was established around 15 BC as a staging post on the Roman road from Augusta Raurica (Basel) to the Rhine frontier. Archaeologists have found evidence of at least three successive Roman buildings on the same site, each levelled and rebuilt as the town grew — a reminder that Winterthur is nearly 2,000 years older than its pleasant old-town shopping streets suggest.

Other places in Things to Do