When the ancient Swiss wanted to be beside the seaside

A black-and-white view of the ruins of Avenches to symbolise the return to square one of the migrant Helvetii of 58BC. Site et Musée romain d’Avenches © Yves André

France is home to the largest community of Swiss Abroad. But this attraction to France is not new: the Roman Museum in Avenches is taking a closer look at the mass migration of Helvetii to the Atlantic coast.

Everyone knows Julius Caesar. What is less well known is that the Roman general’s entry into the pantheon of great conquerors is closely linked to the history of Switzerland. Indeed, Caesar used the migration of the Helvetii as a pretext to intervene in Gaul, the prelude to his most famous military campaign.

Having settled on the Swiss Plateau, the Helvetii wanted to move to Saintonge, in southwestern France, to escape the pressure of the Germanic tribes. According to Caesar’s description in the first book of The Gallic War, 368,000 Helvetii went into exile, having burnt down their villages and crops to prevent any thought of returning. But they were crushed by the Roman army at Bibracte (Burgundy) and the survivors were forced to return home under Roman control.

No physical traces

Apart from a brief mention of this migration project by Cicero, The Gallic War is the only historical source that recounts this event dating from 58BC. This description is inevitably one-sided, since it comes from the protagonist himself, and leaves a great deal in the dark, particularly as regards the exact route of this mass migration.

And archaeology can do nothing to compensate for this lack of written sources. Archaeologists have found no material trace of this move, and even the location of the battle of Bibracte is the subject of controversy among specialists.

For its temporary exhibition, however, the Roman Museum in Avenches has found a way around this problem. The subject is addressed through a photographic exhibition.

“We were approached by the Neuchâtel photographer Yves André,” explains Denis Genequand, director of the Roman Site and Museum in AvenchesExternal link. “It was an extremely interesting proposal, because photography is a way of materialising this migration that has left virtually no trace.”

In three chapters

Based on Caesar’s account, and after consulting specialists, photographer Yves André set out on a plausible route that the Helvetii could have taken between Switzerland and Burgundy.

Much is left to interpretation. “We have few precise points of reference: a departure from the Swiss Plateau, a passage through Geneva and probably the Écluse gorge, some 20 kilometres downstream from Geneva. As for the rest, Caesar’s text makes no mention of specific places; these are just hypotheses,” Genequand says.

“Furthermore, if they were as numerous as Caesar says, we have to imagine separate convoys with groups taking different routes. The Helvetii did not necessarily all pass through the same place in a convoy spread over dozens and dozens of kilometres,” he adds.

For the outward journey, the photos always go in pairs, with a first view showing a relatively unspoilt landscape and a second showing the same place, but with a stronger human presence. Site et Musée romain d’Avenches © Yves André

The photographic itinerary is divided into three chapters. The first series illustrates the migration to Gaul. The first picture shows a relatively unspoilt landscape as the Helvetii might have seen it, often with an element that evokes the journey (a path, a watercourse). The second shows a view of the same place, but resolutely modern, with a marked human presence.

The second series illustrates the return journey from Burgundy to the Swiss Plateau, via the Jura passes. These photos are larger and in black and white, to underline the gloomy nature of the forced return after defeat. Finally, in the centre of the exhibition, there are eight very large colour photos of Saintonge, to evoke what might have been this “dream Helvetia”.

The exhibition poster highlights what could have been a “Helvetia by the water”, on the shores of the Atlantic. Site et Musée romain d’Avenches © Yves André

Our ancestors, the… Bavarians

The photos are accompanied by scientific texts explaining the historical context and passages of fiction inspired by these events, telling the story of a young woman who follows the migration of her community and continues alone towards the West after the defeat.

The exhibition also questions the notion of identity, and reminds us that migration has always shaped history. “I draw a parallel with the situation of migrants trying to escape difficult living conditions in their own countries,” André writes in the catalogue. “With this project, I hope to offer a different vision of Switzerland’s origins – one that will lead to a better understanding of the phenomenon of migration.”

“It’s a way of showing that the populations we have in Europe today have never been definitively fixed in one place,” says Denis Genequand. “This exhibition is a way of putting these population movements into perspective.” He points out that recent archaeological research shows that the Helvetii, whom the 19th-century historical narrative portrayed as the ancestors of the Swiss, came from Bavaria.

“They probably arrived between 100 and 80BC,” he says. “And just a few decades later, cramped on the Swiss Plateau and threatened by the Germanic peoples, they decided to leave again. These ancestors of the Helvetic Confederation, who are thought to be here forever, were groups that moved and the population movements we see today are extensions of movements that have always taken place.”

The catalogue

If you can’t make it to the Roman Museum in Avenches, all the photos and texts can be found in the catalogue for the temporary exhibition: Landscapes of the Helvetian migration in 58BC, which you can order hereExternal link.

Edited by Samuel Jaberg. Adapted by AI/ts