DEVA VICTRIX

Deva Victrix was a legionary fortress located in Britania. Originally it was just a settlement, which evolved until become the city of Chester. It is believed that It was built in the decade of the 70s, 1st century. Several facts make the people think that it was destined to be a military base. The city used to have barracks, granaries, military headquarters and hot spring.

Deva was located in cornovii lands. Currently that territory comprises Cheshire, Shropshire and north Wales. When negotiations broke down between the Empire and the Brigantes, a celtic tribe, Romans decided to built a fortress in mid 70s. The fortress was located in the environs of natural harbour.Deva Victrix comes from diva, goddess in Latin. There is another alternative that suggests that took the name directly from the Britons who used to call the river with this name. Moreover Chester comes from castrum in Latin which means fortress or military camp. Many English villages took their names because they grew from camps until they became cities.

The discovery of Roman coins in Chester testifies the presence of Roman soldiers until 383. In fact, the main buildings of the fortress remained in good condition until the second half of the fourth century. It is likely that the full withdrawal of troops from Chester occurred after Magnus Maximus invaded Gaul (383). When the Romans withdrew from Britain civilians continued using this fortress and its defences in order to defend against attacks from the Irish Sea.

The abandonment of Chester continued on a smaller scale after the departure of the imperial legions. Most of the buildings fell into disrepair, but some of the most important buildings remained standing for a long time.

Chester has a lot of archaeological remains; the most important ones are the next ones:

Amphitheare

Archaeological Chester Society found the amphitheatre of the fortress in 1929, this society protected the discovery of the construction of a road on the place. The excavations revealed crops planted on the Iron Age and also that the amphitheatre was built in two phases. It was able to accommodate between 8000 to 10000 people. This indicates that it was a really large camp, and that it had a really big amount of inhabitants.

The amphitheatre had many different uses. Because of its closeness to the fortress it was used as a training field.

The Baths

Deva Victrix had a large bath complex. The thermae were located near the south gate, had a size of 82.6 meters to 85.5 meters, an height of 16.1 and walls with 1.2 meters of thickness. Its construction was completed at the end of the reign of Emperor Vespasian.

Canabae Legionis

Around the civilian settlement canabae legionis was established in the vicinity of the fortress .During the Roman occupation appeared a large group of traders that boosted to the establishment, prosperous trades with the soldiers in Deva. The Grosvenor Museum has more than 150 gravestones, and offers the largest collection of Roman tombstones originating throughout Briton. The soldiers used a large number of graves to repair the northern part of the wall. The settlement was located spread to the east, south and west of the fortress; also shops were built 300 meters away from the walled zone.

Quarry

In the construction of this fortress sandstone was used by the Romans who obtained this from the quarry that was located at the other side of the river, in the south of the fortress. Nowadays rests of this quarry can be seen in Handbridge district.

In 1939 new discoveries were made. Deva was a 20% bigger than most of the fortress. Something points Deva Victrix as a province capital, because of its harbour, its two baths and its big harvest, which also indicates that it was the agricultural headquarters.

Gonzalo Calvo Sánchez