Augusta Prætoria, the Roman town

Aosta was born from a military camp. In 25 BC, after defeating the Salassi, the people who held the valley, Rome founded a colony where the Dora Baltea meets the Buthier. It was named after the emperor: Augusta Prætoria Salassorum. Some 3,000 veterans of the Praetorian Guard settled there.

A town laid out on a grid

The town is a large rectangle of about 724 by 572 metres. Two main streets cross it: the cardo, from north to south, and the decumanus, from east to west. The other streets divide the space into regular blocks. This grid plan can still be read today in the streets of the historic centre.

A stop on the road to Gaul

The site was not chosen by chance. Aosta controls the junction of the roads to two passes: the Little St Bernard, towards Gaul, and the Great St Bernard, towards the Valais and the Rhine. Legions, merchants and officials passed through the town.

What you can see today

Few towns keep so many Roman remains. In Aosta you can visit the Arch of Augustus, the Roman gates including the Porta Prætoria, the town walls and their towers, the Roman theatre and the cryptoporticus beneath the forum. Outside the town, the Roman road can still be followed at Donnas, at Pont-Saint-Martin and at the Pont d’Ael aqueduct bridge.

Main photo: Patafisik, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Maps: personal work by Marc Badjou.