Aosta Romana

L’arco d’Augusto

arco_augusto

Just past the bridge over Buthier, along the road leading to the city Porta Praetoria, was the honorary arch dedicated to the Emperor Augustus. It was an eloquent sign of the presence and power of Rome, in 25 A.C., He had finally defeated the Salassians, founding the new colony.

L'Arco, imposing, Late Republican style, It is to a single round arch, off about 9 meters. The pillars that support it have, at the four corners, half-columns with Corinthian capitals. Originally, these surfaces were interrupted by relief designs with trophy, placed in the four recesses of the facade. A Doric entablature encloses the upper part that remains of the monument, for centuries without, on which it was affixed the dedicatory inscription. In the Middle Ages, the arch was called “Saint-Vout” from an image of the Savior, later replaced with the Crucifix (Today the original copy kept in the Cathedral). In 1716, it was decided to preserve the monument from water infiltration by covering it with a slate roof. The arch was renovated over the years 1912-1913; in the early '900, They came to light two large letters in gilded bronze, probably formed part of the dedicatory.

Porta Praetoria

porta_praetoria

On the eastern side of the wall, It was the main access to the city of Augusta Praetoria . It had three openings, still visible today: the central one for carriages and the side for pedestrians. The area inside the openings was used as a parade ground; in its southern part, the ground has been dug up to the ground level in Roman times (approximately two meters below the current level, the difference is due to the materials transported by river floods). In the openings facing the outside are still visible within the grooves where the gates which were lowered at night. The external facade are still visible some of the marble slabs that covered the entire monument, the inside it consists of blocks of conglomerate. In the Middle Ages it was resting against Porta Praetoria a chapel dedicated to the Holy Trinity (now we just have a niche), which he took its name, for several centuries, the same Porta Praetoria.

Roman Theatre

Roman amphitheaterThey remain visible the southern facade, with its overlapping arches, the underside of the semi-circle of steps that housed the spectators (cavea), and the foundations of the wall that served as backdrop (stage). Some scholars believe that the theater had a stable roof. Built in the first century. D.C., a few years after the foundation of Augusta Praetoria , It was expanded a couple of centuries later. The Roman Theater is immediately obvious attention, for its southern facade (the only survivor) measuring well 22 meters high. His majesty is punctuated by a series of buttresses and arches, and it is lightened by three superimposed orders of varying shape and size windows. Ben are also identified the bleachers hemicycle that housed the spectators, the orchestra (whose radius is 10 meters), and the stage wall (now reduced solely to foundations) that once she soared with its rich ornate vistas of columns, marble and statues. It is estimated that the theater could hold three or four thousand spectators.

Roman Walls

The boundary wall of Augusta Praetorimura_romaneShe formed in a rectangle 724 m per 572 m and was constituted by an inner layer of river stones and an outer blocks of travertine. Traits in which the coatings are still visible: Via Carducci, via Carrel (in correspondence of the bus station), Via Monte Solarolo, via Abbé Chanoux. In via the fiesta spirit, especially at the junction with Via Vevey, you can see the open gaps in the walls for the passage of modern city streets.

Criptoportico forensic

From the garden square Giovanni XXIII leads to the forum Cryptoporticus, monumental construction that marked a sacred area dedicated to the worship. It 'a basement building, finely plastered inside and lit by windowscriptoportico_forense good luck. The construction comprises of a horseshoe in shape and is constituted by a twin-aisle, with barrel vaults supported by pillars. There was much discussion on the specific destination of the monument (Augustan age); Its main purpose was to establish a containment structure and regularization of the land that, in that zone, He created a level difference between the sacred area and the adjacent legal plateau. In addition to the support function, It has been hypothesised that the part of basement also serve as a military warehouse and granary, while the probable marble colonnade overhead served as a stunning backdrop to the temples of the sacred area.

