THESAURUS FECTIO

Just off the A12 motorway and right next to Fort Vechten, we see a slight dip in the landscape beneath a small orchard. Here lie no fewer than seven generations of Roman castella stacked on top of each other.

This is where the Vecht used to branch off from the Rhine. When the Romans conquered northern Europe shortly before the Common Era, this place formed the base from which they wanted to push northwards. An ideal location for the Roman castellum FECTIO.

When the conquest of the north proved unsuccessful, they withdrew behind the Rhine, which from then on formed the northern border of the Roman Empire. A string of castella and watchtowers emerged, with the Limes as the connecting road. This makes Fectio, together with Valkenburg near The Hague and Nijmegen, one of the oldest, largest and most important Roman castella in the Netherlands.

Unlike many other sites, this place has remained free of buildings since that time. You can imagine that there is an archaeological treasure trove (Thesaurus) of world renown lying beneath the ground.