Verulamium

I have been to St Albans many times but I suddenly realised I have never visited any of the Roman remains so...

St Albans was known as Verulamium to the Romans (The Celtic settlement predating the Roman conquest was Verlamion) it was sited slightly to the South West of the modern city. The Roman settlement was granted the rank of municipium around CE 50. It grew in size and was sacked and burned at her orders in CE 61.

Verulamium contained a Basilica, a Forum and a Theatre, a large portion of the Roman city remains unexcavated, being now park and agricultural land and much has been built upon.  

By the way the City today is named after St Alban who is venerated as the first British Christian martyr.

I toddled off to Verulamium Park which contains a very nice museum and the hypocaust. Just across the road from the park (200 yards or so) is the theatre. 

Within the park is a smallish modern building which contains a Roman Hypocaust (underfloor heating system) and mosaic.

The park is lovely and the Cathedral is easily walkable 

The theatre is not in the park and is on the Gorhambury estate approx 200 yards from the park entrance (you can get a joint ticket with the Musuem which works out cheaper) and was built around CE140. 

The theatre at Verulamium is apparently unique in Roman Britain being a theatre with a stage rather than an amphitheatre.

The theatre site also has shops and a 2nd century town house with a shrine attached.

So back over the road to the Museum. This has some fine mosaics and wall paintings. There are lots of exhibits. The museum shows Roman daily life and this includes death rituals. For those who don't like burials there are some skeletons below consider yourself warned.. The museum had two burials of young children that I didn't photograph. 

There is a separate cafe nearby which served me a coffee and a very nice Breakfast bap for lunch :)

A rewarding visit.