Gyöngyössy Márton (szerk.): Perspectives on the Past. Major Excavations in County Pest (Szentendre, 2008)

Uncovering the remains of medieval Vác

(1301-1526/1686)

1. Pipe from the Ottoman period

2. Post-holes of market booths from the Ottoman period

3. The track of the road leading to the gate remained unchanged during the past centuries

While investigating St. Mihály’s Church in 2005, it was also possible to archaeologically explore the Vienna Gate, the northern entrance to the town’s one-time German quarter. The square gate-tower, measuring 11 m by 11 m, was erected on 2 m thick foundations and was buttressed with two sturdy pillars flanking the gate proper. The ruins lying under modern Köztársaság Road revealed that the track of the road leading from the main square had evolved in medieval times and that it had not changed since then. The finds from the successive occupation surfaces trodden hard by the travellers passing through the gates indicated that the structure had been erected sometime around the turn of the 14th/15th centuries. It seems likely that the other gates, known only from various descriptions, and the town walls, whose sections had earlier been found during various construction projects, were also built around this time.

The superimposed deposits which had accumulated in the area of the main square during the past thousand years could be uncovered and observed in a smaller trench opened near St. Mihály’s Church on Március 15 Square. According to a Turkish tax register from 1570, the wooden booths of various merchants dotted the main square. The remains of the timber framework of these booths, the bones thrown away from chunks of meat eaten by the vendors and their customers, sherds from cups and pitchers broken during drinking bouts and a few personal articles were brought to light during the excavations.

4. Glazed pitcher from the Ottoman period

5. The graves outside the town walls and the two defensive ditches