Roman Hungary

Hungary’s Roman sites belong to the province of Pannonia, whose edge was the Danube. Along much of its course the river formed the empire’s frontier, the Pannonian limes, guarded by forts on its western bank. Opposite Aquincum the eastern bank never came under direct Roman rule; Rome kept only outposts there, among them Contra Aquincum, which in the Middle Ages became the nucleus of the town of Pest.

The largest site is Aquincum, in the Óbuda district of Budapest. It was a legionary fortress with two separate towns, one around the camp and one further north that was legally independent of the army, and for more than two centuries it was the seat of the governor of Lower Pannonia (Pannonia inferior). Its history is presented on the spot at the Aquincum Museum, which includes an archaeological park. Upriver, Brigetio at Komárom-Szőny was another legionary camp, remembered as the place where the emperor Valentinian I died. Downriver, Intercisa at Dunaújváros is counted among the best-researched forts on the Danube frontier, and some of its remains are conserved and open to the public. At the Danube Bend, the late Roman fort on Sibrik hill near Visegrád has been partly excavated and made visible.

Away from the river lie the towns. Savaria, today’s Szombathely, a station on the Amber Road, is probably the oldest Roman town in present-day Hungary; its remains can be seen in a ruin garden, and a partial reconstruction of its sanctuary of Isis, the Iseum, was completed in 2010. Gorsium at Tác, south of Székesfehérvár, grew from a military camp into one of the largest and richest settlements of late Roman Pannonia, and its ruins are now presented by the Szent István Király Museum. In Pécs, Roman Sopianae, a provincial seat in the 4th century, left an early Christian cemetery of decorated tombs and burial chapels that has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 2000.