Fishbourne Roman Palace
| Fishbourne Roman Palace | |
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Mosaics at Fishbourne Roman Palace
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 Location within West Sussex
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| General information | |
| Location |
Fishbourne, West Sussex grid reference SU838047 |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Coordinates | 50°50′12″N 0°48′37″W / 50.8366°N 0.8103°WCoordinates: 50°50′12″N 0°48′37″W / 50.8366°N 0.8103°W |
| Completed | 1st century |
| Demolished | c. 270 AD |
Fishbourne Roman Palace is in the village of Fishbourne, Chichester in West Sussex. The large palace was built in the 1st century AD, around thirty years after the Roman conquest of Britain, on the site of a Roman army supply base established at the Claudian invasion in 43 AD.
The rectangular palace surrounded formal gardens, the northern parts of which have been reconstructed. There were extensive alterations in the 2nd and 3rd centuries, with many of the original black and white mosaics being overlaid with more sophisticated coloured work, including the perfectly preserved dolphin mosaic in the north wing. More alterations were in progress when the palace burnt down in around 270, after which it was abandoned.
Although local people had known of the existence of Roman remains in the area, it was not until 1960 that the archaeologist Barry Cunliffe first systematically excavated the site, which had been accidentally uncovered by Aubrey Barrett, an engineer working for Portsmouth Water Company who was laying a new water main across a field. The Roman villa excavated by Cunliffe's team was so large that it became known as Fishbourne Roman Palace, and a museum was erected to protect and preserve some of the remains in situ. This is administered by the Sussex Archaeological Society.
In size, it is approximately equivalent to Nero's Golden House in Rome or to the Villa Romana del Casale near to Piazza Armerina in Sicily, and in plan it closely mirrors the basic organisation of the emperor Domitian's palace, the Domus Flavia, completed in AD 92 upon the Palatine Hill in Rome. Fishbourne is by far the largest Roman residence known north of the Alps. At about 500 feet (150 m) square, it has a larger footprint than Buckingham Palace.
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Wikipedia