Carnuntinum Museum
The Carnuntinum Museum in Bad Deutsch-Altenburg in Lower Austria is part and, as a so-called treasure house, also the core of the former Roman city of Carnuntum . It deals with the history and everyday life of the ancient legionary camp and the ancient civil town of Carnuntum, and in its exhibition mainly presents finds from the excavations in these places. With over 2 million finds in the depot, it is the largest Roman museum in Austria.
history
In 1852 Baron Eduard von Sacken laid the foundation stone for one of the most important Roman collections in Austria through his research in Carnuntum. Since the first scientific excavation work began in Carnuntum at the end of the 19th century, including the amphitheater in 1887 and the legionary camp from 1898 to 1911. Some of the Roman artefacts recovered during the investigations were housed in the Imperial and Royal Coin and Antiquities Cabinet in Vienna or in private collections. Access to the scientific results on site was therefore only possible to a very limited extent for those interested.
One of the main concerns of the Carnuntum Association, founded in Vienna in 1884, and its sponsors such as Otto Reichsgraf Abensberg Traun, Anton Graf Ludwigstorff , Wilhelm Ritter von Hartel, Freiherr Josef von Doblhoff-Dier and other members of relevant research groups was the establishment of a Carnuntum Museum according to its statutes . Until the realization of this project, most of the finds from the excavations were distributed among Petronell Castle, Ludwigstorff Castle and a house made available by the quarry owner Karl Hollitzer in Bad Deutsch-Altenburg (former "hobbyist's house", today there are community apartments).
Almost twenty years passed from Otto Benndorf's first planning draft , until the two architects Friedrich Ohmann , who had previously planned similar projects, and August Kirstein from the kk Ministry of Education were commissioned to implement the building project on the initiative of the Carnuntum Association (today Verein Freunde Carnuntums) . The purpose of the building was clearly defined in a draft agreement from the Carnuntum Association to the Imperial and Royal Ministry for Cultus and Education in 1902:
"The museum is intended to hold all accessible antique (possibly also later and prehistoric) found objects from the area of Carnuntum and the surrounding area, to make them publicly available for educational purposes and specialist studies and to keep them forever in Deutsch-Altenburg."
The foundation stone was laid in 1901 on private property near the south bank of the Danube and in 1904 Emperor Franz Joseph was able to ceremoniously hand over the new museum to its destination.
museum
The museum stands in the middle of a garden and its style is based on a Roman country villa. The architects tried to create the impression of a reconstruction with their design. Two wings with arched windows on the upper floor adjoin the three-axis central building. Ionic columns bearing the busts of the Roman emperors Marc Aurel and Augustus are erected on both sides of the main entrance . In the park in front of the museum, in the central axis of the entrance area, there is a life-size bronze statue of Emperor Franz Joseph I, a work by the sculptor Edmund Hofman von Aspernburg. The house was badly damaged in both world wars. In 1949 it was poorly restored and reopened in 1950. However, the renovations did not alleviate the shortage of space caused by the accumulation of found objects, because the building remained almost unchanged. The building does not have a basement (due to the rocky subsoil of the site) and therefore no larger storage rooms. The federal state of Lower Austria initially only took over the administration on a fiduciary basis, until it finally passed into state ownership in 1953. However, the necessary financial resources were lacking for an extensive building renovation, so that a major conversion and renovation could not begin until 1988. After the renovation work was completed, the newly designed and extensively modernized museum was reopened to visitors in 1992.
exhibition
The foundations of the museum's collection were based on the private collections of Abensberg-Traun, Ludwigstorff, Hollitzer, Nowatzi and Widter. The main concern is the comprehensive presentation of Roman culture, oriental religions and cults, the everyday life of the Romans and the development of the Roman military system on the Pannonian Danube border. Emperor Marc Aurel also spent several years in Carnuntum during the Marcomann Wars. This moved the provincial capital, located on the edge of the empire, to the center of world politics at the time. The exhibition shows the effects of this important event up to our time using finds that have never been exhibited before. The partial origin of his philosophical self-reflections in Carnuntum is also examined.
Above all, gravestones, mosaics, consecration altars, statues and reliefs, everyday objects, coins, jewelry (especially vestment fibulae), statues of Jupiter Dolichenus , Mithras of Syrian and Egyptian gods, portraits of emperors as well as coins, medical instruments, replicas of weapons and Equipment of Roman soldiers, writing implements, ceramics, glasses and jewelry from grave finds.
The museum endeavors to continue to interest its visitors in the civilization of Roman antiquity 2000 years ago by means of a presentation based on strict scientific research and to make it understandable in such a way that the history of Austria is often also explained from the historical events around Roman Carnuntum can be. Since 2004, the Carnuntinum Museum has repeatedly shown exhibitions on changing themes. In connection with the excavations, this also includes the residential buildings that have been rebuilt in recent years and the thermal baths on the site of the Roman city of Carnuntum.
Events
The museum was one of the three locations of this special show as part of the 2011 state exhibition with the Hainburg culture factory and the reconstructed Roman city quarter in Petronell-Carnuntum .
