2000 years ago the current town of York was an immense Roman fort called Eboracum. It was founded in AD 71 and continued to be expanded and maintained for 340 years. Amazingly, some bits of the fort still exist today as well as other examples of the town's Roman heritage.
 |
| Map of the Roman fort |
Bootham Bar is a medieval wall gate that stands right over the ruins of the northwestern gate of the Roman fort. The foundations are just below ground level. The road from here led north to
Hadrian's Wall and Scotland beyond.
 |
| Bootham Bar/Northwest Gate |
One extant wall dates back to AD 300 and was built by Emperor
Constantius Chlorus who died in York in 306.
 |
| Ancient wall |
Constantius was the father of
Constantine the Great, who has a statue just outside
York Minster. Constantine was crowned emperor in York so naturally he is remembered fondly.
 |
| Constantine the Great |
 |
| Front view |
 |
| Check out the cool shoes! |
Nearby is a column that dates back to Roman times as well.
 |
| Roman column |
On the wall walk I saw the foundations of the eastern corner tower of the Roman fort. The towers originally stood 8 meters high (just over 26 feet).
 |
| Eastern corner tower foundations |
No comments:
Post a Comment