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Hidden gem1st – 6th c. ADTicketed

Teurnia

Tiburnia, St. Peter in Holz

city · Spittal an der Drau District, Austria

What it is
Teurnia was a Roman town on a hill above the Drau, west of Spittal in Carinthia, and in late antiquity the capital of inland Noricum and the seat of a bishop.
What you’ll see
The town was built on the Holzer Berg, a hill rising about 70 m above the valley, and the village of St. Peter in Holz now occupies the site (de.wikipedia).
Worth the trip?
Yes, if you are in Upper Carinthia between May and September, and above all for the mosaic, for which the cemetery church is known. The bishop's church, with its walls standing to head height, makes the late Roman town easy to picture.
Getting there & cost
St. Peter in Holz is in the municipality of Lendorf, west of Spittal an der Drau (de.wikipedia). The cemetery church is in the valley, about 190 m from the bus stop "St.Ticketed · €8 · checked 5 October 2026Hours, tickets and parking
A pebble-and-stone floor mosaic seen from above, divided into round and square panels with animals and a tree, laid in dark and reddish stones on a pale ground.
The donor mosaic in the south chapel of the cemetery church, with its panels of animals. · Photo: Griensteidl · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Close view of a mosaic panel framed in dark stones, with five lines of Latin capitals beginning "VRSSVS CVM CON".
The inscription of the donors: Ursus and his wife Ursina had the mosaic made in fulfilment of a vow. · Photo: Griensteidl · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
A white village church with a tall pointed spire next to a long white building with a dark roof and tall windows, on a grassy hillside under a blue sky.
St. Peter in Holz, with the church and the Römermuseum Teurnia. · Photo: Vid Pogacnik · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Teurnia was a Roman town on a hill above the Drau, west of Spittal in Carinthia, and in late antiquity the capital of inland Noricum and the seat of a bishop. What you come for are its two early Christian churches: one under a shelter on the hill beside the Römermuseum, and one in the valley with a floor mosaic paid for by the governor Ursus and his wife.

What is there today

The town was built on the Holzer Berg, a hill rising about 70 m above the valley, and the village of St. Peter in Holz now occupies the site (de.wikipedia). Its bishop’s church, the Römermuseum, a town house and the west gate of the late Roman town wall are shown on site, while the residential terraces and the forum, once excavated, have been filled in or built over. A circuit with new information boards, put up in 2018, links them (de.wikipedia).

On the way up to the museum, under a modern shelter, stand the walls of the bishop’s church, up to 2 m high. It was a single-naved church with an apse built around 400, with a free-standing bench for the clergy; after a fire it was rebuilt, probably in the 6th century, with a trefoil east end and open halls along its sides, and fragments of its wall paintings show women in Byzantine court dress (de.wikipedia). The Römermuseum, a branch of the Carinthian state museum in a former parish barn, shows finds from the town (de.wikipedia).

Down in the valley, the cemetery church is presented as an open-air museum. It is a rectangular hall church whose side annexes give it the shape of a Latin cross, and it is famous for the donor’s mosaic of the governor Ursus in its south side chapel, now under a museum wing; 65 graves were found around it (de.wikipedia). The mosaic’s inscription says that Ursus and his wife Ursina made it in fulfilment of a vow (Commons).

Is it worth the trip?

Yes, if you are in Upper Carinthia between May and September, and above all for the mosaic, for which the cemetery church is known. The bishop’s church, with its walls standing to head height, makes the late Roman town easy to picture. But Teurnia keeps short hours: the museum opens only five days a week and only until 16.00, and it is closed from October to April, so plan around it.

Getting there

St. Peter in Holz is in the municipality of Lendorf, west of Spittal an der Drau (de.wikipedia). The cemetery church is in the valley, about 190 m from the bus stop “St. Peter in Holz Teurnia”; the Römermuseum is on the hill about 500 m to the south-east, with the bishop’s church about 200 m from it and the town house about 100 m (OpenStreetMap). The museum, at St. Peter in Holz 1, is open from May to September, Tuesday to Saturday 10.00–16.00, with last entry half an hour before closing. A ticket is €8, €6 reduced and €14 for a family; under-18s go free, and a guided tour costs €4 a person (kärnten.museum, read 5 October 2026).

Visiting details

Opening hours
Römermuseum Teurnia - May to September, Tuesday to Saturday 10.00–16.00, last entry half an hour before closing; in 2026 also open on Whit Monday, 25 May.
Tickets
€8; reduced €6; under-18s free; family €14; guided tour €4 a person.

Before you go

  • The museum is closed from October to April.
  • No source says whether the cemetery church and the bishop's church can be seen outside the museum's opening hours.

Hours and prices checked 5 October 2026 on the operator's own site. Confirm before travelling.

History

Finds of the Hallstatt and La Tène periods suggest an early settlement on the hill. After the Celtic kingdom of Noricum joined the Roman Empire around 15 BC the place was romanised, and around AD 50 Claudius made it a municipium and gave it a forum; the finds show a prosperous town with metal workshops and probably textile production (de.wikipedia). In late antiquity the capital of Noricum moved here from Virunum, a move often linked to the Visigoths’ threat to Italy, and a wall was built round the town centre (de.wikipedia).

The town, now called Tiburnia, became the seat of a bishop; the bishop’s church, discovered in 1984, was built around 400, and two of its bishops, Paulinus and Leonidas, are known by name. Urban life ended in the 6th or early 7th century, probably with economic decline and the arrival of Slavic settlers in the region (de.wikipedia).

More photographs

Low walls of rubble stone and a few upright stone posts on an earth floor, inside a large shelter of green steel and timber louvres.
The bishop's church, under its shelter on the way up to the museum. · Photo: JJ55 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Low rubble walls of a church laid out on grass, one rounded end filled with red gravel, beside a white building with a red tiled roof and a short row of white columns.
The cemetery church in the valley, with the museum wing that covers the mosaic. · Photo: Palickap · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Nearby

  • The excavated walls of a bath building seen from above, rooms of grey stone with rows of small square pillars that held up heated floors, and a pale stone slab in one room.

    Photo: Simfunkel · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Commons

    47 km · city · Lienz District

    Aguntum

    Alongside the museum, visitors can see the town wall, the atrium house, the baths, the craftsmen's quarter and the macellum (de.wikipedia).

Straight-line distances.

Sources

Every fact on this page comes from the records below, each used under the licence noted.

SourceLicence
Pleiades 187583CC BY
Wikidata Q697154CC0
Vici.org 11412CC BY-SA (text), CC0 (metadata)
OpenStreetMap way/314509227ODbL
Wikipedia (de) — TeurniaCC BY-SA 4.0
Wikipedia (en) — TeurniaCC BY-SA 4.0
kärnten.museum — Römermuseum Teurnia (the operator)licence not recorded