Fishbourne Roman Palace

Fishbourne Roman Palace is a Roman-era site near Chichester in West Sussex, England, representing a large and well-preserved Roman residence and administrative complex. Its remains include paved rooms, mosaic floors and substantial foundations dating to Roman Britain.

Visitors can view extensive mosaic pavements, exposed building foundations and a museum that interprets the site’s archaeology and displays excavated artifacts. The site layout shows formal rooms, courtyards and service areas characteristic of elite Romano-British domestic architecture.

Constructed in the decades after the Roman conquest of southern Britain, the palace complex dates from the 1st century AD and underwent development and alteration over the Roman period. The site was discovered and extensively excavated in the 20th century, revealing mosaics and structural remains.

Fishbourne Roman Palace lies close to the town of Chichester in West Sussex, southern England, and is operated as a heritage attraction with visitor facilities.

• Archaeology and mosaics: Excavated from the 1960s onward, the site contains some of the most extensive Roman mosaics and foundations preserved in Britain.

What to See #

• Central residential complex: The north-south central corridor with a series of rooms and mosaics, identified as part of the main residential suite and reception areas from the 1st century AD.
• Museum and visitor route: On-site museum that displays finds from the excavation including pottery, jewellery and architectural fragments, with a visitor route that follows the excavated foundations and mosaics.