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Chester·Romans
Painted portrait of a weathered legionary of the Twentieth in the rain.

25 facts about Roman Chester

Roman Chester was the fortress of Deva Victrix, founded in the mid-70s AD and home to the Twentieth Legion for three centuries. It had Britain’s largest known military amphitheatre, baths 83 metres across, and a building found nowhere else in the empire. Here are 25 facts, each with its source.

  1. The Romans called Chester Deva, after the River Dee. (Wikipedia, History of Chester)
  2. Victrix, 'victorious', comes from the title of the legion based there, the Twentieth Legion Valeria Victrix. (Wikipedia, Deva Victrix)
  3. The fortress was begun in the mid-70s AD by the Second Legion Adiutrix. (Wikipedia, Deva Victrix (citing D. Mason))
  4. Lead water pipes stamped with the emperor Vespasian's name help date its first buildings. (Wikipedia, Deva Victrix)
  5. At about 25 hectares, it was the largest legionary fortress built in Britain in the 70s. (Wikipedia, Deva Victrix (citing D. Mason))
  6. The Twentieth Legion arrived in about AD 88 from Inchtuthil in Scotland, replacing the Second Adiutrix, which went to the Danube. (Wikipedia, Deva Victrix)
  7. A legion had around 5,000 legionaries at full strength. (General Roman army organisation)
  8. Eight soldiers shared a pair of barrack rooms; Chester's timber barracks were about 82 metres long, later rebuilt in stone. (Wikipedia, Deva Victrix (citing D. Mason))
  9. The Elliptical Building, behind today's Town Hall, has no known parallel in the Roman empire, and nobody knows what it was for. (Visit Cheshire, Roman Chester Trail)
  10. Its oval courtyard measured about 52 by 32 metres, with twelve wedge-shaped rooms and a water feature at the centre. (Current Archaeology)
  11. The fortress baths measured about 83 by 86 metres, with vaulted halls perhaps 16 metres high. (Wikipedia, Deva Victrix)
  12. One estimate puts the baths' water use at 850,000 litres a day, heated by three furnaces. (Wikipedia, Deva Victrix)
  13. A 2nd-century hypocaust survives in the cellar of 39 Bridge Street, found in 1864. (Wikipedia, 39 Bridge Street)
  14. Chester has the largest known Roman military amphitheatre in Britain. (Wikipedia, Deva Victrix (citing D. Mason))
  15. Estimates of its capacity range from about 7,000 to 12,000 people. (Wikipedia, Chester Roman Amphitheatre)
  16. A shrine to Nemesis, goddess of fate, opened directly off the arena; most amphitheatres had theirs outside. (English Heritage)
  17. The amphitheatre was rediscovered in 1929, and a dig in 2004 to 2006 showed there had been two stone amphitheatres, one over the other. (English Heritage)
  18. Beneath the amphitheatre, archaeologists found traces of Mesolithic people and a Middle Iron Age farming settlement. (Chester Archaeological Society)
  19. Near Northgate, the Roman north wall still stands up to 13 courses high, with a moulded cornice. (Wikipedia, sections of Chester city walls)
  20. The archaeologist David Mason estimates the Roman wall facing used more than 55,000 tonnes of stone. (Wikipedia, Deva Victrix (citing D. Mason))
  21. Roman tombstones built into the north wall were found in 1883 and 1887; they are now in the Grosvenor Museum. (Journal of the Chester Archaeological Society)
  22. Minerva's Shrine in Handbridge is described by the council as the only monument of its type in western Europe still in its original position. (Wikipedia, Minerva's Shrine)
  23. In the 120s much of the Twentieth Legion went north to build Hadrian's Wall. (English Heritage)
  24. A list of Roman army units compiled around 395 shows no troops at Deva, and by about 410 the army had left Britain. (Wikipedia, Deva Victrix)
  25. The Anglo-Saxons called Chester Legeceaster, the city of the legions; in 907 Æthelflæd refounded it and repaired its walls. (Wikipedia, History of Chester)

Facts and visitor details checked 26 October 2026. Opening times and prices change, so check with the venue before you travel.