Photo: Kleon3 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Het Romeins Museum

Roman museum in Heerlen on everyday life between the Meuse and the Rhine; closed until 2028 because of a new building around the bathhouse ruins of Coriovallum.

Temporarily closed

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Temporarily closed (expected until 2028). The museum is closed because of the new building around the Roman baths. During construction it offers school programmes with museum lessons and teaching cases as well as the game "Via Belgica"; 13 audio routes along the Via Belgica through South Limburg have been available since summer 2026, and Heerlen's Roman quarter can be explored.

About the museum

In 1940 a farmer in Heerlen came across Roman walls while ploughing. The excavations that followed uncovered Coriovallum, a Roman settlement with the remains of a bathhouse complex, regarded as the oldest, largest and best-preserved ancient building in the Netherlands. Above these remains the Thermenmuseum opened in 1977 in a building designed by the Frits Peutz firm: a large hall without intermediate supports, in which a walkway allowed a view down onto the excavation.

In September 2024 the museum closed because problems with the indoor climate threatened the 2,000-year-old remains. A new building by Kraaijvanger Architects and TomDavid Architecten is being built around the excavation and is due to open in 2028. The museum will then operate as "Het Romeins Museum" and, beyond the baths, tell of Roman everyday life between the Meuse and the Rhine.

The collection comprises around 30,000 objects, including sculptures, gravestones, ceramics and glass vessels, as well as a game board that was identified in 2026 as the oldest known of its kind.