The Clavel-Villa, Emperor August and Augusta Raurica
8 October 2024
Emperor Augustus (63 BC-14 AD), whose statue stands on the Castelen Estate in Augst (Canton of Basel-Landschaft), rightly turns his gaze to the Clavel-Villa. Basel did not yet exist in his time, and the Rhine still flowed in various tributaries through uninhabited land. There were only a few small Celtic settlements, including on Münster Hill and today’s Novartis Complex site.
View of Basel and the Rhine knee from the Clavel Villa in 2024
Basel was also ‘romanised’ in a few generations, and the area became later known as Basilea, but Augusta Raurica was the most important city in this region on the Rhine. Augusta Raurica was founded in 44 BC by Lucius Munatius Plancus (87 – 14 BC), probably on the initiative of Julius Caesar (100 – 44 BC).
At its peak in the second century AD, the city had a population of around 20,000. It was constructed according to the Roman model and included a stone theatre, two (!) amphitheatres, a forum, a basilica, various bathhouses, temples, city palaces, residential areas, a harbour, and a bridge over the Rhine.
After the Romans left in the fifth century, the Roman urban structure was lost, and the rise of Basel began. The Augusta Raurica open-air museum provides a fascinating picture of Augusta Raurica during the Roman Empire.
View of the Roman theatre from the Clavel-Villa
On the site of Augusta Raurica, the villages of Augst and Kaiseraugst (Canton Aargau), with several hundred inhabitants, emerged in the Middle Ages. For centuries, the Roman ruins served mainly as building material. Interest in the Roman past emerged only at the end of the 16th century.
This eventually led to the opening of the Augusta Raurica open-air museum in 1957. Especially in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the scientific, financial and organisational basis for this museum was laid.
Alexander Zschokke (b. 1955), bust of René Clavel at the Antikenmuseum Basel
One of the great personalities who contributed to the museum’s realization was René Clavel (1886-1969), the namesake of the Clavel-Villa, which overlooks Basel and Augusta Raurica.
Invitation to a garden party at the Castelen-Villa. René Clavel also participated in the famous Gordon Bennett flying competition.
Clavel, a wealthy Basel industrialist (and brother of Alexander Clavel (1881-1973) of the Wenkenhof in Riehen), was not only an enthusiastic pilot and balloonist but also interested in antiquity and Rome.
In 1955, he donated the Domus Romana, among other things, to the Augusta Raurica Foundation, having previously bought historically relevant land for the museum.
He bought the land and buildings of the current Clavel-Villa in the early 20th century. This site not only overlooked ancient Augusta Raurica but also had a rich Roman past itself. In Roman times, there was a large villa (domus) and residential areas (insulae) for the elite. Nowadays, we would speak of a villa quarter.
This ‘villa district’ also fell into disrepair after the fifth century, and it was not until the 17th century that documents mention vineyards, military buildings, and cannons at this location. The name Castelen probably dates back to this time, ‘auf Cästellein’.
Entrance to the Clavel-Villa
Clavel bought the Castelen Plateau (land) to integrate the existing buildings into a new manor house, the current Clavel-Villa. Since 1969, the Römer-Stiftung René Clavel has owned the villa, which has since worked closely with Augusta Raurica and Canton Basel-Landschaft.
Wall of the Clavel-Villa and Emperor Augustus
The complex, interior, and garden have remained in the same state, apart from some extensions (including the meeting room (Plenarsaal)) and renovations. The client and his architect, Max Alioth (1883-1968), realized their goal: a historicising atmosphere with an eye for craftsmanship, the Roman past, and details in the so-called Heimatstil.
A Roman Mosaique in the villa
The five bronze copies in the garden at the front of the house and the bronze statues at the back are made by the firm Chiurazzi in Naples. The decoration of several villa rooms, including the Pompeianum, are, as it were, the precursors of the Domus Romana.
The architectural garden in front of the Clavel-Villa
and the private garden at the back
Augustus now looks out on the Clavel-Villa and even Romulus and Remus with respect, satisfaction, and approval. Following another legend about Rome’s origins, they stand apart from the wolf in the architectural garden at the front.
The wolf at the front
and Romulus and Remus at the back of the villa
Today, the villa is a meeting place for various cultural events, including the Jacob Burckhardt-Gespräche, the Colloquia Raurica, university meetings and, of course, staff and researchers of Museum Augusta Raurica.
(Source and further information: H. Reinau, M. Schweizer, Castelen. Geschichte und Gegenwart, Augst 2010)
Impressions of the interior
A painting by Gilbert Clavel (1883-1927), brother of René, artist and resident in Italy
The heraldry of Clavel
