In the western part of Bern, in a district named Bümpliz, the remains of a villa lie beneath and around the church of St. Mauritius and the Baumgarten retirement home. The area was investigated on numerous occasions. In 1760 the first finds were reported, including a mosaic with the beginning of an inscription: MAX[---].
The Reformed Church of Bümpliz, formerly of St. Mauritius (Bernstrasse 85). Photo: kirchenvisite.ch.
Plan of the area with the dates of the investigations. Recent excavations are in green.
Rohrbach-Schöfer 2016, Abb. 2.A first stone building was erected around 100 AD. The entrance of the main building (A) was on the north side (R2A). From here a porticus was reached (R5), next to a courtyard (R4). To the north-west of the main house were baths with one heated room (building B, not on the plan). These bathing rooms were demolished in the second half of the second century, when the villa was considerably enlarged. To the south of the courtyard new bathing rooms were built, including five heated rooms. In two of the heated rooms fragments of polychrome and black-and-white mosaics were found (M, M). In the courtyard was a pool with an apse, presumably vaulted. On the west side a long porticus was added, 80 meters long. A room with an apse to the east of the porticus (R42) may have been a dining room. Rooms R7 and R8 appear to have been a storage space (and a studio?) for painters and mosaicists, witness the finds: an iron spatula, vessels with pigments, mosaic tesserae of glass and stone, shells for the decoration of niches, and so on. In building C were two heated rooms (R2E and R2F). The apsidal room R2D could have been a shrine. To the south-east of the main house were secondary buildings (D, E, F), set against an enclosing wall.
Plan of the remains of the villa. Rohrbach-Schöfer 2016, Abb. 6.
Key with the head of a lion, found in 1999 in building C. Bronze and iron. Photo: Archäologischer Dienst des Kantons Bern.Many fragments of paintings were found in building C, in rooms R2A, R2D and R2E. A painting with garlands and birds could be reconstructed. Another wall was covered by a painting that imitated marble and had stylized vegetative motifs (assigned to the last quarter of the second or the first quarter of the third century). On a third wall were painted texts, of which only a few letters were found.
Fragments of paintings from room R2A. Dubois - Broillet-Ramjoué 2022, fig. 12.
Reconstruction of the villa. Archäologischer Dienst des Kantons Bern.
Literature
Von Gonzenbach 1961, 81; Bacher 1994; Rohrbach 2012; Rohrbach-Schöfer 2016; Dubois - Broillet-Ramjoué 2022.
[12-Dec-2023]
