Roman Gardens

Roman Gardens. . The gardens were first laid out in 1949 to display the many Roman building fragments that had been discovered in Chester during the previous century., None of the fragments originate from this site. Many of them come from the site of the fortress baths, on the east side of Bridge Street others were found embedded in the northern stretch of the City Walls., In Roman times this area outside the south east comer of the fortress served as a quarry. There was a cockpit near here from 1619 until cockfighting was outlawed in 1849. From at least 1781 until 1917 the northern part of the site was occupied by a day tobacco pipe factory., In 2000 the gardens were extended and redesigned to provide a route between the city centre and the river. The layout represents Aesculapius the Roman god of medicine, whose symbol was a serpent coiled around a rod. The steps and the central pathway through the garden represent the rod, and the coiling pathway is the serpent.