Saturday, 17.04.2004 - Rapperswil/Jona, St. Gallen

Kempraten

From this place is handed down the name Centoprata from the 8th century AD. The presumption that the roman name read "Centum Prata" (a hundred meadows) is however pure speculation. No written mention of the place name from the roman time is known as yet.

Presumable around the middle of the 1st century AD a settlement arose here. Parts of the street Curia - Turicum - Vindonissa are known. A junction after Vitudurum is presumed due to a burying place, up to now no direct proof succeeded however.

The houses from stone and framework were settled along the streets.

The center of the settlement was obviously reserved for public buildings. A forum-like enclosure of a courtyard is known. About these one reached a room through an impressive entry with two columns. It could have been a question of a temple or a curia. This complex was built between 70 and 150 AD.

The lake was the most important trade route however. The site of the port is not known today.

Due to the finds a settlement is provable until the 4th century. Possibly it was continuous from the Roman time until the Middle Ages however.

Today still some buildings are visible: parts of a pottery, curia or temple with parts of the enclosure, corner of a house.

Busskirch

Under the present church Saint Martin were found in 1975 rests of a roman building.

They are from the second half of the 1st century AD. Later the house was expanded with rooms in the east. In the 3rd century the ground was lifted in some parts (higher lake surface?).

The precise function of this building is not known. The prolongation of the street from Kempraten leads however directly to Busskirch. Presumably the connection between the Obersee and Zurichsee was not always navigable. Then the merchandise would have been unloaded in Busskirch from the ships and loaded in Kempraten. A depression in the bank ground southeast of the church is interpreted as a possible landing place.

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