Roman Museum Remagen, Archaeological museum in Remagen, Germany

The Roman Museum Remagen occupies the former St. Magdalena chapel, an unplastered fieldstone hall with a saddle roof and a Gothic three-eighth choir end. Inside, the Gothic choir keeps its ribbed vault, sculpted consoles and three tracery windows; the west facade gained four large windows and a gallery in the 1903–1905 conversion by Bonn architect Carl Hupe. The basement holds eight graves of the 1st and 2nd centuries.

The chapel of St. Magdalena was rebuilt as a museum by the Bonn architect Carl Hupe between 1903 and 1905 and opened on 10 May 1905 as a local history museum. During the Second World War the building was badly damaged in the bombardments of Remagen in winter 1944/45 and about 80% of the collection was lost. After repairs from 1948 and a reorientation, it reopened in 1989 as the Roman Museum; it was listed as a monument in 1994.

In the basement, eight graves from the 1st and 2nd centuries show how Rigomagus buried its dead. One tombstone records Dasmenus, a 35-year-old soldier from the area of present-day Serbia, buried here between 40 and 69 AD. A cursive inscription on a jug base was freely rendered by Bonn philologist Franz Bücheler in 1907 as a warning that a purse spent on boys and girls soon runs dry; others read the jug as a savings box.

The museum is open from March to October on weekdays from mid-afternoon and on weekends earlier in the day, making it best to visit during warmer months. Plan your timing carefully since it operates on limited hours throughout the week.

The basement preserves the original foundations of the Principia, the Roman fort's command center, with three massive column bases still standing in their original locations. These structures remain literally embedded beneath the modern building, offering a rare window into Roman construction methods.