Colonia Ulpia Traiana
The Colonia Ulpia Traiana was a Roman city located in the area of present-day Xanten, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It existed approximately from 100 to 275 CE and was a major center of the province of Germania Inferior. Today, the site is occupied by the and the. The archaeological remains are gradually being excavated and studied.
The Colonia Ulpia Traiana was founded by Emperor Trajan and named after him. As a colonia, it was one of approximately 150 cities in the Roman Empire that held this legal status, granting its inhabitants Roman citizenship and serving as a "miniature Rome." Ulpia Traiana was the third-largest Roman city in present-day Germany, after Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium and Augusta Treverorum. Its public buildings reflected the city's high status as a central hub for the surrounding region.
Pre-Colonia settlements
Archaeological evidence traces the origins of the settlement back to the 4th century BCE. Additional finds date to the 3rd century BCE, but there is no evidence of continuous occupation in the 2nd and 1st centuries BCE. In 13/12 BCE, the Roman general Drusus established the legionary camp Vetera on the nearby Fürstenberg, which served as a base for campaigns into the right-bank Germanic territories. After a victorious campaign in 8 BCE, Drusus resettled 40,000 Germans, primarily Sugambri, to the left bank of the Rhine. He controlled the Rhine river: it was mainly a fluvial fleet, although it also operated in the North Sea. After 30 AD, the fleet moved its main base to the castrum of Alteburg, some 4 km south of Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium. These Germans, now known as Cugerni, formed the population of the settlement that would later become the Colonia Ulpia Traiana.The name of this pre-colonia settlement is not recorded. One hypothesis suggests it was called Cugernorum, analogous to the Batavian capital Batavorum. A clue to the possible name comes from a fragmentary votive inscription to Mars Cicollus from the 60s CE, which likely preserves the first three letters of the place name. Julianus Egidius Bogaers proposed reconstructing this as "Cibernodurum," derived from the tribal name of the Cugerni.
Due to its proximity to Vetera I, Cugernorum/Cibernodurum developed into a relatively prosperous trading center within a few years. However, it likely shared the fate of Vetera during the Batavian Revolt of 70 CE, when it was probably burned down. Evidence includes a burn layer in the eastern part of the later colonia, where the Mars-Cicollus altar, apparently deliberately smashed in antiquity, was found. With the reestablishment of the military camp Vetera II in 71 CE, the settlement was also rebuilt. It featured a well-developed harbor and consisted mainly of timber-framed houses made from local materials.
Colonia Ulpia Traiana
Around 100 CE, Emperor Trajan elevated the settlement to the status of a colonia, naming it Colonia Ulpia Traiana after his full name, Marcus Ulpius Traianus. Initial construction included erection of the city wall and the expansion of the existing street grid in a rectangular pattern. Major new constructions within the city are only documented from the reign of Emperor Hadrian, leaving it unclear whether Trajan's founding involved demolishing existing settlement structures. In the following decades, the colonia was equipped with aqueducts, a sewer system, temples, a forum, and an amphitheater. Previously undeveloped areas were also built up, leading to the discovery of graves within the colonia, despite cemeteries typically being located outside Roman settlements. Within its walls, the 73-hectare city housed approximately 10,000 people, consisting of Romanized Gauls and Germans. With the city's elevation, veterans from the legions stationed at Vetera, among other places, received land grants, forming a wealthy resident class.The colonia was a completely new town with a huge defensive wall and other important buildings, like an amphitheater. For this town the old castrum settlement was completely abandoned. The colonia became the second most important commercial post in the province of Germania Inferior, surpassed only by Colonia Agrippinensis. In 122 AD, Vetera II became the camp of Legio XXX Ulpia Victrix, replacing VI Victrix which had moved to Britannia. Colonia Ulpia Traiana was defended by huge walls 3.4 km long and with 22 towers
During the whole 2nd and the first half of the 3rd century this Roman colony was involved into a continuing process of urbanization and architectural improvement. The Roman Baths were built by Hadrian around 125 AD, with a big Port Temple. But the huge complex of Thermae was destroyed in 275 AD.
Various trades are attested in the city. In 1993, excavations at the harbor uncovered numerous layers of Roman pottery, mostly misfired pieces, indicating a local pottery workshop. Additional pottery waste found under the Matronae sanctuary in Insula 20 confirms local ceramic production in the pre-colonia period. In Insula 39, metalworking workshops were excavated, primarily processing silver.
