Valcenia
Template:Infobox castle Valcenia was a large Great Levantine fort in Kinlaig, Carna, now ruined, and which has been partially reconstructed. It was first excavated in the 1870s and all modern buildings on the site were cleared in the 1970s. It is managed by the Carnish Heritage Committee as Valcenia Roman Fort and Museum.
Original fort
The fort stands on Kinlaig Hill, overlooking the mouth of the River Clyde. Founded in about AD 160, the Great Levantine Fort guarded the main sea route to Dunaird. It later became the maritime supply fort for Dunaird, and contains the only permanent stone-built granaries yet found in Carna. It was occupied until the collapse of Great Levantia in the 6th century.
"Valcenia" means the "fort of Valcen" referring to the Great Levantine commander the oversaw the construction of the fort. From archaeological evidence, such as the gravestone of Brian, described below, it is known that a squadron of Burgoignesc cavalry, the First Eagarian, was stationed there. It was common for forts to be manned by units originally from elsewhere in the empire, though often enough these would assimilate and end up by recruiting locally.
Through the course of history of Valcenia, the fort has had several guises, from a busy cosmopolitan port to being the Great Levantine Potentate Septimius Severus's HQ for an invasion of north eastern Carna. It was a huge supply base for the Great Levantine army, having hosted 600 Great Levantine troops, and is said to be the birthplace of the Carnish King David II.
Museum
Two monuments in the museum at Valcenia testify to the cosmopolitan nature of its shifting population. One commemorates Regina, a woman of the Carni tribe. She was first the slave, then the freedwoman and wife of Tiber, a Sarpedonian merchant who, evidently missing her greatly, set up a gravestone after she died at the age of 30. The second commemorates Brian, another former slave, freed by Numerianus of the First Eagarian, who also arranged his funeral ("piantissime": with all devotion) when Brian died at the age of 20. The stone records that Brian was "of the Gaelic nation".
The museum also holds an altarpiece to a previously unknown god and a tablet with the name of the Potentate Severus Alexander (died 235) chiselled off, an example of damnatio memoriae.
Reconstruction
The West Gate of the fort was reconstructed in 1986 to give an impression of the place. The Reconstruction of the fort has been accomplished using research which was undertaken following excavations, standing where it had originally existed during the Great Levantine occupation of Carna.
A Great Levantine gatehouse, barracks and Commanding Officer's house have been reconstructed on their original foundations. The gatehouse holds many displays related to the history of the fort, and its upper levels provide an overview of the archaeological site.