Roman city of Carnuntum
The first basis for the Roman city of Carnuntum was laid in the late 1980s, and in 1997 it was actually founded as a cultural institution. It covers an area of around ten square kilometers in the vicinity of the villages of Petronell and Deutsch-Altenburg in Lower Austria , on which around 0.5 percent of the building fabric of the former Roman settlement of Carnuntum has been excavated. Its center is in the so-called walking garden of Petronell Castle. The amphitheater of the civil town and the region's landmark, the Heidentor, are 10 or 20 minutes' walk away. To the east of it, in Deutsch-Altenburg, near the former legionary camp stands the second, better preserved amphitheater of the camp city. One of the tasks of the park is to better conserve the ancient walls that have already been excavated, but some of which have already fallen into disrepair (with lime mortar instead of cement mortar as before) and thus preserve them for posterity. Furthermore, emergency excavations are to be organized from there and, above all, the Roman artifacts from the Pfaffenberg, which is constantly being removed by quarrying, are to be secured. Further excavations are difficult not only for financial, but also for legal reasons when the privately owned farmland is replaced. Therefore, since the 1970s, quality and clarity have been the focus instead of quantity. These measures and accompanying events contribute significantly to the understanding of ancient culture and technology and to a revitalization of the region.
Most of the still visible remains of the Roman city can be seen in the walking garden. In the sense of the still relatively young research branch of experimental archeology, the ancient world can be experienced by the public through events such as equestrian or gladiator games and through the reconstruction technology of ancient buildings, which is unique in the world, and the scientifically proven design of interiors and front gardens in the open-air museum of the reconstructed Roman city district made. In the period from 2006 to 2011, the area for the Lower Austrian State Exhibition was completely redesigned. A modern information and exhibition building with a true-to-scale surface model of the forts and the city was also built. The most important buildings of a district ( insula ), consisting of several streets, two houses and a bathing establishment, were reconstructed on the exposed foundations with the help of interdisciplinary scientific findings and historical sources and partially rebuilt, including the interior furnishings, so that the visitor almost feels gets an unadulterated impression of everyday life in the first five decades of the 4th century AD. The primary goal was to show and describe different working methods in virtual reconstruction as well as to study the possibilities of correct interpretation of archaeological findings. Up to 120 people were deployed for excavations, construction work, the operation of the Roman district and the care of the last 250,000 visitors per year. The district can also be visited virtually.
The fourth century, the so-called construction period five, was chosen as the template for the previous structural reconstructions. A total of four building complexes were completed:
- the house of the cloth merchant Lucius
- the patrician house Villa Urbana (2007 to 2008)
- the neighboring small thermal baths (2009 to 2011)
- Domus Quarta (dining room partially reconstructed in 2013)
The reconstructions are not fictitious backdrops or museum objects, but habitable houses. All floor plans and furnishing details as well as the street levels of the district can be assigned to a single time period. The reconstructed buildings were not constructed with modern construction technology, but with replicated Roman trowels, chisels and hammers. As in Roman times, river sand and lime were used for the mortar, and beams from demolished houses and barns in the area that were as old as possible, still hewn with an ax, were used for the roof structures. This experimental archeology is expensive, but provides valuable information about ancient craft techniques, construction times and construction costs. The underfloor heating systems typical of the Romans ( Hypocaustum ) were also recreated, the thermal baths are heated from April to November.
In 2006, on the occasion of the 2000th anniversary of the Roman settlement, numerous events (exhibition fights, exhibition cooking, etc.) took place. In 2013, the park was nominated by the European Union for the European Heritage Label for the pre-selection in addition to the Christmas carol Silent Night, Holy Night . The seal was awarded to the Roman city on April 8, 2014.
literature
- Franz Humer: Marc Aurel and Carnuntum, special exhibition in Bad Deutsch-Altenburg on the occasion of the anniversary “100 years Museum Carnuntinum”. In: Forum Archaeologiae 31 / VI / 2004,
- Christa Farka: Archeology in Carnuntum. In: Franz Humer (Hrsg.): Legion eagle and druid staff, from the legion camp to the Danube metropolis. Special exhibition on the occasion of the anniversary "2000 years Carnuntum", text volume, Verlag Ferdinand Berger & Sons, Horn 2006, ISBN 3-85460-229-4 .
- Werner Jobst: Provincial capital Carnuntum, Austria's largest archaeological landscape. Austrian Bundesverlag Wien 1983, pp. 29–30, ISBN 3-215-04441-2 .
- Peter Pleyel: Roman Austria. Pichler Verlag, Vienna 2002, ISBN 3-85431-270-9 , pp. 68-78.
Web links
- Carnuntum Archaeological Park.
- 100 years of the Carnuntinum Museum. (PDF; 128 kB)
- Carnuntinum Museum in Bad Deutsch-Altenburg. In: Lower Austria 3D. Retrieved November 4, 2017 (3D illustration).
Individual evidence
- ^ Peter Pleyel: The Roman Austria. 2002, pp. 73-74.
- ↑ Latest news on the European Heritage Label ( Memento of July 13, 2013 in the Internet Archive ). Accessed on March 24, 2013.
- ↑ derStandard.at Wissenschaft Zeit from April 9, 2014: EU award for Carnuntum Archaeological Park (APA) , accessed on April 14, 2014.
Coordinates: 48 ° 8 '23.6 " N , 16 ° 54' 12.7" E