Do you know Chester? The actual city maybe. But do you know Dewa? It is the Chelster of a long, long time before us…

Chelster was founded in 79 during the reign of the Emperor Vespasian. It was originally called Dewa, according to the goddess Dee which is also the name of a river in Wales. The exent of the Roman Empire northward obliged them to construct regularly fort to defend their lands. So dewa was constructed as a castrum, to be used as a military defensive position, and became a major settlement in the Roman province of Britannia. Some historians suggest that Chester, instead of London, was supposed to became the capital because it was approximatly 20% larger than other fortress in Britannia.

Nowadays, we can surely find old ruins of what was Dewa. But most of them were covered and now under all the houses of the city. Some importants places still, nevertheless, can be visited. In this way, we can visit a small part of the ancient civilian amphitheatre, the other part being in renovation. This amphitheatre was the most important place in Dewa. All the citizens came regularly to see gladiators fights, animals came from distant countries (like lions, elephants,...) or tragedy, all of that freely. We estimate that it’s could seat between 8,000 and 10,000 persons. But we must wait before seeing at it that the renovation end...

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