Backroads Europe
The Via Romana in Switzerland
S1 • E5 Apr 23, 2015 45m
Partially expanded by Julius Caesar during his Gaul campaign, military parallels can still be found along the Via Romana between Geneva and Basel. For example, in Bière, not far from Lake Geneva, where a fortress of the Roman occupiers once stood, the Swiss military is now practicing. The so-called Toupins, the parade bells for the annual alpine lift in Vaud, are still forged on the same edge of the village. Bells were also found as additions in Roman graves. You should protect the dead from the ghosts. On the shores of Lake Geneva, the Via Francigena leads via Vidy, where the Roman ruins of Vicus Lousonna are located, to what is now Lausanne. It was not until the 4th century that the city moved from the lakeshore to the hill on which a cathedral now stands.