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Hidden gem4th c. ADFree

Pone Navata

Ponte Navata, Kastell Visegrád-Sibrik, Sibrik-dombi erőd

fort · Pest County, Hungary

What it is
Pone Navata is a late Roman frontier fort on Sibrik hill near Visegrád, at the entrance to the Danube Bend, partly excavated and made visible on the open hilltop (de.wikipedia; hu.wikipedia).
What you’ll see
The fort was an irregular four-sided enclosure of about 114 by 130 m, fitted to the hilltop, with walls 1.1 to 1.2 m thick, horseshoe-shaped towers along the sides and fan-shaped towers at the corners (de.wikipedia; Pleiades).
Worth the trip?
If you are in Visegrád, it is worth the short climb: the outline of a late Roman frontier fort on an open hilltop, free and unfenced, next to the town's medieval sights. On its own it is low walls in a meadow, with no operator recorded.
Getting there & cost
The fort lies beside Panoráma út on Sibrik hill, about 1.7 km from the centre of Visegrád, in Pest County.FreeHours, tickets and parking
An aerial view of a hilltop meadow ringed by woodland and a looping road, with the pale outlines of excavated walls along its edge, a path across the grass and a red-roofed house among trees.
Sibrik hill from the air, with the excavated walls along the edge of the meadow. · Photo: civertan · CC BY-SA 2.5 · Wikimedia Commons
A long, low run of rough stone wall across a grassy slope, rising at one end to a squared block of masonry with a small plaque on it, trees and dry grass behind.
Wall remains on the hill, seen from the east. · Photo: Sudika · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
The low U-shaped foundation of a tower projecting from a straight wall line, built of rough stone and set in bright green grass, with a gravel path on the right and wooded hills beyond.
The foundations of a tower on the south wall. · Photo: Globetrotter19 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Pone Navata is a late Roman frontier fort on Sibrik hill near Visegrád, at the entrance to the Danube Bend, partly excavated and made visible on the open hilltop (de.wikipedia; hu.wikipedia). Some of what stands belongs to the medieval county castle that later used the site (Commons file descriptions quoting the monument record).

What is there today

The fort was an irregular four-sided enclosure of about 114 by 130 m, fitted to the hilltop, with walls 1.1 to 1.2 m thick, horseshoe-shaped towers along the sides and fan-shaped towers at the corners (de.wikipedia; Pleiades). What you see are its restored foundations: low runs of wall and tower bases in the grass, with footpaths and a signpost among them. The site’s monument record lists both the foundation walls of the Roman fort, of the early 4th century, and the ruins of a county castle of the 10th and 11th centuries, so not every wall on the hill is Roman (Commons file descriptions quoting the record). OpenStreetMap marks the ruins of the ispán’s palace about 50 m away.

Is it worth the trip?

If you are in Visegrád, it is worth the short climb: the outline of a late Roman frontier fort on an open hilltop, free and unfenced, next to the town’s medieval sights. On its own it is low walls in a meadow, with no operator recorded.

Getting there

The fort lies beside Panoráma út on Sibrik hill, about 1.7 km from the centre of Visegrád, in Pest County. The nearest car park is the Salamon Tower’s, about 110 m away, which charges a fee; no bus stop or railway station is mapped within 300 m (OpenStreetMap).

No operator publishes opening hours or a ticket for the hill. The remains lie on open meadow crossed by footpaths, with no gate recorded.

Visiting details

Tickets
Free
Parking
The car park of the Salamon Tower, about 110 m away, charges a fee (OpenStreetMap).

Before you go

  • No operator publishes opening hours or a ticket; the remains lie on open meadow by Panoráma út.
  • No bus stop or railway station is mapped within 300 m; the centre of Visegrád is about 1.7 km away.

History

The fort guarded a stretch of the Danube, which here formed the empire’s frontier (de.wikipedia), and stood at the entrance to the Danube Bend (hu.wikipedia). Its ancient name was probably Pone Navata (de.wikipedia). The Hungarian article says it was built on the orders of Constantine I; the excavator, Soproni, dated its first phase to the late 320s from coin finds, while Visy proposes the 350s or 360s, and the date is still debated (de.wikipedia). The fort’s garrison, the Auxilia Ursarensia, left around 380, after the death of Valentinian I, though a smaller fortlet may have remained in use until Rome gave up the province (de.wikipedia).

The Roman walls stayed in use into the high Middle Ages (de.wikipedia), and thanks to more or less continuous occupation the fort stood until the Mongol invasion (hu.wikipedia). Soproni excavated it between 1951 and 1975 (de.wikipedia).

More photographs

An asphalt path along a grassy slope with a wooden signpost, leading to low stone walls and a squared block of masonry with a plaque.
The path past the south-eastern walls. · Photo: Globetrotter19 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Nearby

  • The conserved foundation walls of a large house laid out as a grid of rooms across a dry meadow, with young conifers in the foreground and wooded hills behind.

    Photo: Mediatus · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Commons

    13 km · villa · Pest County

    Villa rustica of Szentendre-Skanzen

    The foundations of the main building are almost completely exposed and open to visitors; they were conserved between 1981 and 1984 by an international building camp, after years of exposure to the weather (de.wikipedia).

  • A panorama across the ruin field under a grey sky, with knee-high walls of rough stone enclosing rooms of bare earth, a gravel path running between them and tall cypresses behind.

    Photo: Fekist · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons

    27 km · city · Budapest

    Aquincum

    The park shows public buildings and private houses of the civil town from the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD, in a layout that follows the town's plan (the operator).

  • Seen through the blue-framed glass walls of a shelter, low stone walls of excavated rooms with patches of mosaic floor and small information labels set among them.

    Photo: Vadaro · Public domain · Commons

    28 km · villa · Budapest

    Hercules villa

    Three rooms with mosaic floors are displayed in a large protective building, some with geometric patterns and some with figures, and a separate building shows more mosaics; in the garden are late Roman stone coffin graves (the operator).

Straight-line distances.

Sources

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

SourceLicence
Pleiades 197452CC BY
Wikidata Q647481CC0
Vici.org 7252CC BY-SA (text), CC0 (metadata)
OpenStreetMap way/165624810ODbL
Wikipedia (de) — Kastell Visegrád-SibrikCC BY-SA 4.0
Wikipedia (hu) — Pone NavataCC BY-SA 4.0