Boiodurum Castle

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Fort Passau-Innstadt / Rosenau
Alternative name a) Boiodurum ,
b) Boiodoro ,
c) Bolodurum ,
c) Boioduru
limes Limes Noricus
section Route 4
Dating (occupancy) Domitian ,
late 1st century AD to
mid 3rd century AD
Type Equestrian and cohort fort?
unit a) Alae  ?,
b) Numerus Boiodurensium  ?,
c) Cohors V Breucorum cR eq  ?
size approx. 1.3 ha
Construction Wood-earth, stone
State of preservation rectangular complex with rounded corners, gates and intermediate towers,
north side removed from the Inn,
not visible above ground
place Passau - Innstadt
Geographical location 48 ° 34 '16.5 "  N , 13 ° 28' 33.1"  E
height 300  m above sea level NHN
Previous Boiotro Fort (west)
Subsequently Burgus Passau-Haibach (east)
Upstream Batavis Fort (north, Passau old town)
The Rhaetian and Noric Danube Limes
Location of the forts in Passau and on the southern bank of the Inn, 1st to 5th century AD.
Findings plan of the fort, the thermal baths and the vicus, 1st to 3rd century AD.
Findings plan of the excavations 1905–1911, according to FJ Engel
Finding plan of the east gate
Model of the Boiodurum fort around 200 AD.
Passau Roman Museum

[gallery111993ef47 / 20 / Link to the picture]
(Please note copyrights )

The Boiodurum fort was part of the Limes in the Roman province of Noricum in the area of ​​the independent city ​​of Passau , administrative district of Niederbayern , Eastern Bavaria , Germany . Fort and camp village ( vicus ) were laid out in the middle of the 2nd century AD to defend and control the Danube border and an Inn crossing. A late Celtic oppidum followed, the center of which was on the peninsula between the Danube (Danuvius) and Inn (Aenus) . After the camp was forcibly destroyed by a German invasion in the second half of the 3rd century, the Boiotro fort, a little further upstream, took over the security of this section of the Danube border from late antiquity .

Surname

The place name is almost certainly of Celtic origin and means "fortress of the Boious" or "city of the Boier ". It is first mentioned as Boioduron by the Greek geographer Claudius Ptolemy in the middle of the 2nd century AD . Further mentions are known from the Itinerarium Antonini , where the fort is described as being on the highway from Taurunum ( Zemun ) to Vetera ( Xanten ), and the Tabula Peutingeriana . On the latter, the place is incorrectly drawn on the left side of the Danube. There are also two inscriptions in the text of which Boiodurum also appears: a dedicatory inscription for Mithras from Atrans / Trojane and the mention on a (now lost) milestone on Donaustraße near Engelhartszell. The brick stamps recovered on site with the imprint NVMB ( Numerus Boiodurensium ?) Also support the theory that the Romans transferred the name of the Celtic oppidum to the fort and its civil settlement.

The late antique name of the place, Boiotro , a smooth form of Boiodurum , is passed down through the Notitia Dignitatum and the biography of Severin von Noricum . Until around 1900 the fort area was known to the local population as "Biburg".

Topography and location

Geologically, the region around Passau belongs to a foothill of the Bavarian Forest , which is particularly characterized by the navigable rivers Danube and Inn. The Ilz , which flows into the Danube from the north, complements this river system and simultaneously opens a route to Bohemia . The Danube, flowing from west to east, and the north-south axes of the Inn and Ilz have been an important hub for traffic and trade since prehistoric times and favored the establishment of larger settlements. It is not known whether a bridge also existed here in Roman times. The rivers protected the peninsula of the so-called three-river corner in a natural way. Access from the land side could be blocked without much effort. As in the previous millennia, the Celts of the late La Tène period played a decisive role in the favorable topographical and economic geographical location of the river island for the establishment of a larger oppidum, although good arable land could not be found in the immediate vicinity.

The Roman fort is located on a flood-protected terrace in Rosenau, at the eastern end of Passau- Innstadt , on the eastern bank of the Inn, directly at the confluence of the Danube and Inn opposite the mouth of the Ilz. It essentially enclosed the site of the former St. Egidius Church (profaned after secularization, today “Kapuzinerstraße 61” in Rosenau). The eastern part of the warehouse is located on the site of a construction company at "Kapuzinerstraße 55". The SE corner is under the house "Kapuzinerstraße 67". The remains of the east gate can also be found under the church, and the south gate at the level of a parking lot. At Boiodurum , a road accompanying the Inn on the west bank met one of the most important long-distance routes to the south and east of the empire, the via iuxta Danuvium , which was only expanded at the beginning of the 3rd century when the strategic location was one made a rapid connection between the troops on the Rhine and Danube necessary. The section from Boiodurum led via Stanacum (Oberranna), Ioviacum ( Gstöttenau between Aschach an der Donau and Eferding) and Ad Mauros ( Eferding ) to Ovilavis ( Wels ).

