Magyar Műemlékvédelem 1980-1990 (Országos Műemléki Felügyelőség Kiadványai 10. Budapest)

Helyreállítások - Kaba Melinda: Az aquincumi Thermae maiores feltárása (1778-1984)

— Vihar — in the surroundings of today's Flórián square, IJJrd district at the end of the 1st century AC a stone camp had been built. The army of heavy armament of 6000 persons, the garrison of the Ilnd legio Adiutrix was stationed here in the Danubebend, a strategically important point of the several hundred kilometers long part of limes in Pannónia. The first archeological excavation took place in the territory of the capital in 1778. On the present Flórián square a plot owner was digging a lime-pit and found walls he considered to have been "ancient". Informing the librarian and professor of Latin, István Schönvisner, he immediately started excavations at the site. The result of it was the finding of a hall of 15 x 8 m size in very good condition, heated with hypocaustum. The basement was held by 293 pieces of carved columns and brick pillars. The news of the archeological sensation had reached the Imperial Court, and the Empress Maria Theresia ordered the worthy perservation and publicity of the ruins. A book written in Latin was published by Schönvisner already in the hall excavated by him had been part of the Common Bath built in the territory of the legionary camp of Roman Aquincum for the 6000 member legio Und Adiutrix. His suppositions were proved at the drainage in Szentendrei street in 1849, where a stone with an insciption was found. As a building document the stone's inscription said that certain parts of the Thermae maiores had been rebuilt during the rule of the Emperor Claudius Und and were given again to the inhabitants of Aquincum camp, the legio Ilnd Adiutrix. Above the ruins of the bath a protective building was erected, the first building of this kind in the history of Hungarian monument protection. The fortunate beginning was followed by the excavation of the colt water basin adjoining to this hall 152 years later lead by Lajos Nagy. According to the plans of István Möller both rooms were built into the cellar of the building of no 3 Flórián square. Here a museum was formed, so the ruins were to be seen by the public. Between 1960-62 a six storeyed building was built in the neighbouring site no 5—7 Flórián square. Before the beginning of building excavation were made here. Details of two other halls of the bath, and the exedra-closing of the palaestra widened the already known plan. In the mid 70's the capital had decided the modernization of the Mil highway leading to the Danube-bend and its connection to the junction at Árpád bridge with building subways and a flyover bridge with the widening of the bridge itself. This largescale program made possible the continuiing of the works in several places, among them in the sorroundings of the bath. First of all its western extension was excavated with the thought that the remains would be shown in the open air. The preliminary excavations in 1977 and 1979 — in spite of lack of time and money — have proved the existence of a monumental bath complex. Although the builders of the bridge tried to take into consideration as much as possible the ruins and made the plans in this knowledge, nevertheless in the course of the construction starting in 1981 there were many unexpected archeological surprises, and together with them the problem of replannings. 48 rooms of the therma of 15 000 m

2 territory were unearthed. The rooms of the bath were symmetrically placed by the northsouthern axe as apodyteriums, tepidariums, hympheums, caldariums and sudatios. The majority of the hypocaustums of the rooms have remained in very good condition, the same applies to the praefurniums. An unearthed alveus of the caldarium was supplied with intensive heat with the help of independent praefurniums. The bath had been built at the beginning of the 2nd century AC, it was several times enlarged, rebuilt and restored. In the second half of the fourth century on the western part traces of an extensive fire could be found, dated by the marked bricks of the Emperor Valentinianus I: Similarly on the western side was built the group of rooms marked nos 3—8 above the earlier bath. It must have been the bath tract of the personal residence of the military leader. The walls of the building were built with the technique opus mixtum, the alternative use of four rows of quadrativ stones and bricks. At the edges of the walls semilateres were placed in ows. The walls of the hypocaustum were made of river gravel hardly burning, while the columns and the pillars of brick. The pavement was made of large-size carved stone panels, but on most places terrazzó was used. A particularly beautiful detail is the brick pavement with opus spicatum pattern made following the transformation of the piscina or the biscuit shaped brick mosaic of room no 29. Only the pavement of the sudatio no 35. was decorated with colour mosaics, its detail of 1 m

2 was found by István Schönvisner. When making the reconstruction plan of the rooms the most difficult problem was the reconstruction of the palaestra. As we suppose, this large-size, 80 x 30 m hall could rather have the name basilica thermarum, where besides sport events military ones also took place. The rexonstruction of Gyula Hajnóczy places the tribune for the audience to the western end of the hall, considering that on the longitudinal wall no row of columns were built. From here there was an excellent view of the whole territory and of the decorative architectura of the eastern exedra. The inauguration of the rebuilt, widened Árpád bridge, the adjoining subways and flyover bridges took place on the 4th November, 1984, together with the opening of the Bath Museum. An extraordinary monument complex is to be seen here. At the foot of the concrete pillars one of the largest baths of Roman Empire, north of the Alps is seen together with modem architecture. The insciption of the bronze board at the entrance summarizes the problems and joys of the work of four years, the feelings of people working here in one sentence: IN HONOREM FABRUM LEG Et ADI AEDLFIC

ATORES PONTIS HVIVS ANNO MCMLXXXLDI The builders of the bridge in honour of the Roman builders 1984. DIE AUSGRABUNG DER THERMAE MAIORES IN AQUINCUM Die Römer eroberten zur Zeit des Kaisers Augustus, am Anfang unserer Zeitrechnung Pannonién und gliederten es dem römischen Reich an. Die neue Provinz faßte den transdanubischen Teil von Ungarn, den sieht bis Wien erstreckenden östlichen Streifen von Österreich, im Süden den durch die Kreise von Ljubljana und Ptuj begrenzten Raum von Slowenien zwischen Drau und Save in sich. Pannonién wurde am Anfang des 2. Jh. nach Christi Geburt in zwei Provinze geteilt. Die westliche wurde Oberpannonien (Pannónia superior), die östliche Niederpannonien (Pannónia inferior) genannt. Die Haupstadt der Letzteren, zugleich Sitz des Statthalters wurde Aquincum. Die Bürgersiedlung der Stadt kam unter der Erddecke im Gebiet des Grundstücks Szentendrei út 193. und dessen Umgebung im Laufe der am Ende des vorigen Jahrhunderts begonnenen Ausgrabungen zum Vorschein. 2,5 km südlich von der Bürgerstadt, im Zentrum des späteren Óbuda (Altofen) wurde das Militärlager und rund um dieses die Lagerstadt, die Canabae aufgebaut. In der Umgebung des Flórián tér (Floriansplatz), im durch Miklós-, Harrer Pal-, Polgár-utca, Árpád-brücke, Solymár- und Vihar-utca umgrenzten Gebiet wurde am Ende des 1 Jh. nach Christi Geburt