Augusta Raurica

A few nights ago, when we were laying out our vacation plans, we stumbled upon a reminder that this weekend was the annual Römerfest of Augusta Raurica. We'd first heard about the festival during Sechseläuten, when representatives from the outdoor museum set up a little mini-fair in Zürich's Lindenhoff. Augusta Raurica is the archeological site of a Roman colony dating at least as far back as a decade B.C. And each year they host an elaborate fair, somewhat like a Medieval fair but a lot less creepy and with togas.

Augusta Raurica is just outside Basel; the trip there took about 90 minutes, most of which I spent reading to the boys. But we did get to enjoy looking at the window a little, enjoying the scenery.

We were hungry when we arrived, and so Dennis and I rushed the kids through the fair to one of the food tents. As always, I was impressed at how pretty and delicious the food was, so far above the standards I'd expect.  Alex, for example, had a gorgeous roasted chicken, with olives and ancient grains on the side.  I had a yummy mushroom risotto, which I enjoyed thoroughly until I found a little caterpillar in amongst my rice. Better than half a caterpillar, amiright?

Only after we'd staved off potential melt-downs with massive quantities of food did we take the kids out to wander around the festival.

Of course, it was pretty incredible to see the ruins themselves, on the outreaches of the festival, and the kids tolerated these very nicely because there was quite the carrot waiting for them.

The footprint of a Roman Bath

Back at the festival, there were rows and rows of little tents. Some were vendors, selling items with a tenuous tie to Ancient Rome: potters, honey makers, a perfumer.

A fascinating bone carver, who sold dice, reminding us of the origin of the phrase "throw the bones"

Weavers, doing some beautiful work

And some were tents with people who were demonstrating crafts: smiths, glaziers, carvers.  The best of these, of course, were most directly related to the Augusta Raurica site.  For example, they had museum docents present demonstrating how the ancient Romans created their wooden water pipes.

The long tool, used for boring out
wooden pipes

A wooden pipe, in action

But most of the stands were little hands-on activities for the children, free games or demonstrations  of Roman crafts. In one tent they'd set up some large stones, and they handed willing children safety goggles and hammers and chisels, so that the kids could experience exactly how hard it had been to cut the stones that composed the adjacent Roman Amphitheater.

Children, boring hole with little
string-powered hand drills

Ella, minting her own Roman coin. Treasure!

A spear-chucker demonstration. Unfortunately for them, the kids started to
squabble while they were waiting in line about who would get to go first.
Neither did: I told them there was no way I'd be arming them with spears
when they were in a fighting mood.

In another tent, kids could break up stones and then use these fragments to put together a little mosaic garden stone. Our kids very much wanted to do this, but the wait was a little long, so we steered them toward a slightly more low-key mosaic activity, where they could arrange pre-cut tiles.

One of the ancient mosaics, in the museum

Alex, doing some very careful work!

Ella's art, on professional display

Another tent had little lumps of clay that the children could take and mould to their heart's content. While she was hard at work, Ella caught the eye of a professional potter, who was selling her wares next to our table.  She pulled Ella aside and made a tiny clay bird for her. Ella took the bird back to her table, studied it, and made a copy to give as a gift for her instructor.  The potter was surprised and tickled pink: "Oh, I am so proud!" She perched the little bird on the rim of one of her pots, where it sat for the rest of the afternoon,

My three little potters, concentrating fiercely

Coffee break

They had many stalls with little free games of skill: dice games and strategy games and one game that was more my kids' speed:

"Throw The Walnut"

Really, there was just way too much for the space of an afternoon.  There was a tent where, for five francs, your daughter could have her hair braided and curled in an ancient Roman style.  Ella decided against doing this because "I'll just have to wash my hair out tonight." Practical girl. Although I would have gotten a kick out of seeing her all braided, something for which I just don't have the skill. Similarly, I was sad that we didn't find the costume tent until late in the day: we could have rented togas for the kids.

They had several little drop-off clinics (priced at 10-25 CHF), where the children could learn some highly useful skills. In one, the kids were given supplies to create their own roman horns, fashioned after the circular Roman cornu: when they were finished, the kids paraded noisily through the fair grounds. In one tent, kids could buy swords and shields to decorate; they could learn to wield these in a battle clinic, where they practiced hand-to-hand combat and learned to make a testudo formation at the blow of a whistle.

"Testudo," or "Tortise," formation

Fun with weapons

For the headline event of the festival, they had gladiatorial fighting, held in the authentic Roman amphitheater. The fighters had been brought in from Italy: the man in charge of the group was well schooled on the period costumes and armor and weaponry, and half of the show was a presentation on these. But he spoke Italian, and so they had a German translate for the audience...and Dennis translated him for our family.  From what he could understand, the combatants used real weapons, but with dull blades: "We only fight with sharpened weapons a few times a year." 

Our Masters of Ceremonies for the Gladitorial show, and two of
the competitors

After five minutes of talk about the outfit, two of the gladiators would battle, one eventually kneeling in surrender. Ella happily ignored the combat, playing with her clay during the show. The boys were more engaged: Alex had a lot of fun betting on who would be the winner. But Joey was the most attentive of all: he was terrifyingly enthusiastic about the blood sport.

An excited spectator

"The Stadium Orchestra": a little organ and
horn that would play during the combats

Joey gave me a little running commentary of his own during each of the fights: "Look! Those knights! They fighting! The tiny guy, he's not winning, 'kay! He's not winning, but he's fighting hard! I like the fighting!"

The ultimately merciful audience

During the final fight, we were told that we, the audience, would get to decided whether the loser of the fight would live or die.  I'm relieved to report that my kids, even Joey, all chose to yell "Vita!"

Waiting in line for the ponies, just like a big kid

Amazingly, even after all that excitement, Joey still had enough energy for a pony ride before collapsing in my arms into a deep sleep.

And Ella and Alex still had it in them to run to the last few corners of the festival grounds that we hadn't yet seen, where we got to watch some solders muster before setting off on a parade across the festival grounds. I got such a kick out of how these soldiers accumulated an ever-grown cluster of children, marching behind them.

But Ella and Alex were a little too tired to join by then, and Dennis and I had drained our coffee thermoses dry.  It was time say goodbye to Ancient Rome. 

Valete!