Teurnia
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The Municipium Teurnia (late antiquity also: Tiburnia ) was a Roman city in Upper Carinthia not far from today's district capital Spittal. In late antiquity it was also the seat of a bishop and the capital of the Roman province of Noricum mediterraneum (Inland Noricum ). Tiburnia is still a titular archbishopric today .
History of the city
The ruins of ancient Teurnia are located on the Lurnfeld am Holzer Berg in the St. Peter in Holz part of the municipality of Lendorf , four kilometers west of Spittal an der Drau . As early as 1100 BC BC was settled there on the Holzer Berg. Approx. The Roman city with a forum , market basilica, capitol temple , thermal baths , residential terraces and temple of the Celtic healing god Grannus was built here in 50 AD .
Teurnia was one of the largest cities in the Noric Empire . In its heyday the city had 30,000 inhabitants . The population decreased in late antiquity; The residential terraces were given up and the slopes were used as cemeteries, since they had become unusable for agriculture. At the same time the fortification wall was built. The inhabitants of Teurnia were already Christians in the 4th century . From around 400 until its fall in 610, the city was also the seat of a bishopric . From the Vita Severini of Eugippius from 511 we learn that Severin was in contact with a bishop of Tiburnia / Teurnia named Paulinus . Due to the fact that he sent warning letters to parishes in his diocese, Paulinus was probably Metropolitan of the Inner Norican. Teurnia can therefore be considered (after Virunum ) the younger capital of the province. The last time the city and diocese were mentioned in a letter from the Venetian and Rhaetian bishops in 591 .
Excavations
The Holzer Berg was already known in the Middle Ages as a place where ancient remains were found. Many spoils of buildings in the area have their origin here. In the course of modern times , interest in the Roman finds increased, but it was not until late that the town of Teurnia, which has been handed down in writing, was recognized in the site . The city has been professionally excavated since the accidental discovery of the cemetery church in 1908. The donor mosaic of the governor Ursus in the right side chapel of the three-aisled basilica has been almost completely preserved. The mosaic shows in twelve pictures linked christological, mythological and biblical symbols as well as the donor inscription of an Ursus and his wife Ursina.
In 1984 the current head of the excavation, Franz Glaser, discovered the early Christian bishop's church, which is now covered and accessible to visitors. The bishop's church had previously been assumed to be under the medieval parish church; However, based on historical comparisons, Glaser concluded the actual location on the western city wall. The church dates from the beginning of the 5th century and was rebuilt with three naves and three apses after a fire at the beginning of the 6th century . Analogous to the situation at Hemmaberg , the bishop's church could have served as a meeting place for the Catholic community, while the Arians held their services in the cemetery church. The late antique episcopal hospitium (guest house) was found next to the bishop's church ; however today it is covered with earth again. Further excavations are underway.
Teurnia was supplied with water over a distance of approx. 3 km from springs on the Hühnersberg. There was probably a Roman aqueduct bridge over the Lendorfer Moos. Various wall finds are documented. According to a recent reconstruction, the water supply could have been designed as a gravity channel . The Roman Museum Teurnia is located on the site as a branch of the State Museum of Carinthia , in which numerous artefacts from the Roman city are exhibited. In the vicinity of the museum are the preserved remains of a Roman town house, which has a simple hypocaust in Ypsilon form as a special feature . Visitors receive explanations of the history of the city and the excavations through display cases throughout the site.
literature
- Franz Glaser : Teurnia: Roman city and bishopric , publishing house of the history association, Klagenfurt 1992
- Franz Glaser: Early Christian Monuments in Carinthia , Verlag des Geschichtsverein, Klagenfurt 1996
- Franz Glaser: Römermuseum Teurnia - Texts and Drawings , Verlag des Geschichtsverein, Klagenfurt 2002
- Christian Gugl: Archaeological research in Teurnia. The excavations in the residential terraces 1971–1978. The Latène period finds from the Holzer Berg (= special publications of the Austrian Archaeological Institute 33), Vienna 2000, ISBN 3-900305-30-7
- Michael Huber (Ed.): Communications from the Kuratorium pro Teurnia (1989–1991); Communications on early Christian archeology in Austria (1992–1994); Association announcements - Kuratorium pro Teurnia (1995–2006); Teurnia communications (since 2007). (= annual bulletin of the association Kuratorium pro Teurnia)
- Rudolf Egger: Teurnia. The Roman and Early Christian Antiquities of Upper Carinthia (1924, 8th extended edition 1979)
Web links
Coordinates: 46 ° 49 ′ 23.9 " N , 13 ° 26 ′ 37.5" E
Individual evidence
- ↑ Eugippi vita Sancti Severini, comme moratorium XXI.
- ↑ Axel Huber: Considerations for the water supply of Teurnia. A Roman spring outlet in Seeboden. In: Historical Society of Carinthia (ed.): Carinthia I . 208th year. Klagenfurt 2018, p. 67-94 .