The story of this place
Around 100 AD the emperor Trajan elevated a settlement on the lower Rhine to a full Roman colony, Colonia Ulpia Traiana, which grew to some 10,000 people with an amphitheatre, temples, harbour and bath house. Unusually, when the Romans left and the city was abandoned, no medieval town was built on top of it — the stone was quarried away but the ground plan lay preserved beneath farmland. This let archaeologists excavate and partially reconstruct the city on its original foundations, creating one of the largest archaeological parks in Europe. Visitors walk through a rebuilt amphitheatre, temple and Roman inn where the real streets ran. The nearby town's name, Xanten, derives from 'ad Sanctos', the site of Christian martyrs' graves.