Roman Castle CAMBODVNVM (Camboduno)

The first archaeological excavations in Kempten took place in 1885 by the merchant August Ullrich. Further excavations were carried out until 1911 by the Kempten Antiquities Association, founded the year before. They were continued from 1912 to 1935 by the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation under Paul Reinecke. Against the protest of monument preservation, a large part of the archaeological monuments of the Roman city on the Lindenberg fell victim to the construction measures of this period under Mayor Otto Merkt. The excavations made it possible for the first time to obtain a picture of the structure of the settlement on the Lindenberg.

The cemetery "Auf der Keckwiese" was excavated from 1952 to 1967. Since 1961, the Roman-era finds have been presented in the Roman Museum Kempten in the Zumsteinhaus. The city of Kempten promoted the research of the Roman city since 1982 by establishing an office for urban archaeology. Several follow-up investigations, including those at the Gallo-Roman temple district in 1983/86, served to establish the Archaeological Park Cambodunum (APC). This was opened in October 1987 with a first section (Gallo-Roman temple district).

The city's street system was laid out along a central Decumanus, which originated from the altar in the sacred district of the forum. A Cardo, perpendicular to the Decumanus, is evidenced by the so-called Thermenstraße (Bath Street). Of the city's residential buildings, several of the younger stone construction phases have been identified, especially in the center. Nine complexes can be described as insulae, which were 20–45 m wide and up to 80 m long. West of the forum, there was a small suburb consisting of so-called strip houses. Craft businesses, especially potteries, settled in the peripheral areas of the city.

Forum and Basilica

The forum, which dominated the cityscape, was not built in one go. The "older forum" as the first stone construction phase was preceded by one or two wooden construction phases, which were identified by subsequent excavations in 1985 in the area of the basilica. The older forum was essentially excavated in 1885/86. The complex included the freestanding basilica (initially 49.5 x 25 m) and a building with a larger suite of rooms, probably to be regarded as an administrative and assembly room. A sacred district adjoined to the southeast. It was surrounded by a wall enclosing an area of 600 x 800 Roman feet. Centrally located within it is an altar building measuring 8.4 x 12 m. The buildings had ornamented marble cladding and paintings. Parts of these were discovered as "forum rubble" in other city districts.

The construction of the younger forum is likely to have begun in the Flavian period. These alterations to the forum were probably completed by the middle of the 2nd century. A representative facade with access in the form of a propylon replaced the old forum buildings facing the forum street. The forum square was now built up on all sides, while the large square with the altar and the basilica remained. A striking feature is a building on the south side with an apse, which may have served as an assembly room (curia) for the city council (ordo decurionum), as well as the forum temple on the northwestern narrow side.

To the northeast, a larger building, interpreted as a lodging house (praetorium), was added from the early 2nd century. It initially had several larger suites of rooms of up to 140 m², which were divided into numerous smaller chambers between 12 and 20 m² after a renovation in the early 2nd century.

Gallo-Roman Temple District

In the northwest of the city, near the steep slope by the Iller, a temple district has been uncovered since 1937/38. It was located in the vicinity of the so-called bathhouse. Simultaneously with the conversion of this building into a tavern around the middle of the 2nd century, stone buildings replaced earlier wooden structures in the temple area. A U-shaped double hall enclosed the area, which was open to the north towards the steep slope, from the city. Within it were twelve buildings, though not all must have existed simultaneously. Building 4, a Gallo-Roman ambulatory temple, and a larger building with a later added apse, are important for understanding the complex. The numerous smaller buildings could have served as treasuries for votive offerings.

Baths

In addition to the bathhouse, which functioned as a small bathing facility since the reign of Caligula, the city possessed larger thermal bath complexes northeast of the forum. These bathing facilities are among the earliest structures of their kind north of the Alps. The bathhouse is considered the earliest stone building in Kempten and was uncovered by Paul Reinecke in 1913. The proximity of such a building to a cultically used facility is not a contradiction, as numerous examples of coexistence in other Roman settlements show.

The "small baths" connect to the lodging house at the forum with the palaestra. Three wooden construction phases are known for the building, whose beginning is dated to the late Claudian or early Neronian period. It was originally a "row-type" bath, with rooms for the three stages caldarium, tepidarium, and frigidarium arranged linearly one behind the other. Later, additional stoking rooms, a sweat bath, and a latrine were added to the bath. Access was initially only possible via the praetorium, suggesting an affiliation with the governor's residence.

The "large baths" were built towards the end of the 1st century at the northeastern end of the "Thermenstraße" (Bath Street). With an area of 4200 m², they are among the largest thermal bath buildings north of the Alps. Their size was only surpassed by the large thermal bath complexes of the 2nd century and late antiquity, including the baths of Colonia Ulpia Traiana (Xanten), the Barbarathermen, or the Kaiserthermen in Trier. At this time, the large baths in Kempten already underwent a conversion or reconstruction, which reduced the covered area by about one fifth.

Cemeteries

Of the cemeteries from the early and middle imperial period, the one located north of the city "auf der Keckwiese" near the Keckkapelle is particularly well researched. The majority of the over 400 burials date from the 1st century, with some extending to the end of the 2nd century. In some cases, above-ground tomb structures and grave enclosures are demonstrable.

Around the middle of the 4th century, the area was again used for burials. In the northern part, 38 largely grave-good-free inhumations were found, which overlay some older cremation burials, and showed fire debris from destroyed early and middle imperial graves in their backfill. Both the lack of military equipment among the finds and the gender ratio (male : female = 5 : 12) suggest a civilian character of the cemetery.

Further cemeteries are presumed east and south of the city. Individual graves were discovered in 1862 during the construction of Kempten's Ostbahnhof. South of the city, such finds are currently unknown.

A smaller inhumation cemetery under today's Rathausplatz belongs to the late antique settlement on the Burghalde.

Late Antique Buildings

At the foot west and north of the Burghalde, a 1.8 m thick wall and a single associated tower were identified. The fortification enclosed an inner area of just under 1 ha and probably belonged to the late antique civil settlement. The only building that could be definitively identified was a presumed residential house measuring 5 x 9.5 m. On the plateau of the Burghalde, with a length of 130 m and a width between 20 and 95 m, two wall sections are attributed to the late antique fortification, when the city was a stationing site for a detachment of Legio III Italica.

Whether there was still a settlement on the Lindenberg, located east of the Iller, in late Roman times is not certain due to a lack of clear settlement finds. Late antique glass and coin finds and little pottery only indicate a slight continued settlement. The late antique reuse of the cemetery "auf der Keckwiese" would also support this.