Ybbs watchtowers

a) Watchtower Ybbs b) Watchtower Neumarkt adYbbs
Alternative name	a) Ad Pontem Ises ?; b) unknown
limes	Limes Noricus
section	Route 1
Dating (occupancy)	Valentinian, until 5th century AD?
Type	Watchtower
unit	a) Milites auxiliares Lauriacenses or Legio I Noricorum ? b) Limitanei (Burgarii) ?
size	a) unknown, b) 4.3 × 2.9 m, height 1.3 m, wall thickness 40–60 cm
Construction	Stone construction
State of preservation	a) built over by the parish church of Ybbs / Passauer Kasten?, b) no longer visible above ground
place	Ybbs on the Danube and Neumarkt on the Ybbs
Previous	Wallsee fort (west)
Subsequently	Fort Pöchlarn (east)

View of Ybbs / Donau / Lower Austria, view from the north

Grave relief in the parish church of Ybbs

The watchtowers of Ybbs were part of the fortifications of the Danube Limes in Austria , the federal state of Lower Austria , the Melk district , the municipality of the city of Ybbs on the Danube and the Neumarkt district.

Litter finds and inscription stones suggest a military facility. An inscription stone is said to have been excavated at the beginning of the 16th century, which indicates the construction of a Burgus by soldiers from the Lauriacum camp . Apart from the stone, which is now lost, brick stamps indicate the existence of a small fortress in Ybbs. Another, archaeologically proven watchtower was located on Limesstrasse near Neumarkt.

Location and function

Today's city of Ybbs on the Danube lies on the southern edge of the so-called Bohemian Massif and is characterized by the Danube and Ybbs rivers. This is also where the Ybbstal ends, providing relatively easy access to the Eastern Alps (especially Eisenwurzen , Enns and Mur valleys) for trade and travel . These circumstances favored the city's later rise to become one of the most important places in the Strudengau . The Ybbs is still shown on old maps as Big and Small Ybbs. At that time, about 1 kilometer downstream, it flowed into the Danube in a wide delta that came close to the city.

In ancient times, this section was difficult to pass due to whirlpools and rapids, which is why the station may have served as a safe anchorage for shipping or as a base for the Danube fleet . The tower there (or possibly also a small fort) was possibly used to monitor the mouth of the Ybbs.

Surname

The ancient river name " Ivisa " or " Ibusa " comes from an old, pre-Slavic language. The Romans adopted it as the third declension noun " Ivesis ". A late Roman brick stamp in the city museum bears the inscription FIG IVES LEG I NOR, to be interpreted as: Figulina Ivesianae Legio Prima Noricorum = the brickworks on the Ybbs, the first Noric legion . According to the Tabula Peutingeriana , the name of this base could have been Ad Pontem Ises or Pons Ivesis . The distance of eight Roman miles given in the table corresponds roughly to the position of the remains of the Roman wall of the watchtower in Neumarkt. Research has tried several times to assign Ad Pontem Ises Ybbs, but this view is now considered outdated.

Fortifications

Tower point	description	location
Small fort or watchtower Ybbs	Roman wall remains at Passauer Kasten / parish church of Ybbs A larger Roman fortification in the city center has not yet been archaeologically proven. Only a late antique building inscription and various scattered finds (including the above mentioned brick stamp of the Legio I Noricorum ) suggest such a military installation in or in the vicinity of Ybbs. Ybbs is also not mentioned in most of the main sources on the Noric Limes (e.g. Itinerarium Antonini , Notitia Dignitatum ). An inscription stone ("Dreikaiserstein") is said to have been found here in 1508, which reported the construction of a Burgus in 370 by soldiers from the legionary camp Lauriacum (milites auxiliares Lauriacenses) , who were under the command of a Praepositos , Leontius. The stone was allegedly found directly on the banks of the Danube. But it has also been claimed that it should originally come from Enns . This troop is otherwise not mentioned in any other ancient source. According to the humanists Wolfgang Lazius and Peter Apianus , it was brought to Vienna around 1508 to 1509 by a follower of Emperor Maximilian I , Johannes Fuchsmagen (also Fuxmagen) from Hall (around 1450–1510), where it was built in 1622 of the Jesuit monastery was lost. A grave relief, which can be viewed in the parish church of Ybbs today, has also been preserved. In the following period (19th century) one heard again and again about finds from Roman times (coin finds), most recently in 1906 a brick stamp with the imprint FIG IVES and a tombstone. In the 1980s, massive remains of the wall were uncovered as part of the renovation of the old town, but their findings have not been documented or published. Between 2014 and 2017, on the initiative of the local cultural association, they were examined and preserved again by employees of the Federal Monuments Office. Whether it is actually the remains of a small Roman fortress or the Burgus Ad Pontem Isis is still a matter of dispute .	48 ° 10 ′ 38.4 "  N , 15 ° 5 ′ 7"  E
Watchtower Neumarkt an der Ybbs	The Ybbs River flows into the Danube The only archaeologically proven site of a Roman watchtower is in Neumarkt an der Ybbs in a gravel pit. Its crew probably controlled the road traffic at a heavily frequented ford across the Ybbs, as it was probably directly on the Limes road, which led from Loco Felicis , Mauer an der Url ( Wallsee fort ?), To Pöchlarn ( Arelape fort ). In the course of an emergency excavation carried out by the Austrian Federal Monuments Office in 1961, foundations and rising masonry of a rectangular Roman building were discovered in a gravel pit, 700 m north-east of Neumarkt and 1 km west of Kemmelbach (in addition to burials from the Early Bronze Age and Early Middle Ages) and rising masonry of a rectangular Roman building, which was discovered by the excavators ( Herma Stiglitz- Thaller , Gustav Melzer ) was identified as a watchtower. The multi-phase building, assembled from mortared rubble, was still preserved up to a height of 1.30 m and 40–60 cm wide. Its internal dimensions were 4.3 × 2.9 m. The entrance was in the northwest. A stairway exit (two approximately 1.25 m wide steps) and a door threshold could be documented here. Traces of a moat were found about 35 m away. The screed findings also reveal an older construction phase. It was 2.10–2.55 m thick and lay on a layer of roll gravel, which was presumably used for insulation. Underneath there was a dark layer of earth about three centimeters thick. The found objects were not published. In terms of dating, it is no longer possible to narrow it down precisely. The watchtower of Neumarkt probably came from the Valentine period.	48 ° 8 '54.2 "  N , 15 ° 4' 45.9"  E

