Qualla: Fishbourne Roman Palace

Fishbourne Roman Palace: Introduction

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Charlesdrakew, Public domain. In 1960, an engineer named Aubrey Barrett was digging a trench for the Portsmouth Water Company near the village of Fishbourne when his shovel hit masonry. Beneath a quiet Sussex field lay the foundations of the largest Roman domestic building ever discovered north of the Alps -- a palace with four wings surrounding formal gardens, fifty mosaic floors, underfloor central heating, and its own harbour opening to the sea. It had been there, forgotten, for seventeen centuries.

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Image: Charlesdrakew | Public domain

Fishbourne Roman Palace: A Palace for a Client King

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Udimu, CC BY-SA 3.0. Fishbourne was not built by Romans from Rome. The leading theory, proposed by archaeologist Barry Cunliffe, holds that the palace was the residence of Tiberius Claudius Cogidubnus, a pro-Roman British chieftain installed as king after the Roman conquest of Britain in AD 43. Tacit...

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Image: Udimu | CC BY-SA 3.0

Fishbourne Roman Palace: Fifty Mosaic Floors

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rob Farrow, CC BY-SA 2.0. The palace enclosed a formal courtyard garden of roughly 250 feet per side, surrounded by colonnaded walks in the form of a peristyle. The north and east wings contained suites of rooms arranged around smaller courtyards, with a monumental entrance in the center of the east wing ...

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Image: Rob Farrow | CC BY-SA 2.0

Fishbourne Roman Palace: Transformations and Fire

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Operarius, CC BY-SA 3.0 de. The palace outlasted its original owner and was extensively remodeled in the early 2nd century, possibly subdivided into two or more separate villas. A striking Medusa mosaic was laid over an earlier floor around AD 100. Further major redesigns followed in the mid-2nd century, in...

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Image: Operarius | CC BY-SA 3.0 de

Fishbourne Roman Palace: Under the Sussex Soil

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Charlesdrakew, Public domain. Fragments of the palace had actually surfaced before Barrett's discovery. In 1805, workers building a house on the site found a 13-foot pavement and column fragments, but nobody connected the finds to a larger structure. It took Cunliffe's systematic excavations, beginning in 196...

Read more: Fishbourne Roman Palace on Qualla

Image: Charlesdrakew | Public domain