Around 15 BC, the kingdom of Noricum is incorporated into the Roman Empire. The Danube becomes the frontier of the empire, and the Romans lay out fortifications and settlements on the banks of the Danube next to existing Celtic villages.
In the first century, the Romans founded a military camp, called Vindobona , on the site of today’s Vienna city center. It was one of many to secure the Limes, the border of the Roman Empire. However, as the pre-Latin, obviously Celtic name of the civil settlement Vindobona ( “forest stream”) shows, the place must have been inhabited already in pre-Roman times.
The Roman camp included the Salzgries, the Rotgasse, the Kramergasse, the Graben, the Naglergasse and the Tiefen Gra ben. Today’s Wipplingerstraße was the main street. The settlement was surrounded by stone walls three meters wide . These were up to ten meters high. The wall had four corner towers and six gate towers. Even today you can see on the streets of the
- District trace the course of the wall of the camp (e.g. arch of Naglergasse).
Inside the fortress there was a palace for the camp commander, imposing command buildings, a bath complex, a hospital and spacious houses . All heated with hot air heating, running fresh drinking water and a sewer that washed away the muck underground. However, the warming sulfur springs in Baden, Meidling and Heiligenstadt Park were also used.
Emperor Marcus Aurelius had his headquarters in Vindobona during the two Marcomannic Wars and died here of the plague on March 17, 180 AD.
Vindobona belonged to the Roman province of Pannonia and was founded in 213 AD. their regional administrative center to Carnuntum.
Time Travel Tip:
The Roman Museum at Hoher Markt gives good insight into Vienna in Roman times. It belongs to the Vienna Museums and can be visited free of charge every 1st Sunday in Monday.
More info: Roman Museum : VIENNA MUSEUM
