Teurnia (later Tiburnia) was a Roman city (''

municipium In ancient Rome, the Latin term (: ) referred to a town or city. Etymologically, the was a social contract among ('duty holders'), or citizens of the town. The duties () were a communal obligation assumed by the in exchange for the privileges ...

''). Today its ruins lie in western

Carinthia Carinthia ( ; ; ) is the southernmost and least densely populated States of Austria, Austrian state, in the Eastern Alps, and is noted for its mountains and lakes. The Lake Wolayer is a mountain lake on the Carinthian side of the Carnic Main ...

. In

late antiquity Late antiquity marks the period that comes after the end of classical antiquity and stretches into the onset of the Early Middle Ages. Late antiquity as a period was popularized by Peter Brown (historian), Peter Brown in 1971, and this periodiza ...

it was also a bishop's see, and towards the end of Roman times it was mentioned as the capital of the province of Noricum mediterraneum.

History

Ancient Teurnia was situated on a wooded hill at the village of ''St. Peter in Holz (Slovenian: Sveti Peter v Lesu)'' in the municipality of Lendorf in the Lurnfeld valley, four kilometres to the west of

Spittal an der Drau Spittal an der Drau is a town in the western part of the Austrian federal state of Carinthia (state), Carinthia. It is the administrative centre of Spittal an der Drau District, Austria's second largest district (''Districts of Austria, Bezirk'') b ...

in Upper (i.e. western) Carinthia, Austria. As early as 1100 BC, people had lived there on Holzerberg hill, which may well have also been the centre of the Celtic

Taurisci The Taurisci were a federation of Celtic tribes who dwelt in today's Carinthia and northern Slovenia (Carniola) before the coming of the Romans (c. 200 BC). According to Pliny the Elder, they are the same as the people known as the Norici. Et ...

nation before c. 50 AD the Roman town was built with a forum, a market

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica (Greek Basiliké) was a large public building with multiple functions that was typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek Eas ...

, a temple on the city's Capitol,

Thermae In ancient Rome, (from Greek , "hot") and (from Greek ) were facilities for bathing. usually refers to the large Roman Empire, imperial public bath, bath complexes, while were smaller-scale facilities, public or private, that existed i ...

or public baths, terraced housing on two terraces, and a temple dedicated to Grannus, the

Celt The Celts ( , see Names of the Celts#Pronunciation, pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples ( ) were a collection of Indo-European languages, Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancient Indo-European people, reached the apoge ...

ic counterpart deity of Aesculap, god of medicine and healing, but in Teurnia invoked as ''Grannus Apollo''. Usually older hill-top settlements were moved by the Romans to lower-lying areas with the one exception of the oppidum at Teurnia in the tribal region of the Ambidravi, where old names are said to have been retained and no renaming took place.Barley, Maurice Willmore,''European towns: their archaeology and early history''. Published for the Council for British Archaeology. New York: Academic Press, 1977, p. 265
/ref> Teurnia was one of the largest places in all

Noricum Noricum () is the Latin name for the kingdom or federation of tribes that included most of modern Austria and part of Slovenia. In the first century AD, it became a province of the Roman Empire. Its borders were the Danube to the north, R ...

with, in its peak period, a population of 30,000. Towards the end of the Empire the population decreased; people left the housing terraces, and the slopes being no longer suitable for agriculture were used as cemeteries. At the same time walls went up surrounding the hilltop with material from the deserted houses.

Ecclesiastical history

By the 4th century, Teurnia was already a Christian town and it was a bishop's see until the city's decline and its end in 610.

Excavations

Holzerberg hill was a well-known place of antique finds as early as the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

. Many spolias of buildings in the area come from here. Interest in the Roman finds increased duríng and after the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

, but it took a long time until the ruins were identified as the city of Teurnia or Tiburnia known from antique sources. Professional excavations began with the accidental discovery of the ''cemetery church'' in 1908. The mosaic of its donor, the

praeses ''Praeses'' (Latin ''praesides'') is a Latin word meaning "placed before" or "at the head". In antiquity, notably under the Roman Dominate, it was used to refer to Roman governors; it continues to see some use for various modern positions. ...

or governor Ursus, in the right side-chapel of the three-naved

is in near-perfect preservation. In twelve pictures the mosaic shows christological, mythological and biblical symbols as well as the names of one Ursus, the donor, and his spouse, Ursina. In 1984, the Early-Christian bishop's church was discovered, which has now been roofed over and is open to visitors. The church walls have been preserved up to a height of six feet and show mural paintings. Excavations were also made along the southern side of the church, where a marble tablet and parts of a cross were unearthed. Earlier guesses had been that the bishop's church was beneath today's parish church, but from historic comparisons Franz Glaser, who is in charge of the Teurnia excavations, deducted the actual position along the western city walls. The episcopal church was built at the beginning of the 5th century and a century later, after a destructive fire, was rebuilt in

style with three naves and three apses. In analogy to the Hemmaberg situation in Lower (i.e. eastern) Carinthia, here too the bishop's church might have served the Catholic community, whereas

