Exhibition

The Roman Museum exhibition extends over a total of eight rooms in the listed manor house and in the southwest corner of Haus Bürgel. You will need about an hour to 90 minutes for a tour.

Accessibility information: the entrance to the exhibition leads via an outdoor staircase with high steps. In the manor house, the stairs are very narrow. Unfortunately, the exhibition is not wheelchair-accessible.

Room 1 – From Roman times to the present day

The 2000-year history of Haus Bürgel is marked by war and peace, by many owners and conversions, and by its location on the Rhine. Room 1 provides an initial overview of this eventful past.

Room 2 – Graves and funeral rites

The uncovering of around ninety cremation graves just outside the former fort provided evidence that the Romans’ settlement at Haus Bürgel dated back as far as the 1^st century AD. Using grave goods found in these graves, this room clearly explains Roman burial customs.

Room 3 – Construction techniques and fortifications

Compared to other military forts built at the same time, Haus Bürgel is rather small, with a floor area of 64 x 64 meters. The layout was square, and the walls up to 2.3 meters thick and reinforced with twelve watchtowers. Models and drawings illustrate how Romans constructed their forts.

Room 4 – The Roman military and coin finds

The inhabitants of the Roman fort were mainly of Germanic descent. Pieces of equipment, clothing, weapons and coins found at the site provide information about the life of Germanic mercenaries in the Roman army.

Room 5 – Everyday life in the fort

The finds from Haus Bürgel prove how well established the import and export of goods was in Roman times. Apart from products from faraway regions, numerous finds of local origin help to shed light on the animal world of the time and the eating habits of the “Germanic Romans" at Haus Bürgel. What’s more, findings such as women’s jewelry demonstrate that the soldiers lived here together with their families.

Room 6 – Archaeologists at work

The Roman foundations of the tower on the northeast corner have been integrated into the exhibition. In the basement, a variety of photos and drawings show visitors how the archaeologists worked during the excavations at Haus Bürgel.

Room 7 – Construction techniques and materials

At the southwest corner of Haus Bürgel, the archaeological outdoor trail opens into a two-part room dominated by large sections of fourth-century Roman masonry. This is a particularly illustrative demonstration of Roman construction techniques.

Room 8 – Shipping and everyday life as a soldier

This room sheds light on shipping on the Rhine during Roman times as well as on everyday life for Roman soldiers and their families in the fort, using replicas created by volunteers from the museum association: take a look at a Roman round mill, a fireplace, a pram (a type of flat-bottomed ship) and a scorpio (torsion siege engine).