Rheinfelden is situated on the Rhine, about 17 kilometers to the east of Basel. A bit to the west, at the locality Görbelhof, a villa was excavated in 1961 by Hans Bögli. Unfortunately the ruins no longer exist: they were removed during the building of Autobahn A3.
The waterfront of Rheinfelden. Photo: Wikimedia, Jonas Lucas.Two buildings were excavated. The western one, building A, had a central room measuring 13.50 x 11 m., surrounded on three sides by a corridor. A few rooms were set against the west wall. In the north-west part of the central room was a cellar, with red and white plaster on the walls. The roof of the room was once covered by imbrices and tegulae. The building was destroyed by a fire. Building B to the east measured 12 X 14.50 m. Traces of fire were not found here. Between the buildings wooden water pipes were found. Building A will have been a house. A furnace and some tools, including part of an anvil, suggest that building B was a smithy. It may have been in operation for the army.
Plan of the excavated area. Bögli-Ettlinger 1963, Abb. 1.
The finds were plentiful: ceramics, glass, metal objects, animal bones and coins. They were taken to the Vindonissa Museum in Brugg. From the pottery and the coins can be deduced that the buildings date from around the middle of the third century AD. They were destroyed and given up in the middle of the fourth century (the latest coins belong to the years 345-350 AD). The place is perhaps mentioned in a charter from 752 AD as "villa Corberio". In a document from 1048 AD this would then have become "Gurbulin", eventually leading to the present name of the locality: Görbelhof.
Literature
Bögli-Ettlinger 1963; Bögli 1963; Wiedemer 1963; Hartmann-Weber 1985, 194-195; Drack-Fellmann 1988, 476.
[25-Aug-2023]