Arian Arianism (, ) is a Christological doctrine which rejects the traditional notion of the Trinity and considers Jesus to be a creation of God, and therefore distinct from God. It is named after its major proponent, Arius (). It is considered he ...

s used the cemetery church for their services. In the village centre of St. Peter in Holz there is a recent "Römer-Museum" exhibiting numerous artefacts from the city area of Teurnia. Nearby are the preserved remains of a Roman town

villa A villa is a type of house that was originally an ancient Roman upper class country house that provided an escape from urban life. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the f ...

or ''villa urbana'' boasting a simple

hypocaust A hypocaust () is a system of central heating in a building that produces and circulates hot air below the floor of a room, and may also warm the walls with a series of pipes through which the hot air passes. This air can warm the upper floors a ...

in form of the letter Y. Next to the bishop's church the Hospitium, the bishop's guest house, was found, but for protection purposes it has been covered with soil again. More excavation work is going on. Information on the city's history and the excavation work is provided in display cases all over the area. Image:Teurnia Mosaik 01.jpg, Mosaic in Teurnia. Image:Teurnia Mosaik 02.jpg, Mosaic in Teurnia. Image:Teurnia Mosaik 03.jpg, Mosaic in Teurnia. Image:Teurnia Mosaik 04.jpg, Mosaic in Teurnia. Image:Teurnia Mosaik 05.jpg, Mosaic in Teurnia. Image:Teurnia Mosaik 06.jpg, Mosaic in Teurnia. Image:Teurnia Mosaik 07.jpg, Mosaic in Teurnia. Image:Teurnia Mosaik 08.jpg, Mosaic in Teurnia. Image:Teurnia Mosaik 09.jpg, Mosaic in Teurnia. Image:Teurnia Mosaik 10.jpg, Mosaic in Teurnia. Image:Teurnia Mosaik 11.jpg, Mosaic in Teurnia. Image:Teurnia Mosaik 12.jpg, Mosaic in Teurnia.

Literature

Barley, Maurice Willmore,''European towns: their archaeology and early history''.
Published for the Council for British Archaeology. New York: Academic Press, 1977 * Glaser, Franz, ''Teurnia: Römerstadt und Bischofssitz'' Klagenfurt: Verlag des Geschichtsvereins 1992 (German) * Glaser, Franz, ''Frühchristliche Denkmäler in Kärnten'', Klagenfurt: Verlag des Geschichtsvereins 1996 (German) * Glaser, Franz, ''Römermuseum Teurnia - Texte und Zeichnungen'', Klagenfurt: Verlag des Geschichtsvereins 2002 (German) * Gugl, Christian, ''Archäologische Forschungen in Teurnia: die Ausgrabungen in den Wohnterrassen 1971-1978 : die latènezeitlichen Funde vom Holzer Berg'', Vienna: Österreichisches Archäologisches Institut, 2000(German) * Gugl, Christian, ''Das Umland Teurnias vom 2. Jahrhundert v. Chr. bis ins 1. Jahrhundert n.Chr. Eine Studie zur Siedlungskontinuität von der Latène- zur Römerzeit im oberen Drautal.''In: Arheološki Vestnik (ACTA ARCHAEOLOGICA) 52 (2001) Ljubljana: Slovenska akademija 2001, pp. 303–349
Michael Doneus,''Precision mapping and interpretation of oblique aerial photographs'' (= Archaeological Prospection Vol.8, Issue 1)
Hoboken NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2001 pp. 13 – 27, * Kos, Marjeta Šašel, ''Pre-Roman divinities of the eastern Alps and Adriatic'', Ljubljana: Narodni muzej Slovenije, 1999,

Footnotes

External links

German)

by GCatholic.org

Dr. Víctor Manuel Fernández, Titular Archbishop of Tiburnia
(Spanish). Retrieved 14 May 2013 {{Coord, 46, 49, 23.91, N, 13, 26, 37.49, E , type:landmark_region:AT-2 , display=title Roman towns and cities in Austria Geography of Carinthia Former populated places in Austria 1st-millennium establishments in Europe Archaeological sites in Austria Buildings and structures in Carinthia Tourist attractions in Carinthia