Regionalmuseum Römervilla

Description

The Regional Museum Römervilla in Grenzach-Wyhlen presents the remains of an excavated villa urbana and places them in the regional context of Roman settlement south of Freiburg im Breisgau.

The excavated villa lies in the Grenzach district of the Lörrach district. The first traces appeared as early as 1893 during waterworks, including a large column from the entrance area. More extensive excavations followed after demolitions in 1983; these uncovered the southwest corner of the main building and a water basin. Revealed were wall sections more than two metres high, marble mouldings and wall-painting fragments with life-size figures from Roman mythology. Further investigations produced evidence of at least four outbuildings used for the estate’s economy and the accommodation of its staff; the property once extended over about 8,570 m², though large areas are now built over by modern buildings and roads. A few hundred metres to the northwest remains of another villa were discovered in 1934, and sections of a Roman road emerged in 1993 and 2014. Because of its proximity to the Roman colony Augusta Raurica, the complex is interpreted as the country residence of a wealthy Roman citizen (villa urbana); the place name Grenzach may possibly derive from the Roman Carantiacum (estate of Carantius).

Since 1986 a protective structure has housed the site and the Regional Museum Römervilla; the operator is the Archaeology Working Group of the Association for Local History Grenzach-Wyhlen, ownership of the building rests with the municipality of Grenzach-Wyhlen, and the finds are state property. The exhibition space is also used for concerts and art exhibitions.

The display cases show selected finds from Grenzach and 17 other findspots in the district of Lörrach: a bronze horse head, glass vessels, shell ornaments in painted stucco mouldings (unique in Baden-Württemberg), a bronze lock plate, bronze fibulae and turned bone objects such as needles, needle cases and spindle whorls. Also on view are everyday tools (a hoe, a leather knife, a chisel) and remains of elevated dining culture (murex shells, oyster shells). Coins of Vespasian (69–79 AD) and Septimius Severus (193–211 AD) as well as Terra Sigillata from the potteries of La Graufesenque and Rheinzabern point to a foundation in the 1st century AD and use into the third quarter of the 3rd century. A Nemausus coin (Nemausus = present-day Nîmes) comes from a neighbouring villa partially examined in 1936.

After a redesign and scientific cataloguing of the collections, the museum was reopened in 2011 as a regional museum; since then its emphasis has been on Roman everyday culture. The exhibition is complemented by large-scale images of the nearby Roman town Augusta Raurica.