Archaeological Park Cambodunum

The Archäologischer Park Cambodunum lies on a flood-safe terrace above the Iller in Kempten, Allgäu. It covers the remains of Cambodunum, a Roman town founded under Emperor Augustus. Excavations began in 1885 by local merchant August Ulrich and have uncovered more than forty sites since then. August Thiersch identified the forum as the heart of the long-sought Roman city. The park is divided into three zones: a Gallo-Roman temple district, small public baths and the forum with its basilica and praetorium. Cambodunum served as the administrative seat of the province of Raetia in the 1st century AD. The praetorium housed the governor until Augusta Vindelicum took over as capital. The baths attached to the praetorium were first for official use and later adapted for the public. Thirteen temples and cult buildings from the 1st and 2nd centuries show how Kelts, Germans and Romans shared their gods. Reconstructed in original size, they include altars to Mercury, Hercules and Epona. Visitors can walk among these shrines and read the inscribed votive tablets left by worshippers. The temple district now holds sixteen cult sites, five of them carefully rebuilt. A reconstructed double hall once enclosed the area on three sides. The forum’s remains include a basilica rebuilt after a fire around AD 70 and the praetorium’s foundations. The small museum-protected baths display heating systems and latrines. Paths lead past every foundation, letting visitors trace the town’s growth from wooden shrines to stone temples.