Augusta Raurica - Subsequent History

Subsequent History

By the 2nd century AD it was a prosperous commercial trading centre and in its glory days the capital of a local Roman province. It is estimated that the population reached approximately twenty thousand people. Augusta Raurica prospered between the 1st and 3rd centuries, and exported smoked pork and bacon to other parts of the Roman Empire. In the city were the typical amenities of a Roman city, an amphitheatre, a main forum, several smaller forums, an aqueduct, a variety of temples, and several public baths and the largest Roman theater north of the Alps with 8,000 to 10,000 seats. Many of these sites are open to visitors year round.

In 250 AD a powerful earthquake damaged a large part of the city. Shortly after, around 260 AD Alemanni tribes and/or marauding Roman troops destroyed the city. The Romans attempted to maintain their military position by building a fortress on the Rhine, Castrum Rauracense; the walls of which are still partly intact. Augusta Raurica was resettled on a much smaller scale on the site of the castrum. These two settlements form the centers of the modern communities of Augst and Kaiseraugst.

In 1442 these communities were divided along the Ergolz and Violenbach rivers. The western portion was given to Basel, which became a canton of Switzerland in 1501. In 1833 Augst became part of the canton of Basel-Land. The eastern part became part of Habsburg territories, and to differentiate between the two towns was renamed Kaiseraugst. Kaiseraugst became part of Switzerland in 1803 after the defeat of the Habsburgs during the Napoleonic Wars.