Malagne, the Rochefort Archaeopark
Gallo-Roman Archaeopark of Malagne: back to the second century A.D.!
Have you ever wondered what everyday life was like for the Romans and the Gauls? What did they really eat? What about crafts? How did they farm their lands? Did they breed livestock or not? To find the answers to these questions and learn many more interesting facts; visit Malagne, the Rochefort Archaeopark, located at a stone's throw from the Rochefort Town Centre.
Discover one of the biggest and most important Roman villas of Northern Gaul. On site you will discover an antique Gallo-Roman farm with its livestock, crops, vegetable gardens and workshops!
A journey through time which will alter your perceptions; you will be overflowing with the memories of ancients tastes and aroma's, with new knowledge about the antique skills they to craft and tame earth and fire, as well as many other surprising facts. To help you understand the Gallo-Roman way of life audiovisual material and scale models are on hand.
Afterwards, it's time you enjoyed a moments rest in our cafeteria - which is open during our events or on request for groups - or on our peaceful terrace. Feeling a bit peckish? Then it's high time to try some tasty local products!
The gardens
Malagne has a vegetable garden, a herb garden (with aromatic and medicinal herbs) and an orchard.
The vegetable garden, in which regional varieties grow, is laid out according to time-honoured Gallo-Roman design: it is divided into low-maintenance beds and supplemented by didactic panels which share insight into the ingenious systems used by our ancestors.
Vegetables, for example, are gathered into different groups depending on their usage: leaf vegetables, root vegetables, fruit vegetables, etc. These organically produced vegetables will definitely provide you with inspiration for your kitchen garden!
Next to the vegetable garden, you can smell the enticing aromas of the garden of useful and medicinal plants. The plants are used for a variety of purposes: basket weaving, as medicine, to cure colds, to dye tissue or wool, for cord making...All in all, more than 200 different varieties of these essential but little-known plants are grown here!
Malagne also boasts two orchards with local and regional fruit varieties which used to be quite common in the area. The small fruit orchard is teeming with indigenous wild species as well as regional berry varieties: raspberries, black currants, gooseberries...
More information? Take a quick peek at our website: www.malagne.be
