Known to the Romans as 'Cilurnum', Chesters Fort was built to guard the Roman bridge which carried Hadrian's Wall and the military road over the River North Tyne: its bridge abutments can still be seen. Chesters was one of the series of permanent forts added during the construction of the Wall: occupied for nearly three centuries, it housed a garrison of some 500 troops, by the 3rd century a cavalry regiment from Asturias in northern Spain.
There is much still to see here, including the remains of all four principal gates; the headquarters building with courtyard, hall and regimental shrine; and the elaborate and luxurious commandant's house. Even better preserved, between the fort and the river, is the garrison's bath house. This still clearly displays the complex of rooms which offered soldiers hot, cold or steam baths, as well as a changing-room cum club house with niches for statues or altars of gods-including Fortuna, patroness of Roman gamblers.
Altars and inscriptions to the many deities of the Roman army are among the hundreds of archaeological discoveries from the central section of the Wall-including Vindolanda, Housesteads and Carrawburgh forts-crowded into the wonderful museum here. Retrieved by the Victorian antiquarian John Clayton, their setting has now been restored to its appearance in 1900.
