Petinesca is an archeological site on the territory of Studen, a community of the Canton of Bern, in Switzerland, where Celtic and Roman vestiges were found.
The site lies at the SE edge of the Jensberg mountain. Celtic and Roman ruins were found, some of which are still visible. The site comprises a Celtic fortification (Oppidum), and a fortified village dating from the Roman empire, as a regional centre dating back to the 2nd Century B.C. till the 4th Century A.D.
In those times the area was already well colonised.
Petinesca was most certainly one of the Roman stations that served to ensure the maintenance and security of one of the main Roman road in Helvetii. The road led from Aventicum (Avenches) through Murten, Kerzers and Kallnach to Salodorum (Solothurn) and then to Vindonissa (Windisch), along the Eastern part of the Seeland. A bifurcation of the road ran through the steep gorge of Taubenloch and crossed the Jura through the Col de Pierre Pertuis pass and to Augusta Raurica which led to Germany along the Rhine.
Via Witzwil, a second road crossed the Seeland between the Lake of Neuchâtel and the lake of Murten.
The La Tène culture was a European Iron Age culture. It developed and flourished during the late Iron Age, succeeding the early Iron Age Hallstatt culture without any definite cultural break, under considerable Mediterranean influence from the Greeks in pre-Roman Gaul, the Etruscans, and the Golasecca culture, but whose artistic style nevertheless did not depend on those Mediterranean influences.
The Rhine is one of the major European rivers. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein, Swiss-Austrian, and Swiss-German borders. After that the Rhine defines much of the Franco-German border, after which it flows in a mostly northerly direction through the German Rhineland. Finally in Germany, the Rhine turns into a predominantly westerly direction and flows into the Netherlands where it eventually empties into the North Sea. It drains an area of 9,973 sq km and its name derives from the Celtic Rēnos. There are also two German states named after the river, North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate.
The canton of Bern or Berne is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. Its capital city, Bern, is also the de facto capital of Switzerland. The bear is the heraldic symbol of the canton, displayed on a red-yellow background.
Biel/Bienne is a town and a municipality in the Biel/Bienne administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland.
Lake Morat or Lake Murten is a lake located in the cantons of Fribourg and Vaud in the west of Switzerland. It is named after the small bilingual town of Murten/Morat on its southern shore.
The early history of Switzerland begins with the earliest settlements up to the beginning of Habsburg rule, which in 1291 gave rise to the independence movement in the central cantons of Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden and the growth of the Old Swiss Confederacy during the Late Middle Ages.
Murten or Morat is a bilingual municipality and a city in the See district of the canton of Fribourg in Switzerland.
The Swiss Plateau or Central Plateau is one of the three major landscapes in Switzerland, lying between the Jura Mountains and the Swiss Alps. It covers about 30% of the Swiss surface area, and is partly flat but mostly hilly. The average height is between 400 metres (1,300 ft) and 700 metres (2,300 ft) AMSL. It is by far the most densely populated region of Switzerland, the center of economy and important transportation.
Lyss is a municipality in the Seeland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. On 1 January 2011, the former municipality of Busswil bei Büren was merged with Lyss.
Kallnach is a municipality in the Seeland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. On 1 January 2019 the former municipality of Golaten merged into the municipality of Kallnach.
Erlach is the capital municipality of the Seeland administrative district in the canton of Berne in Switzerland.
Lüscherz is a municipality in the Seeland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland.
The territory of modern Switzerland was a part of the Roman Republic and Empire for a period of about six centuries, beginning with the step-by-step conquest of the area by Roman armies from the 2nd century BC and ending with the Fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD.
The correction of the waters of the Swiss Jura consisted of a wide series of hydrological undertakings carried out in Switzerland in the region of the three lakes: Lake Morat connected to Lake Neuchatel by the Broye Canal, the latter connected to Lake Biel by the Thielle Canal, an area called the "Seeland”.
Grand Marais in Seeland is a region in Switzerland, at the foot of the first mountain range of the Jura Mountains contained by the three lakes of Morat (Murten), Neuchâtel and Bienne (Biel). Before the huge hydrological works Jura water correction, it was a marshland that covered 62.5 km2 (24.1 sq mi). Before the correction the entire Grand Marais, along with the whole of Seeland was prone to very severe recurring floods.
The Jolimont is a hill that stretches Southwest to Northeast for about 4 km along the Thielle canal, between the Lake of Neuchâtel and the Lake of Bienne, in the Seeland, Switzerland.
Taubenloch is a gorge in the Canton of Bern, above Biel/Bienne in Switzerland. It crosses the first Jura Mountain chain, as considered from the Swiss Plateau.
Holzbrücke Rapperswil-Hurden is a wooden pedestrian bridge between the city of Rapperswil and the village of Hurden crossing the upper Lake Zürich (Obersee) in Switzerland. The prehistoric timber piles discovered to the west of the Seedamm date back to 1523 BC. The island settlement Technikum is a prehistoric pile-dwelling settlement which is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Prehistoric Pile dwellings around the Alps. The first wooden footbridge led across Lake Zürich, followed by several reconstructions at least until the late 2nd century AD when the Roman Empire built a 6 metres (20 ft) wide wooden bridge. Between 1358 and 1360, Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, built a 'new' wooden bridge across the lake that was used until 1878. On 6 April 2001, the reconstructed wooden footbridge was opened, being the longest wooden bridge in Switzerland.
Turicum was a Gallo-Roman settlement at the lower end of Lake Zurich, and precursor of the city of Zürich. It was situated within the Roman province of Gallia Belgica and near the border to the province of Raetia; there was a tax-collecting point for goods traffic on the waterway Walensee–Obersee-Zürichsee–Limmat–Aare–Rhine.