Roman Festival at Augusta Raurica

The site is fairly small but nice and includes an ancient amphitheater, bakery, tavern, a museum, and areas for eating. It’s probably an interesting place to visit without the festival, but the festival made it extra exciting.

The first thing we did was drop by the bakery, where we could be involved in every part of bread making. They had an original stone used to mill grain, which we could use. Then you shaped the dough and had it ready to go into an oven. Afterwards you could eat it! I didn’t have any but the friends we went with said it was really tasty.

There were so many activities, primarily for kids. Fortunately for us our friends brought their four year old so we see more of the fun stuff there was to do. They had a section for building and testing out toy boats, chiseling stones, making rope, a gladiator school, and a chariot course where families could put their kids in a cart and have the parents pull them around. That was particularly entertaining.

For the adults there were a lot of performances for dancing, Roman fashion, and gladiator fights. Several Roman reenactor groups came from around Europe to show off their military costumes.

There was also a big section for eating, drinking, buying handicrafts, and learning about Roman life. I had an absolutely amazing crepe and a couple glasses of mead and beer.

We spent most of the day, from 10-3 here, and it was perfect. Tickets cost $18 for adults. I think it’s probably way more fun if you bring kids with, but I would consider going again next year. I’d also like to check out the site when there isn’t a festival going on, as we didn’t go into the museum exhibits or really learn that much about Roman times in Switzerland. Nevertheless, five snacks!