Photographs of Fishbourne Roman Palace

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Fishbourne Roman Palace was discovered by accident during the digging of a water main trench in 1960.
This Roman Palace, in the village of Fishbourne in West Sussex, is an important Roman archaeological site. The large palace was built in the 1st century AD, around thirty years after the Roman conquest of Britain.
In size, it is approximately equivalent to Nero's Golden House in Rome or to the Roman villa at Piazza Armerina in Sicily, and is by far the largest Roman residence known north of the Alps. At about 500 feet (150 metres) square it is comparable in size to Buckingham Palace.
It is thought that the palace was the residence of Tiberius Claudius Cogidubnus a pro-Roman local chieftain who was installed as king of a number of territories following the first stage of the conquest.
The only piece of the villa visible is the north wing outlined in red on the image above. This contains the largest collection of in-situ mosaics in Britain.