Io Saturnalia!

We're looking forward to taking part in some of the fantastic events lined up to celebrate the Gladiators of Britain exhibition, coming soon to the Grosvenor Museum in Chester!

Deva is returning to term-time hours! We'll be open for school visits only from Monday - Friday. We will be open to the public on weekends, Saturday and Sunday 10am - 6pm (last entry 5pm).

It feels like Back to School ads get earlier every year. But this is one we know you'll be happy to see - ROMAN SOLDIER SCHOOL IS BACK! Weds and Sats throughout the summer! Lots of chances to have some fun before you have to do the real 'back to school' stuff. devaromancentre.co.uk/soldier-scho...

FREE TICKETS for our Roman Walking Tours have been released today as a part of @chesterbid.bsky.social Chester BID's Summer in the City Tour Week. Tickets are limited and are available on a first come, first serve basis - so book soon to avoid disappointment! www.chesterbid.co.uk/discover/sum...

And it looks SO good! We love our little Roman garden in the heart of Chester. It's such a nice green space and it's always wonderful to see people sitting and enjoying the calm it offers; eating their lunches, hanging out with friends, or just taking a break. 💚 It's our privilege to share it.

We caught Plaguey D getting into spirit of things at the @heritagechester.bsky.social launch event! We always suspected they weren't 100% doom and gloom. 🖤 @devaroman.bsky.social

Our Roman physician, Oligarchus, from @devaroman.bsky.social is outside Sick to Death today giving demonstrations on ancient Roman medicine for @chesterherifest.bsky.social! Come learn how the Romans treated diseases and injuries and decide if you could have handled a visit to a Roman doctor!

Did somebody say #MosaicMonday? Here's an in-progress shot from the making of our mosaic, created during last year's @heritagechester.bsky.social! It will be unveiled in our Roman garden during this year's festival - and there will also be a chance to make some more on May 28th and June 4th!

Would watch this film. Would project it onto the screen in our amphitheatre. Would confuse visiting school classes. Would be worth it.

We are OPEN! Our brand new family-friendly adventure is open 10am - 6pm (last admission 5pm) every day of the Easter holidays, including Easter weekend! That's today April 16th and the 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th, and 21st! Come join us on a journey to Roman Chester!

Acquiring a legion's worth of pillow swords and shields might just be the greatest thing we've ever done! Our brand new family-friendly Roman history adventure is open and we think our staff might be having as much fun as our visitors. It's great to be back!

There are debates happening among the staff now. We're about to start writing down guesses as to how much this chainmail weighs and then we're getting the scales out. Anyone want in?

GRWD (Get Ready With Deva)! Today's edition is a Roman Archer (Sagittarius)! 'Saggitta' here is wearing: A women's under-tunic, or underskirt, called a subucula. Next, they've added an over-tunic, trousers which are braccae, and leather boots, perones.

When you’re based on the border of England and Wales and the centuries-old clashes between medieval kingdoms continues in the form of having different school half term dates. We are back open, but we’re still welcoming over 150 Welsh school children every day, so apologies for the restricted hours.

GRWD (Get Ready With Deva)! Today's edition is a Roman Legionary! Flavius is wearing: Leather boots, called calcei. The tunic or tunica is laced up to be just above the knee, for a soldier. (It would be below the knee for a citizen.) Next comes subarmalis which is padded.

Immerse yourself in the sights, sounds, and smells of Roman Chester, with our brand new family-friendly adventure, opening April 5th! Find out more and book your tickets now: devaromancentre.co.uk

mmm... forbidden Roman chocolate

How were we supposed to know the local Ordovices tribe could also see the smoke we sent up from our Signal stations?

Our boss just turned up to work in this.

We are so lucky! Who else gets to come into work and have a Roman soldier offer them some food of the gods - libum (Roman cheesecake) that they themselves made at home? A batter made with fresh cheese, baked on bay leaves, and then soaked in honey. Mmm... so delicious! Thanks Tom!

Can we share a #fauxsaic on #MosaicMonday? Or is that a faux pas? We uhh (cough) borrowed* this design from the fantastic floors at @bignorvilla.bsky.social and recreated it in our front foyer. Bonus: If you sit on the bench in front of it, it looks like Medusa's snake hair is your snake hair! 🐍

If you were living in ancient Rome and wanted to get here in time for our opening on April 5th, how long do you think it would take? Would you walk, march, ride a horse... sail a boat?! We're really excited for our new family-friendly adventure opening Easter half-term! Want to know more? Ask us!

We probably should have said hi first. 👋 Hi Bluesky! What can we tell you about ourselves? We're a Roman history attraction in Chester. Not quite sure if we're a *museum* museum, but we do have genuine archaeological excavations in our building! Also, we have pillow-swords... sword-shaped pillows! ⚔️

You might have heard it said, "Beware the Ides of March" but have you ever wondered why - and what? We wrote a quick guide in case anyone brings it up tomorrow (even if that 'anyone' is you). We could... we could post it here as a thread. If you wanted.

We weren't jealous. We had a carefully crafted social media strategy that also just happened to include getting a Bluesky account. But we stuck to our schedule like a good, organised museum does. That's why we're here now and not last Friday. We didn't move our schedule up. You can't prove anything.