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

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The building yielded few finds, most of which were stamped tegulas inscribed with the names of Frigeridus dux, Valentinus tribunus, lovius and Lupus centurio, military leaders who had served on the Danubian limes in the early 370s. The military building at Horány was built at this time, during the reign of the Emperor Valentinian.

• Éva Maróti

1.

The Roman bridgehead at Horány on Szentendre Island was not unknown to scholars of the Roman Age since the site had been partially investigated by Dr. Lajos Nagy in 1935. Its renewed excavation became necessary owing to the reconstruction of the wells of the Municipal Waterworks in 1995. The ground plan of the rectangular stone building on the Danube bank has been published in several studies. Undisturbed layers and previously unknown architectural details could be investigated in the trial trench running parallel to the building’s longitudinal walls. Two brick pillars with a stone foundation stood in the 19.5 m by 14 m large building’s interior, probably part of a courtyard, from where the rooms could be entered.

The room in the building’s northern part contained a small bread oven constructed from brick and stone. Niches built from tegulas were found in the four corners of the room under the successively renewed terazzo floor in the building’s southern part. The niche in the south-western corner survived in a relatively intact form and yielded a few pottery and bone fragments, as well as an iron shield boss, suggesting that it had contained a foundation deposit. The southern wall and the eastern wall facing the river had small, 7-9 cm large round perforations, a general Roman practice in wall construction recorded also by Vitruvius. (The walls of the watchtowers at Leányfalu and Szentendre, and of the fort at Szentendre had similar perforations.) 1 2 3 4 5

1. Reconstruction of a wall

2. Corner tower

3. Ground plan of the building

4. Brick niche under the floor

5. Aerial view of the bridgehead

A Late Roman bridgehead at Szigetmonostor