function

The fort was part of the Noric Limes. The tasks of the crew probably included securing the river border (ripa) and the Inn crossing from the Roman province of Raetia ( Raetia ) to Noricum (Norikum), collecting customs duties, transmitting communications along the Limes and monitoring and controlling the Ovilavis road connection - Reginum and shipping on both rivers. The fort was the location of a customs post of the publicum portorii Illyrici , the Illyrian customs district. When goods were imported into the Gallic customs district, the quadragesima Galliarum , a duty of 2.5% of the value of the goods, was levied. According to the findings, the station should also have been on the Noric side. In Wernstein am Inn , around seven kilometers from the fort, at the Inn crossing of the Limesstrasse, the inscription (230 AD) of M. Rustius Iunianis, a beneficiarius consularis of the legio II Italica , also ensures the existence of a road guard.

Research history, range of finds

The first Roman finds from Rosenau, fragments of a mosaic and a street paving, have been known since 1840. Alexander Erhard (1864) and Friedrich Ohlenschlager (1884) first suspected the fort in Rosenau. At the St. Egidius Church , Erhard observed Roman coins and the remains of a pavement. In 1869, ancient finds were made in this area again. From 1904 to 1911, the grammar school professor Franz Joseph Engel discovered the fort during his excavations and exposed parts of the defensive wall and the eastern flank tower of the south gate. In 1955, the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation , headed by Hans Schönberger, examined the area using search cuts , whereby the course of the western wall was determined, the ditch in front of it and part of the south wall with the intermediate tower could be discovered. Few excavation campaigns took place until 1970 . From 1986, the fort (south gate) and the vicus area were researched again as part of an emergency excavation under Walter Wandling and Jörg Peter Niemeier. A considerable part of the fort area was placed under protection in 1993. In 1995 further weir trenches were discovered.

In the immediate vicinity of the "Archäotop Boiodurum" there is a plot of almost 2400 square meters that covers the southwestern area of ​​the former fort interior. Some important rescue excavations were carried out here in autumn 1997 and summer 1998. The southern defensive wall to be expected here, however, could not be recorded because it was apparently outside the property. The terrain here had a natural slope directly behind the defensive wall. However, it was possible to document the wooden post holes in a long rectangular barracks.

At the beginning of 2013, excavation work was carried out on the construction of a student residence in Kapuzinerstraße without the supervision of city archaeologists. Finds of the civil settlement from the 2nd and 3rd centuries were irretrievably destroyed.

Numerous objects were also recovered from the investigations, especially metal finds. They prove the military function of this facility. Among other things, there were weapon fragments, a pioneer spade and a fragment of a bronze handle that had originally been attached to the back of a parade's helmet. Among the most important finds is a Germanic gold sheet brooch with a blue glass paste insert. It comes from the leveling layer of the early 3rd century. In the vicus , a golden finger ring with a red stone inlay in the form of an amphora was recovered. It comes from the turn of the late 2nd to the 3rd century AD and is believed to have been of great value in antiquity. It was probably buried on purpose.

development

Settlement of the Passau peninsula between Danube and Inn began 6000 years ago. In pre-Roman times, numerous Celts from the Boier tribe settled here . Their settlement center was on the peninsula between the Inn and the Danube. The oppidum was probably created around 450 BC. Founded. For example, graphite and graphite clay were negotiated from Kropfmühl , 20 kilometers away , which was used to manufacture refractory and heat-conducting cookware. Furthermore, one had direct access to the rich salt deposits in the Eastern Alps via the Inn and Salzach . The oppidum was probably not destroyed by the Romans, as its inhabitants had it long before their arrival, around 50/40 BC. BC, had given up again.

The fort in Rosenau probably developed similarly to the neighboring fort in Straubing and Künzing. In the course of the expansion of the Limes, during the reign of Emperor Domitian (81–96), the Roman army initially built a small wood and earth fort at the end of the 1st century AD (80–100). In a later time (150–160 AD?) The fortifications and the most important internal structures were rebuilt in stone. According to Tilman Bechert, the east gate was only expanded in the course of the Caracallas campaign in the Barbaricum around AD 213. The associated vicus may not have been built until the second half of the 2nd century. While the Danube separated the Roman Empire from the free Germania ( Germania magna ), the Inn marked the border not only between the provinces of Raetia (Passau-Altstadt) and Noricum (Passau-Innstadt), but also between the Gallic and Illyrian customs districts.

