"In Search of Romans" a Chester Travel Page by Jonathan_C

My visit to Chester lasted only one very brief day but what a fantastic day it turned out to be! I intended to focus on Roman artefacts and ruins and had done appropriate background reading. I was not disappointed and came away with a much better understanding of what life as a legionary in Legio XX Valeria Victrix must have been like. You can see Roman headstones in the Grosvenor museum, the remains of the Roman amphitheater and a shrine to Minerva in-situ in what was an old Roman quarry. The medieval walls lie in part on top of the ruins of the original walls erected under Trajan and the layout of streets is largely faithful to the original Roman blueprint. After almost 2000 years, their influence is still felt.

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Eastgate Street

Beautiful Architecture

Despite my intended focus, however, I was captivated by the beauty of Chester's medieval, Georgian and Victorian architecture. Here is a city that has retained the best of the previous centuries while keeping the ravenous forces of modernization largely at bay. To walk through the streets of Chester is to immerse yourself in ornate half timbered houses, crammed one against the other like beautiful books in an old library. The streets themselves are mostly filled with pedestrians -- tourists and locals, old and young -- in a cheerful parade of activity. You can criss-cross through town several times, always finding new streets with yet more gorgeous architecture until you are ready for a rest.

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canal path

Lovely Quiet Spaces

And for this there is the other Chester -- one of solitude and serenity. You can of course stop by the Cathedral and rest for a moment in the pews or you can visit the ruins of St. John's to contemplate the ultimate fate of the works of man. You can be almost entirely alone during a walk along the canal or a visit to Edgars field across the Dee. Chester is so right sized that you can visit all of these places in a single day as I found out.

And the history here is as thick as it gets in England. From Romans to Saxons to Normans and on up to today Chester has always been a very significant location. A wonderful web site put together by a local explains it all at:

http://www.bwpics.co.uk/chester.html

So do your homework before you come and go ahead and pick a theme for your visit. But don't be surprised if you find that Chester distracts you with everything else it has to offer.