Petergate - York, Great Britain.
N 53° 57.681 W 001° 04.917
30U E 625836 N 5980924
This plaque placed by the York Civic Trust describes how: Petergate used to be the main Roman road Via-Principalis, that now lies buried, beneath the City centre of York, UK.
Waymark Code: WMK9K9
Location: North East England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 03/05/2014
Views: 5
Walk anywhere in York City centre and you’re walking on top of a major city of the Roman Empire.
Via-Principalis - the Romans’ 1st century main east-west route through their fortress Eboracum. Via-Principalis now buried below, the street of High & Low Petergate, York, Great Britain.
71AD - 400AD
"The original Eboracum fortress, built from earth and timber more than 1,900 years ago, established the centre of York and a pattern of streets that still exist today.
Fortresses were built to a plan. The outer walls enclosed a rectangular space of about 50 acres. Inside was a grid of streets and buildings which performed the same functions from place to place.
The four corners of the fortress were placed at the points of the compass, north, south, east and west, so it looks like a distorted diamond shape on a map. The main streets, the via principalis and the via praetoria, then run diagonally across the map. This can confuse visitors to the city as they seem misaligned with the York Minster, which runs strictly east to west." Text Source: (
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"Petergate (named due its proximity with the Minster dedicated to St Peter) is a lively and quaint shopping thoroughfare and part of the newly branded Minster Quarter. On the site of the Roman Via Principalis, the Romans’ 1st century main east-west route through their fortress, Petergate runs from York’s oldest city gate Bootham Bar – the Roman Prima Porta Dextra or right gate, to Kings Square – Porta Sinistra, the left gate." Text source: (
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