Centum Prata

Centum Prata is the name of a Roman vicus on the eastern shore of Lake Zurich, whose remains are located in Kempraten (to which the vicus lends its name) in the municipality Rapperswil-Jona, canton of St. Gallen, Switzerland. Centum Prata is the most important archaeological site from the Gallo-Roman era in the canton of St. Gallen.

In the Gallo-Roman era the former vicus was named Centoprato (lit. '100 meadows'), and in 863 it was mentioned as Centiprata from which Kempraten is derived. Unclear due to the naming of the settlement is a Celtic origin respectively a former Celtic settlement.

The majority of the remains of commercial, residential, religious and public buildings are situated in Kempraten, some structures in Rapperswil (St. Ursula church and cemetery), as well at St. Martin Busskirch and at the parish church in Jona. There are also Roman era pile remains of the historical bridge between Rapperswil and Hurden in the upper lake Zürich, found in the 2000s. At the Kempratnerbucht the Roman transshipment harbour for goods, that have been transported on the Roman streets, on the Seedamm area bridge and on the waterway, was situated.

The main road (as of today, Kreuzstrasse and Fluhstrasse) of the vicus Centum Prata was built parallel to the Zürichsee lakeshore at the so-called Kempratnerbucht, meaning bay of Kempraten. It measures about 300 metres (984 ft) in the north-south direction and 200 metres (656 ft) in the east-west axis. The first settlement phase was built in half-timbered and simple wooden houses, later in stone along the main axis. On the eastern edge, there was a cremation cemetery. The centre of the settlement extended to the so-called Römerwiese (literally: Roman meadow), now a residential building complex, where the remains of walls of a Roman building and several exhibits from the excavations are shown to the public. Further remains of stone residential and commercial buildings are located at Meienbergstrasse, where some pillars and the stairs to the entrance of the Forum are re-erected, and in the cemetery in the St. Ursula chapel in Rapperswil. On lakeshore Zürichsee the foundation walls of religious structures were also archaeologic

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