Budapest Régiségei 14. (1945)

ÉRTESÍTŐ - Bertalan Vilmos: A belvárosi plébániatemplom mellett folytatott ásatások 1944 nyarán 469-490

• VILMOS BERTALAN EXCAVATIONvS AT THE ROMAN CAMP OF PEST IN SUMMER 1944. The Archaeological Institute of the City of Budapest excavated in Summer 1944 next to the Church of the Inner Town (Belvárosi templom) a south-eastern fan-shaped corner tower as well as a southern horse-shoe shaped bastion tower of a Roman camp belonging to the period of Diocletian, that was already partly laid open by Lajos Nagy in 1932. The excavations took place under difficult circumstances on a terrain that had been spoilt by a cemetery and by medieval and modern walls. Of the fanshaped corner tower, only the parts below the Roman level remained. The width of the walls is about 3 in, the depth of the foundation walls 146 cm. Up to 70—-75 cm, there is an irregular walling without cement, then comes 76 cm close walling bound with mortar. The reason for the demolition of the Roman tower was a wall fragment belonging to a medieval building lying next to the tower and partly built over it. The examination of the different layers, of the graves and the sherds date it to the period before the middle of the Xlllth century. The southern wall of the camp could only be dated on the basis of the change of the strata, its stones were used when the Romanesque predecessor of the Church of Inner Town had been built, as is indicated by the fragment of the Romanesque sanctuary in the crypt of the Church, on the wall of which we have found traces of Roman mortar. The direction of the wall of the camp is shown by a horseshoe shaped bastion tower excavated under the foundation walls of the former southern Gothic side entrance of the Church, which Ave have laid open in 281—372 cm depth in a demolished state. Its dimensions and shape are the same as those of the remains of the western horse-shoe shaped fortified tower of the camp, the width of the walls being 3 m, the inner arch of the tower a slight curve. The walling and the depth of the foundation walls are the same as those of the fan-shaped corner tower. The part of the horse-shoe-shaped tower above the Roman level is the Rastern side wall, where the remains of the stairs of the bastion-gate are visible too. Here we see over the foundation wall 75 cm. irregular walling without cement, then 90 cm walling bound with mortar. The wall traces (about 1. m. wide) laid open along the wall of the camp point to the earlier period of the latter. So, on the basis of these excavations and of those of the year 1932 we are able to reconstruct the ground plan of the camp which was roughly rhomboidal. Its inner dimensions were 84—86 m with fan-shaped comer towers :n the four corners and two horse-shoe shaped bastions on its side walls. ILLUSTRATIONS Pig. 1. — The excavation of the southern side of the Roman camp at Eskü-square. Pig. 2. — The excavation of the south-eastern corner-tower of the Roman Camp at Eskü-Square. Fig. 3. — The south-eastern fan-shaped corner-tower of the Roman camp at Eskü-square. 489