Archaeological evidence suggests that the settlement of Colonia Ulpia Traiana declined throughout the 3rd century, often linked to Germanic raids in the Germanic and Gallic provinces during this period. In the second half of the century, the Rhine arm in front of the city silted up, removing a natural defensive barrier. The only clear archaeological evidence for a possible destruction of the city comes from the fill of a cellar in the Roman inn, where a burnt layer containing a silver coin of Emperor Aurelian was found. This has led to the assumption that the historically documented extensive raids by the Franks in 275/276 caused the city's destruction. However, Bernd Liesen and Marcus Reuter concluded from their analysis of the inn's cellar excavations that this single find is insufficient to link the destruction of the entire colonia to the Frankish raids or to confirm a violent destruction of the inn itself.
Post-Colonia settlement
In the late 3rd century, a strong fortification encompassing nine insulae was built in the central areas of the colonia. This was initially dated to around 310 CE, leading to assumptions of a prolonged settlement interruption following the presumed destruction around 275 CE. However, it is now evident that the fortification was likely constructed in the last quarter of the 3rd century. It remains debated whether this settlement can be identified with Tricensimae, a place mentioned in late antique sources and named after the Legio XXX Ulpia Victrix, the main legion of the nearby Vetera II camp since around 120 CE. This raises the question of whether Vetera II was abandoned in the 3rd century, with the remaining legionaries relocating to the new fortification within the Colonia Ulpia Traiana.In 352 CE, the settlement was captured by the Franks. Rebuilt from 359 CE, it was finally abandoned in the first half of the 5th century.
Post-Roman era
Around 440 AD the city was definitively abandoned by the Roman Empire, who moved most of the remaining inhabitants to the area of Augusta Treverorum. In the second half of the fifth century, the Franks began to settle in the area, but no urban settlements have been found from this time as the Franks did not build in stone, unlike the Romans.The buildings initially remained intact, but the decaying colonia increasingly served as a quarry with the onset of medieval construction. Usable materials were repurposed for the construction of the church and the town of Xanten or sold to Holland, causing the Roman city to gradually disappear from the surface. Only the Capitol remained a visible ruin until after 1839. After the stones were cleared and the subsurface searched for more, as evidenced by access holes in the remains of the large baths, the area was converted to farmland.
Since the modern town of Xanten was built on the Roman cemetery, the Roman structures, unlike those in Cologne or Trier, were preserved and only affected by stone quarrying.Systematic excavations began in the 19th century by the Lower Rhine Antiquarian Society, continued in the 1930s during the construction of the Bundesstraße 57, and furthered in the 1950s and 1960s, bringing the Roman city back into focus. From the 1970s, individual buildings were reconstructed as part of the Archaeological Park Xanten, which now encompasses nearly the entire former city.
Structures
The city wall of Colonia Ulpia Traiana enclosed the 73-hectare city over a length of 3.4 km. The settlement was divided into insulae by a grid of perpendicular streets, numbered modernly from 1 to 40. At the city's center was the forum, occupying an entire insula.South of the forum, Insula 26 housed the Capitol. Like other major structures of the CUT, it was built in the 2nd century, on an area previously densely packed with houses, some richly decorated with paintings. The Capitol spanned a large district, with the temple oriented northeast toward the Rhine. Only foundations remain, though ruins were visible until the early 19th century, when initial excavations took place.
Northwest of the forum were the thermae, occupying Insula 10. The so-called administrative palace, whose function remains unclear, spanned three insulae west of the forum. Other significant public buildings included the Amphitheater of Colonia Ulpia Traiana in the southern part of the city and the large Harbor Temple. A smaller Matronae sanctuary, the Matronae Temple, was excavated within the residential area. In Insula 38, adjacent to the small harbor gate and thus near the harbor, was the inn with its associated baths.
The private residential and commercial insulae were subdivided into parcels, typically measuring about 12 × 44 m. These were mostly strip houses. Some houses were richly decorated with wall paintings, but no evidence of mosaics has been found, nor have atrium or peristyle houses been identified, distinguishing the city from Cologne. In Insula 3, a larger residential building resembling a villa rustica rather than a typical urban house was excavated, over 20 m long with corner risalits facing the courtyard and colonnades along the street front. Some rooms had hypocaust heating. In Insula 19, several residential buildings were excavated, some with high-quality wall paintings, including the so-called Eagle-Gigantomachy Wall.