Budapest Régiségei 34. (2001)

STUDIEN = TANULMÁNYOK - Gróf Péter - Gróh Dániel: The watchtower of Visegrád-Lepence 117-121

PETER GRÓF - DANIEL GROH THE WATCHTOWER OF VISEGRÁD - LEPENCE Road construction works of highway no. 11 in the early 1980s revealed but unfortunately also partly destroyed the ruins of a Roman watchtower on the Danube side of the road, opposite the entrance of the Visegrád-Lepence thermal baths. The exact circumstances of the finding remained unknown even for the archaeologist, since the new highway was built partly above the site. In the autumn of 1994 the walls of this rectangular burgus with four internal pillars were unearthed,' and between 1994 and 1997 the long time sought remains of the Late Roman watchtower of Lepence were finally excavated.

2 The entrance of the burgus (an 18,3 x 18,3 m rectangle, with 170 cm thick walls) was on the north-western side, looking to the Danube. Next to the inner north-eastern wall a staircase of three steps were built, with a possible wooden drawbridge. The excavation of only two inner rectangular pillars with 150 cm deep foundation on their sides was possible out of the total four. The foundation at any other points of the walls is 120 cm deep. The fence walls around the burgus were excavated 6 meters from the building itself in a small section and in bad condition, while 9 meters from this a small part of the fossa was unearthed. The ditch itself most likely had a V-shaped cross-section. On the western corner of the fence wall there were four pillar foundations, which corresponds to the watchtower representations shown on the Column of Traianus.

3 In the homogeneous fallen masonry layer filling the middle of the burgus a black burning layer was observed confirming the systematic destruction of the watchtower by the Romans themselves. The findings from the building were nonsignificant, though the most interesting ones were bricks with stamps (Frigeridus dux, Terentius dux),,

4 coins of Constantine I, Valentinian and Valens, and a couple of nails of various sizes from the fallen roof of the building. As a unique find, we can mention the Gallineus -coin found here. The floor layer of the tower consisted of many heavily used layers. The cons traction work of the building was carried out with special care, which was also shown by the ruined walls unearthed earlier. They were built of stones of outstanding quality using the opus incertum technique, a high-standard one. The gaps between the stones were carefully filled in and then the mortar was smoothed. The corners were reinforced, with a protruding skirting board on the outer sides. The foundation ditch had an almost vertical wall, and the walls were rested on a few centimetres thick bed of gravel. The top of the walls having remained up to the height of 180-220 cm was reinforced with horizontal wooden beams. The mark of these beams in the mortar, or their burnt signs in it were clearly visible during the excavations, and were documented. In the north-western and north-eastern walls the signs of the scaffolding holes were detected. Outside the walls, approximately 2 meters in front of the entrance, in the debris layer of the fallen masonry an inscribed plate of carved stone was found, identified as the construction inscription. The inscription of the plate runs as follows: Iudicio principali DDD(ominorum)NNN(ostrorum) Valentiniani Valentis / et Gratiani rrincipum(sic!) maximorum dispositionem / etiam inluslris viri utiusque [miliiiaeje magistri eovi / ti comitis Foscianus p(rae)p(o situs) legiones primfae marjtiorum / una cum multibus sibi creditis hfunc burgjum a fun / damintis et construxit et ad sufmam manjum operis / consulatus Gratiano augusftjo bis [et Prjobo vim da / rissimo fecit pervenire Which translates as: To the order of our lords, Valentinian, Valens and Gratian, the greatest emperors, and to the command of comes equitum, one of the most outstanding men and chief commander of the army, Foscianus, the commander of the legion no. 1 named after Mars, together with his subjects, the soldiers, executing the given command have built this watchtower from the foundations to the very last touch at the second time of consulship of our divine emperor Gratian and at the consulship of the noble Probus. According to the consular list in 371/ it turns out that the tower was built a year earlier than the watchtower at Visegrád-Kőbánya

6 (which is situated approximately 1 km from Lepence). The text almost exactly follows that of the plate found by Sándor Soproni at the excavation of the tower of Visegrád-Kőbánya,

7 proving the building activity of the Leg IMartia in this area.

8 However, the occasionally disordered letters and the differing sizes of the letters and lines suggest a hasty execution and an inexperienced worker. It is also interesting that the plate has two "handles" for fastening it up, that it is decorated with red stripes on white base and that at the top and at the bottom it has two wide channels carved into it. In the 230 cm wide entrance of the watchtower a threshold stone of two parts with a 60 cm deep foundation was discovered. On the outer plate we can see two bushings holding the doorshaft, and openings for the wooden beams reinforcing the door itself. The 117