About
Fishbourne Roman Palace is the largest residential Roman building ever discovered in Britain, a palatial complex of extraordinary scale and sophistication that rewrites assumptions about the reach of Roman luxury into the furthest provinces of the empire. Located on the outskirts of Chichester in West Sussex, the palace was accidentally discovered in 1960 by a workman laying a water main, and subsequent excavations revealed a building of truly imperial proportions — larger than Buckingham Palace in its ground plan — with over one hundred rooms arranged around a formal garden in the Mediterranean style.
The palace dates from the first century AD, built around 75 AD, and is believed to have been the residence of Tiberius Claudius Cogidubnus, a local British king who allied himself with Rome during the conquest of Britain and was rewarded with Roman citizenship and what appears to have been a spectacular demonstration of Roman architectural patronage. The building represents the earliest known stone palace in Britain and provides unparalleled evidence of the speed with which Roman building techniques, decorative arts, and garden design were transplanted to the new province.
The museum's greatest treasure is its collection of Roman mosaic floors, the finest and most extensive in situ collection in Britain. The iconic Cupid on a Dolphin mosaic — depicting the young god of love riding a dolphin through stylised waves — is one of the most celebrated works of Roman art found anywhere in northern Europe and has become an emblem of Romano-British artistic achievement. Over twenty mosaic floors survive in various states of preservation, ranging from simple geometric patterns to complex figurative designs that demonstrate the work of highly skilled mosaicists working in the Italian tradition.
The formal Roman garden has been meticulously reconstructed based on archaeological evidence of bedding trenches, water pipes, and planting patterns recovered during excavation. It is the only Roman garden to have been replanted in Britain, offering visitors a vivid impression of how the palace's Mediterranean-inspired landscape would have appeared in the first century AD — with clipped box hedges, roses, acanthus, and other plants arranged in the geometric formality characteristic of Roman garden design.
The museum building, constructed over the excavated remains of the palace's north wing, allows visitors to walk above and alongside the original Roman floors, walls, and hypocaust heating systems. Displays of artefacts recovered during excavation — pottery, metalwork, building materials, and personal objects — bring the daily life of the palace and its inhabitants into focus. The ongoing archaeological research programme continues to reveal new information about the palace complex, its construction phases, and the community that lived and worked within its walls.
Fishbourne Roman Palace is managed by the Sussex Archaeological Society and stands as one of the most important Roman sites in Britain, offering an experience that combines the thrill of genuine archaeological discovery with world-class Roman art and an evocative reconstructed landscape.
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Highlights
Cupid on a Dolphin Mosaic
The most celebrated Roman mosaic in Britain, this exquisite first-century floor panel depicts the young god Cupid astride a dolphin, surrounded by stylised waves and sea creatures in a masterpiece of figurative mosaic art. Created by highly skilled Italian mosaicists using thousands of tiny tesserae in a palette of reds, blues, whites, and blacks, the design demonstrates a level of artistic sophistication unprecedented in Roman Britain.
The mosaic survives in remarkable condition and has become an icon of Romano-British art, reproduced in countless books and exhibitions as evidence of the extraordinary cultural transplantation that Roman rule brought to even the furthest provinces of the empire.
The Palace Mosaic Collection
Beyond the famous Cupid panel, Fishbourne preserves over twenty mosaic floors in various states of completeness — the largest in situ collection of Roman mosaics in Britain. These range from simple black-and-white geometric patterns in service corridors to elaborate polychrome designs in the principal reception rooms, collectively demonstrating the full repertoire of first-century mosaic art.
The variety of styles and skill levels visible across the collection suggests that multiple workshops contributed to the palace's decoration, with the finest work concentrated in the rooms where the owner would have received and entertained important guests.
The Reconstructed Roman Garden
The only archaeologically reconstructed Roman garden in Britain, planted on the exact footprint of the original first-century formal garden that occupied the palace's central courtyard. Archaeological evidence of bedding trenches, water supply pipes, and planting patterns guided the reconstruction, which features clipped box hedges in geometric patterns, Mediterranean plants including acanthus and rosemary, and the columned walkways that would have framed views across the garden from the surrounding rooms.
The garden offers a uniquely evocative impression of the Mediterranean lifestyle that the palace's owner sought to recreate on the shores of Chichester Harbour.
The Hypocaust Heating System
Visible beneath glass floors in several rooms, the palace's underfloor heating system — a hypocaust — demonstrates one of the most sophisticated technologies of the Roman world. Stacks of brick pilae supported the floor above a void through which hot air from a furnace circulated, warming the rooms above to a temperature comfortable for Roman bathing and living.
The preservation of these systems at Fishbourne allows visitors to see exactly how this ingenious heating technology worked, and the scale of the heating infrastructure reflects the enormous resources invested in maintaining Roman standards of comfort at the extreme edge of the empire.
Collections
The Palace Mosaics
The principal gallery built over the north wing, housing the in situ mosaic floors including the famous Cupid on a Dolphin. Walkways allow visitors to view the mosaics from above, with detailed interpretation of their artistic techniques, iconography, and place in the wider tradition of Roman decorative art.
Life in the Palace
Displays of artefacts recovered during excavation — pottery, metalwork, glass, personal objects, and building materials — that reveal the daily life, diet, trade connections, and material culture of the palace community from the first to the third century AD.
The Roman Garden
The reconstructed formal garden in the palace courtyard, planted according to archaeological evidence and maintained as a living exhibit that demonstrates Roman garden design, horticultural practice, and the Mediterranean aesthetic that the palace's owners brought to the Sussex coast.
Current Exhibitions
Marking over six decades since the palace's accidental discovery in 1960, this exhibition explores the ongoing archaeological research at Fishbourne — from Barry Cunliffe's original excavations to recent geophysical surveys and community digs that continue to reveal new information about the palace complex and its surrounding landscape.