Roman army camps
Build a Roman castra as the armies laid it out: a rectangle with rounded corners, four gates, two main roads crossing at the headquarters (principia), the commander’s house (praetorium), a granary on posts (horreum) and barracks in rows. Choose a marching camp of tents, a fort of timber and turf or a fort of stone, and adjust the size. At the bottom you can read how everything is calculated.
Point at a block for the explanation. Click a block to mark it as placed. The side view shows the section at the chosen column, Layer shows the chosen layer from above.
Build plan
Per layer
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A number is the count of blocks of that part in that layer, in the colour of the part. Click a layer to see it from above.
Build tips
- Put crafts together as they were: in a town, smiths, bakers and weavers often had their own street. Think of Smith Lane or Tanners’ Row.
- Every villager profession in Minecraft has its own workstation. A building with the right workstations does double duty when villagers live in it.
3D and layer-by-layer build plan
To Minecraft
Download the Roman camp as a schematic file and paste it with WorldEdit, or build it with a hologram in Litematica.
How it is calculated
History and fun facts
The castra: a fixed layout
Every evening the Roman army built a marching camp: the soldiers dug a ditch (fossa), raised a rampart (agger) with it topped by a palisade of sharp stakes, and set up the leather tents, eight men to a tent, in fixed rows. The layout was so standard that a soldier could find his way in the dark. Polybius described the order in the second century BC, and a later writer under the name Hyginus described it again. The camp had four gates, a main road (via principalis) and in the middle the headquarters (principia) with the shrine of the standards.
From tent to stone
When an army stayed longer, the marching camp became a fort. First men built with timber and turf, as at Vindolanda on Hadrian’s Wall, where wooden writing tablets have been preserved. Later came stone: the forts of Housesteads, Caerleon and the Saalburg. A legionary fortress for about five thousand men was well over twenty hectares, an auxiliary fort about three. At Inchtuthil in Scotland the army cleared away the timber legionary fortress around AD 87 and buried some 875,000 nails.
Did you know?
- Hadrian’s Wall was begun in AD 122; it is on UNESCO’s World Heritage List as part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire.
- The Saalburg near Bad Homburg is a reconstructed Roman fort on the Limes.
- A Roman soldier marched about 25 to 30 kilometres a day with a full kit and then dug the camp.
Sources and further reading
Read more about the history here. The links go to museums, archives and heritage organisations outside this site.
- Frontiers of the Roman Empire (opens in a new tab) UNESCO World Heritage Centre
Hadrian’s Wall, the Antonine Wall and the German Limes with their forts. - Castra (opens in a new tab) Wikipedia
Overview of Roman military camps and their layout. - Inchtuthil (opens in a new tab) Wikipedia
The Roman legionary fortress in Scotland and the buried nails.
About this tool
With this planner you build a Roman army camp in Minecraft, based on the plans of real forts. The camp has a rampart and ditch, four gates with towers, roads, a headquarters, a praetorium, a granary and barracks in rows.
You see the build plan layer by layer, a 3D preview and the block list, and you can download the camp as a schematic for WorldEdit or Litematica. Combine it with the separate barracks and armoury for more detail.
Frequently asked questions
How do I build a Roman camp in Minecraft?
Choose a kind, for example a stone fort like Housesteads or a timber fort like Vindolanda. Lay out the ditch, the rampart and the roads first, then build the gates and towers, and then place the principia, the praetorium, the horreum and the barracks.
What is the difference between a marching camp and a fort?
A marching camp was temporary: tents behind a rampart and ditch, for one night. A fort stood for years or centuries, with barracks of timber or stone, towers and a gate with buildings.
Is the layout historically accurate?
The layout follows what is known from excavations and from Polybius and Hyginus: four gates, via principalis, the principia in the middle, granary, praetorium and barracks in rows. The real size was larger; here the camp is scaled down to fit in a world.