47°33′21″N7°35′35″E / 47.5557°N 7.5930°E /47.5557; 7.5930
Basel-Münsterhügel is the site of anIron Age (late La Tène) fort oroppidum, known asBasel oppidum, constructed by the GaulishRauraci after thebattle of Bibracte in 58 BC. It the site ofBasel Minster, in the Swiss city ofBasel.[1]
The fort was abandoned or destroyed shortly after its construction, before the end of the 1st century BC, with the Roman conquest of the Alps and the establishment of the province ofGallia Belgica.
By the early 1st century AD, there was a smallvicus on the hill built on top of the ruins of the oppidum, possibly the origin of the nameBasilia, from a toponymvilla Basilia "estate of Basilius".In the mid-3rd century, the ruined oppidum was rebuilt as a Romancastrum, fortified with an encircling wall in c. 270. The vicus was abandoned, and the hill served as part of the Roman fortifications of the Rhine against the advancingAlamanni throughout the 4th century.The nameBasilia for the Roman fortification is first mentioned in 237/8, and is named byAmmianus Marcellinus as a base used byValentinian I in his campaign in Gaul in the 360s.The castle was abandoned after the death ofFlavius Aetius in 454 and was probably once again in ruins by the 6th century, when the Alamannic settlement was established that would grow into the medieval city ofBasel.The firstBasel cathedral was built on the site in the early 9th century (replaced by an early Romanesque structure in c. 999–1025, and by the current late Romanesque church in the 12th century).
The site was excavated byFurger-Gunti in the 1970s.There is an older undefended La Tène site atBasel Gasfabrik, not far from theoppidum, which was abandoned after the fort was completed.