Fort and camp village were probably destroyed and given up due to the Alemanni invasions and civil wars that took place from the middle to the late 3rd century. A use of the area in late antiquity could not be proven. After 300 AD , a much smaller bridgehead fort , Boiotro , was built as a replacement under Valentinian I - about a kilometer up the Inn - which was occupied until the early 5th century.

Fort

The multi-phase fortifications had an irregular square floor plan with rounded corners (playing card shape) and covered an area of ​​approx. 1.3 to 1.5 hectares. Their east-west extension was about 142-143 meters, the north-south axis probably 90-95 meters. Before the cliffs at Innstein and Scheibling were cleared, the current was directed to the right bank of the Inn, which over time resulted in a section of the camp area being washed away. Another part was removed in the early 20th century when a railway line was built from Passau to Hauzenberg . Most of the rest is now built over and also no longer visible.

The warehouse wall, gate systems and the intermediate towers, which were initially built using the wood and earth technique, were rebuilt in stone in the course of the 2nd century AD. The wood-earth camp could not be proven archaeologically. The flank towers of the two gates and an intermediate tower could be observed on the south and east wall. The excavated wall in the eastern sector was still up to a height of 80 centimeters. It consisted of mortared gneiss and was 1.20 to 1.50 meters thick, the south wall had a total width of 1.70 meters. The wall of the intermediate tower was 1.30 meters wide. The western wall has not yet been explored, the southeast corner could be located under the house "Kapuzinerstraße 67".

Of the assumed four gates, the south and east gates have so far been located and only the latter has been examined in more detail. The north gate as well as the north wall were completely destroyed when the Inn was submerged. The east gate, equipped with two passages, was 4.50 meters wide. Its northern gate tower had a semicircular front and protruded a little in front of the fort wall. The south gate was secured by two square flank towers attached to the inside. The eastern one had a wall thickness of 1.15 to 1.30 meters, of the western specimen only 1.20 meters wide western wall and a three meter long part of the northern wall were preserved. The passage was also four meters wide.

Three pointed trenches were dug as an obstacle to the approach. The trench, discovered in 1955, was two meters deep and 6.70 meters wide. A larger section of the second and third fort trenches could be examined more closely on property no. 259. The city archaeologists had discovered these trenches earlier, but a change of plan made a new investigation necessary. The weir ditches were expected to bend here, but the curve does not seem to have been as precise as was originally assumed.

Interior development

Inside, a hypocaust system and the remains of a larger, long rectangular building ( principia  ?) In the center could be observed in the west . The team barracks (contubernia) examined in the 1990s were made of wood. Their support posts probably ran parallel to the southern fort wall. Among other things, the building was equipped with glazed windows, as evidenced by the finds of numerous broken glass and iron window hinges.

garrison

Little is known about the units stationed in the fort. So far, no inscriptions have been found that could provide information about the occupying forces of Boiodurum. Due to its size, it could have housed a cohort (cohors quinquenaria) consisting of 500 men .

Time position Troop name comment
1st to 3rd century AD a) Alae (cavalry squadron),
b) Numerus Batavinis or
c) Numerus Boiodurensium
(a group of Batavians or Boiodurians) 		During the excavations only a few brick stamps (NVMB) of an auxiliary force unit ( Auxilia ) from Batavis or Boiodurum and a previously unknown cavalry unit (ALAE) were recovered. The correct assignment of these stamps is still not certain, according to Rudolf Egger they come from late antiquity. The discovery of such bricks does not have to mean that these units were actually stationed here. Maybe they were brought here from another camp.
Numerus brick stamp from Passau (3rd century)
1st to 4th century AD Cohors Quinta Breucorum Equitata Civium Romanorum
(the fifth partially mounted cohort of Breukers with Roman citizenship) 		A Breuker cohort from the Lower Rhine, which was stationed in Noricum for some time after the reign of Emperor Domitian, would also be considered as a crew . This assumption is based on the discovery of two brick kilns, discovered in Andiesen / Holzleithen (near Schärding ) in 1961, which, however, date from late antiquity. The assignment of the brick stamps found there ([C] OH V BR) is still controversial among experts. A brick from this unit was also found in the camp village. Brick stamps of this troop were often found along the Noric Limes ( Schlögen , Wallsee , Zwentendorf and Zeiselmauer ). This unit was probably involved in the establishment of these camps in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD. Presumably she ran several brickworks. It would also be conceivable that vexillations were deployed as crews for these forts at the same time (see also Zwentendorf Castle ).
Brick stamp (C) OH V BR (eucorum) , 3rd century AD ( Roman Museum Kastell Boiotro , Passau)