Aqueduct Bridge Pondel

An inscription placed onPondelagainst North allows
its dating a year 3 a. C. and remember the promoter and owner, Caius Avillius Caimus. The structure included a covered walkway, of 1 m meters wide, illumina
to narrow windows on both walls, which it was accessed by openings provided with wooden windows and doors at the two ends. An upper channel discovered, with the bottom made of stone slabs and walls waterproofed, allowing the flow of water collected from springs located on the left bank of the river; from head west you can still see remnants of the hydraulic system of which the structure was part. Among the various hypotheses about the function of the bridge, They have emerged thesis of a work connection with the extraction and treatment of ferrous material in the Cogne valley or, more likely, a function of short-bridge-aqueduct in the territory. Subsequent changes indicate an operation of the water collection system still in post-classical age, for the benefit of the villagers, of which it has indirect news from at least the thirteenth century, through the reference to the existence of a mill (document of the year 1265).

Showtime Area Fuori Porta Decumana

This is an important necropofuori_porta_documanathem from Roman times, located approximately 200 meters away from Porta Decumana; a similar finding to that of other burial site at the Porta Praetoria and Porta Principalis Sinistra, All accesses to Augusta Praetoria (Aosta). The necropolis was used for a long time, both in Roman times to early Christian: was the presence of pagan and Christian burials quite usual, as well as very similar were the rites connected with the cult of the dead. Nell’area t roviamo 3 mausolei, a rectangular hall (acquaintances come cetane memory) and an early Christian basilica, whose dating from the end of the fourth century to the entire V. For the latter are evident strong similarities with analogous Christian buildings arisen on Roman necropolis outside the walls, such as the Church of San Lorenzo and the Church of Santo Stefano. The site has had a long period of use, roughly until the end of the first millennium, began when the progressive abandonment of the building.

The consular road to Gaul

In Aosta preroman existedvia_gallie a primitive road network, It consists of paths, since prehistoric times, allowed the trade and cultural relations across the Alps. Even today there, on the hill of Aosta, a street called Salassi Road, which runs at a higher altitude than that of the subsequent Roman itinerary. The consular road to Gaul, Company high quality engineering, he held in high regard the conformation of the territory, was the first public work realized by the new conquerors, infrastructure essential to their political and military expansion. The road crossed the Aosta Valley coming from Eporedia (Ivrea), but Augusta Praetoria ad (Aosta), then bifurcate in the direction of the Alpis Graia hill (Piccolo San Bernardo) e dell’Alpis Pœnina (Gran San Bernardo). The path is now, largely, known not only for still visible archaeological remains, but thanks to the reconstructions which give the ancient routes, which also indicate the places for the rest of humans and animals. In addition to the section between Donnas and Bard, It is in the locality Pierre Taillée (Tell) which preserves the most monumental part of the road, that, who, It shows cuts into the rock and supported by cyclopean buildings. Other important archaeological remains are those of the bridges of Saint-Vincent and Châtillon, the remnants of the street in Montjovet and stretches of road and buildings in Arvier, Mecosse, Leverogne e Runaz.

Roman bridge at Pont-Saint-Martin

An impressive testimony of Romaponte_saint_martenanizzazione of Valle d'Aosta. Its date is uncertain: for some have been built around the 120 A.C.. for others in 25 A.C.. At the base are visible, carved into the living rock, the housings for the wooden beams that have provided the necessary framework for the construction of the stone arch. In the late nineteenth century, some iron keys were added to strengthen the structure. Popular imagination has attributed the construction of the bridge to the devil. Saint martin, Bishop of Tours, returning to his diocese, found himself blocked by the Lys river, that the river had swept the only runway. The devil proposed to solve the problem by building, in one night, a solid bridge, but in exchange the soul of the first one that had crossed the bridge. The saint accepted, but the next morning, throwing a piece of bread at the other end of the bridge, He meant that the first to cross it was a hungry dog. The devil, the dealer, He disappeared into the Lys between flashes and sulfur whiffs, and the population remained the bridge. The legend is still one of the fundamental themes of the Pont-Saint-Martin Carnival, which it concludes with the burning of the devil under the Roman bridge.