Albaniana

Albaniana was the name the ancient Romans gave a settlement on the southern banks of Rhine river, some 40 kilometers from its mouth in the North Sea, known as Alfen and modern-day Alphen aan den Rijn, Netherlands. They built a military fort (Latin: castellum) there, as part of a range strategically built encampments, to protect and guard the river, frontier (limes) of the Roman Empire and main transport route of goods and troops. The historical map Tabula Peutingeriana situates the settlement in between Matilo (Leiden) and Praetorium Agrippinae (Valkenburg) downstream and Nigrum Pullum (Zwammerdam) and Fectio (Vechten) upstream. The village was mentioned in Antoninus' register of roads Itinerarium Antonini from the 3rd century. The fortress must have been surrounded by a wall of earth and wooden poles, with gates and watch towers.

The origin of Alphen aan den Rijn can be dated back to approximately 40 AD. The town that now consists of over 70,000 inhabitants was than a rural settlement with little more than 100 inhabitants. The name Albaniana means "by the white waters". These white waters likely refer to the Old Rhine, where the army camp was situated.

A dendrochronological dating of the wood enables us to say that the fort was built after the state visit of Caligula to Germania Inferior in AD 40–41. The wooden building was meant to protect the 'limes'; the Roman border consisting of the Rhine. Caligula built this fort with the idea of crossing over to Great Britain; this was not accomplished during his reign, although his successor Claudius succeeded. The building was an isolated outpost; few colonies were located nearby. The complex was exclusively made of wood. It had wooden outer walls and wooden watchtowers. Outside the walls canals were dug. This wall was approximately a hundred and twenty meters long and eighty meters wide. During the Revolt of the Batavi (between AD 69 and 70) the wall was demolished by the Cananefates; this was later rebuilt after the rebellion had been quelled. Around 160 AD, the wooden wall had been replaced by a brick wall. It was around this time that a new entrance gate was built, carrying an inscription referring to Emperor Sep

Archaeological site data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).