Fishbourne Roman Palace

The largest Roman residential building discovered in Britain

Fishbourne Roman Palace is the largest Roman residential building found in Britain and one of the most significant Roman sites in northern Europe. Discovered accidentally in 1960 by a workman digging a water-main trench, the palace was excavated over the following years by the archaeologist Barry Cunliffe and revealed to be a building of extraordinary scale and sophistication.

The palace was built around AD 75, possibly for the client king Tiberius Claudius Cogidubnus, a local ruler who collaborated with the Roman administration after the invasion of AD 43. The building was arranged around a formal garden, with four wings enclosing a courtyard. The north wing, which survives best and is open to the public, contained a series of rooms decorated with elaborate mosaic floors. The most famous of these is the Cupid on a Dolphin mosaic, a remarkably well-preserved work that demonstrates the skill of Roman craftsmen working in Britain barely thirty years after the conquest.

The palace had underfloor heating, bathhouses, painted wall plaster, and imported marble. It was not a military installation but a civilian residence of the highest order, suggesting that its owner was a person of considerable wealth and political importance. The gardens were laid out in a formal Roman style, with hedged walkways and bedding trenches that have been replanted to give visitors an impression of the original design.

Around AD 270, the palace was destroyed by fire. Whether this was accidental or deliberate is uncertain. The ruins were never rebuilt, and the site gradually disappeared beneath farmland until its rediscovery in the twentieth century. Today the palace is managed by the Sussex Archaeological Society and open to visitors year-round. The museum building covers the north wing mosaics and houses a collection of finds from the excavations.