Vicus

Sketch of the Faustinus inscription (installed today in the Severin's basilica)

The associated vicus surrounded the fort in the south, west and east or ran along today's Nibelungenstrasse (Passau-Linz), approx. 100 meters south of the camp to Hammerberg. Already 200 meters east of the camp, the structure was noticeably thinning. The core of the settlement was probably in the west. Its remains are now under a residential and commercial area. The construction of the camp village followed the usual arrangement in strip houses with cellars . From the part of the camp village east of the fort (area around the Jesuitenschlößl ) the floor plans of some wooden residential buildings, two medieval kilns with an unclear function and the course of a gravel road are known, which apparently leads to the fort gates and then on to the Limesstrasse towards Linz ( Fort Lentia ) led. One of the buildings had underfloor heating. Remnants of material indicate a glass blowing in this house. It is possible that civil settlement did not begin until a few decades after the fort was completed.

Iron-processing workshops and the production of pottery and glassware were of some economic importance for the settlement. A mortar fragment was recovered from the clay group of a pottery, on which its trade name ( mortarium ) and its market price (2 denarii ) were carved. Inscriptions showed that mainly the gods Jupiter , Victoria and Hercules were worshiped here. The finds from the excavated part of the vicus date without exception from the late 2nd century AD.Due to the discovery of inscriptions, the names of two residents of the civil settlements have also become known, the customs officer Faustinianus and a wine merchant named Publius Tenatius Essimnus (dating: 2nd century AD). Century AD, place of discovery: Passau, river bed of the Inn), which found their final resting place here.

Thermal bath

Findings of the Boiodurum thermal bath, 2nd to 3rd century AD (as of 1998)

The location of the fort bath has been known since 1998. That year, the remains of a 21 × 7 meter building were uncovered in parcel No. 256, the walls of which presumably continued beyond the excavation area in a westerly direction. It was located immediately to the south in front of the porta principalis sinistra (south gate), only about 75 meters from the fort wall and about 40 meters from the outermost third moat. Its location reveals that it must have been closely connected to the fort.

The long rectangular building (row type) was divided into at least four rooms, three of which could be almost completely excavated. The third room in the west had a semicircular apse . The remaining parts of the foundation walls consisted of gneiss and granite fragments as well as pebbles. The rest of the wall could only be traced after the excavation ditches that were created by the stone robbery. The pottery finds indicate that the building was not erected until the 2nd century AD. Comparisons with a similar building in the neighboring small fort in Schlögen proved that this building must also have been a thermal bath of the series type. It is likely to have been destroyed with the fort during the Alemanni raids between 240 and 250 AD. Their remains were already removed towards the end of the 3rd century and the stone material was probably reused for new buildings.

Burial grounds

To the west of today's bridge over the Inn (Boiotro Fort / Jahnstrasse), some cremation burials dating from the middle of the imperial period were found.

Monument protection

The fort area is protected as a registered ground monument within the meaning of the Bavarian Monument Protection Act. Investigations and targeted collection of finds are subject to approval, random finds must be reported to the monument authorities.

Notes and whereabouts

The fort is located around two kilometers from the city center in the direction of Linz (left side of the road) on the right bank of the Inn near a petrol station. To the right of the Kapuzinerstraße supermarket parking lot you can see the remains of the St. Egidi Church under a red canopy. Not far from her stood the east gate of the fort. Behind the Jesuitenschlößl (area of ​​the vicus) are the remains of the hypocaust of the glass workshop. The finds from the excavations are now partly kept in the Roman Museum Kastell Boiotro , in the depot of the Passau City Archeology and in the State Archaeological Collection in Munich .

