The Forum of Cambodunum – Kempten

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Since 2019, a collaborative project with the city of Kempten has been investigating the interface between the residential areas in the west and the public areas in the east of the Roman city. By 2022, large parts of houses 6 and 7 of Insula 1 will have been excavated and examined. The aim of the follow-up project is to examine the buildings documented by August Ullrich in 1885 and 1886 and by Paul Reinecke in 1925 and 1931, particularly those of the so-called Older Forum.

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In 2024, the southern end of a row of rooms observed by Ullrich was uncovered beneath the younger forum. It is interpreted as the eastern end of the so-called older stone forum. This is where the hall documented in Insula 1, which formed the southern end of the complex, must have begun. During the excavation, the well-preserved corner room of the older forum was examined. Inside and, in part, outside, extensive remains of partially painted wall plaster were preserved. It was clearly recognizable that the hall structure connected to Insula 1 was also added here later to the already existing southeast corner of the Older Stone Forum. The next excavation campaign will hopefully reveal whether the hall may have had a wooden predecessor that was only later rebuilt in stone. The relative chronological relationship between the so-called older Curia and the southeastern corner room of the forum uncovered this year also remains unclear.

Collaborative Partners

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• Cambodunum Archaeological Park
• Kempten Cultural Office
• Bavarian State Office for the Preservation of Historical Monuments