Monument protection

The facilities are ground monuments within the meaning of the Monument Protection Act. Investigations and targeted collection of finds without the approval of the Federal Monuments Office constitute a criminal offense. Accidental finds of archaeological objects (ceramics, metal, bones, etc.), as well as all measures affecting the soil, must be reported to the Federal Monuments Office (Department for Ground Monuments).

See also

• List of forts in Noricum and Upper Pannonia

literature

• Kurt Genser: The Austrian Danube Limes in Roman times. A research report . Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1986, ISBN 3-7001-0783-8 (The Roman Limes in Austria, 33), pp. 220-231.
• Manfred Kandler, Hermann Vetters (ed.): The Roman Limes in Austria. A leader . Vienna 1989, pp. 140-141.
• Gustav Melzer: Archaeological investigations in the St. Veit branch church in Sarling, municipality of Ybbs on the Danube . In: Find reports from Austria , Volume 14, 1975, pp. 27–28.
• Rene Ployer: Neumarkt an der Ybbs - Ad pontem Ises (?) - watchtower. In: Verena Gassner, Andreas Pülz (Hrsg.): The Roman Limes in Austria. Guide to the archaeological monuments. Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 2015, ISBN 978-3-7001-7787-6 , p. 191.
• Rene Ployer: Ybbs on the Danube - Burgus (?). In: Verena Gassner, Andreas Pülz (Hrsg.): The Roman Limes in Austria. Guide to the archaeological monuments. Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 2015, ISBN 978-3-7001-7787-6 , p. 192.
• René Ployer: The Norwegian Limes in Austria. Find reports from Austria, Materialhefte series B 3, Österr. Federal Monuments Office, Vienna 2013.

Web links

• Location of the tower site on Vici.org
• The Roman Limes in Austria (Ybbs)
• The Roman Limes in Austria (Neumarkt)
• Austrian City Atlas: History of the City of Ybbs

Remarks

1. ↑ Kurt Genser: 1986, pp. 224-225.
2. ↑ Segmentum IV / 6
3. ↑ Otto Ebner: Heimatstädtchen Ybbs, where does your name come from , bulletin of the cultural office of the city of Ybbs, volume 5, Ybbs 1958, pp. 1-6.
4. ↑ Building inscription: DDD (ominorum) nnn (ostrorum) Valentiniani / Valenti / s et Gratiani perennium Augustor / um saluberrima iussionem hunc / burgum a fundamentis ordinante / viro clarissimo Equitio comite et / utriusquae militiae magistro i / nsistente etiam Leontio (osito) mili / tes auxiliares Lauriacenses cu / r (a) e eius conmissi consulatus / eorundem dominorum prin / cipumque nostrorum tertii ad / summam manum perduxserunt (!) / perfectiones . = CIL 3, 5670 a; Kandler / Vetters, 1989, p. 122
5. ↑ Kurt Genser, 1985, pp. 228 and 231, Find reports from Austria , Volume 8, 1961–1965, p. 99.
6. ↑ [1] on the website of the Federal Monuments Office.