See also

literature

  • Alexander Erhard: History and topography of the area around Passau II: right bank of the Danube and Inn .
  • Helmut Bender:  Passau. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 22, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2003, ISBN 3-11-017351-4 , pp. 496-499.
  • Mario Bloier: View over the Inn. The defensive structures of the Noric fort Boiodurum . In: Roman fortifications. Findings and reconstruction . (=  Series of publications by the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation 7), Munich 2013, pp. 70–81.
  • Mario Bloier: Boiodurum. Research history - findings - reconstruction . In: Passauer Jahrbuch 55, 2013, pp. 25–63.
  • Ulrich Brandl: Passau Boiodurum, Fort Vicus . In: Herwig Friesinger , Fritz Krinzinger (Hrsg.): The Roman Limes in Austria. Guide to the archaeological monuments . Vienna 1997, pp. 150–153.
  • Thomas Fischer : Noricum (= Orbis Provinciarum. Zabern's illustrated books of archeology ). Zabern, Mainz 2002, ISBN 3-8053-2829-X , pp. 31-32.
  • Thomas Fischer, Erika Riedmeier-Fischer: The Roman Limes in Bavaria . Verlag Friedrich Pustet, Regensburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-7917-2120-0 , p. 193.
  • Kurt Genser : The Austrian Danube Limes in Roman times. A research report. (= The Roman Limes in Austria. No. 33) Vienna 1986, pp. 13–34.
  • Günther Moosbauer: Passau - Boiodurum. Fort - vicus . In: Verena Gassner / Andreas Pülz (ed.): 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 , pp. 130-133.
  • Jörg-Peter Niemeier: The first archaeological reserve in a Bavarian city: the central imperial Boiodurum fort in Passau-Innstadt, City of Passau, Lower Bavaria. In: The archaeological year in Bavaria 1994, p. 122.
  • Jörg-Peter Niemeier: Boiodurum, new excavations in the fort and civil settlement. In: Lectures of the Niederbayerischen Archäologentag 18, 2000, pp. 59–73.
  • Jörg-Peter Niemeier (ed.): Passau - part of the Roman Empire. Guide through the Roman museum Kastell Boiotro , Passau 2014 ( ISBN 978-3-929350-91-3 ).
  • Herbert Schindler: Passau. Guide to the art monuments of the three-river city. Passavia, Passau 1990, ISBN 3-8761-6143-6 . Pp. 13-21.
  • Wolfgang Maria Schmidt: Illustrated history of the city of Passau. Ablaßmayer & Peninger GmbH, Passau 1927, pp. 5-20.
  • Hannsjörg Ubl : The Noric Provincial Army of the Princely Period as reflected in the new finds of diplomas and inscriptions . In: Zsolt Visy (ed.): Limes XIX, Proceedings of the XIXth International Congress of Roman frontier Studies held in Pécs, Hungary, September 2003. University of Pécs, 2005, pp. 107-118.
  • Walter Wandling: Excavations in the medieval fort vicus Boiodurum, Passau-Innstadt . In: The archaeological year in Bavaria 1988, pp. 126–127.

Remarks

  1. ↑ Fischer: 2002, p. 31.
  2. ↑ Ptolemy 2:12, 5: Βοιόδουρον.
  3. ↑ Segmentum III, 4, castellum Bolodurum (probably a transcription error)
  4. ↑ 249, 5, Boiodoro
  5. ↑ CIL 3, 5121 , servus contrascriptor stationis Boiodurensis and CIL 3, 5755 , from the years 239–241 AD, Boioduru .
  6. ↑ Fischer: 2002, p. 31 f.
  7. ↑ Notitia Dignitatum occ. XXXIV 44, tribunus cohortis Boiodoro , Vita Sancti Severini 22, 36, Boitro, Boiotro and similar, Gassner / Pülz 2015, pp. 131–132.
  8. ↑ Gassner / Pülz 2015, p. 31
  9. ↑ Fischer: 2002, p. 32.
  10. ↑ Kurt Genser: 1986, p. 31.
  11. ↑ Kurt Genser: 1986, p. 16 f, Gassner / Pülz 2015, p. 131.
  12. ↑ Brandl: 1997, p. 151.
  13. ↑ Huge annoyance about the Innstadt building project. Passau student apartments are destroying Roman city heritage . Report from the weekly newspaper of January 9, 2013 Passau.
  14. ↑ Fischer: 2002, p. 32.
  15. ↑ Kurt Genser: 1986, p. 27.
  16. ↑ Fischer: 2002, p. 26, Gassner / Pülz 2015, p. 132.
  17. ↑ Wolfgang Schmid: 1927, p. 8.
  18. ↑ Herbert Schindler: 1990, p. 16.
  19. ↑ Kurt Genser: 1986, pp. 19-20.
  20. ↑ Fischer: 2002, p. 26.
  21. ↑ Paul Reinecke
  22. ↑ Brandl: 1997, p. 152.
  23. ↑ Ubl: 2005, p. 115.
  24. ↑ Brandl: 1997, p. 150.
  25. ↑ Brandl: 1997, p. 152, Gassner / Pülz 2015, pp. 132-133.
  26. ↑ AE 1984, 707 .
  27. ↑ Gassner / Pülz 2015, p. 133
  28. ↑ Gassner Pülz 2015, p. 133
  29. ↑ Gassner / Pülz 2015, p. 133.

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