Here's the floor plan of the military camp in Aquincum, Pannonia Provincia, the contemporary Budapest city in Hungary. Naturally this is not the one and only look of the camp. This is the look what you can call the 'greatest' or the 'largest', the shape of the camp the 2nd and 3rd centuryAC, the spectacular one. Several reconstructions and renovation, so somehow it's an anathomical horse to study a military camp in Pannonia!
1. Gates of the camp. You can count four of them. Made of two streets perpendicular to each other: the streets are the main streets of the camp.
2. Towers. Actually watchtowers, built in the wall, integrated with it.
3. Headquarters building, in Latin it is called principia. This is the main building of the camp, built in the centre.
4. The house of the second-in-command, he is the tribunus laticlavius.
5. Crew barracks for the soldiers. Not so comfortable, rather practical and functional.
6. The great bath house what is called thermae maiores, because of its size.
7. Hospital for the injuries and ill soldiers, inhabitants of the whole camp-city.
8. Oil press: oil is really important in the ancient world!
9. Grain warehouse. All bakery products were made there. This is a fixed camp, not just buikt for an attack or for a war!
10. Storage, workshop for craftsmen. Not just to produce objects of use (vessels, bowls, clothes) but to repair weapons, make new items.
And now let's see how all these look like nowdays! Aquincum is well explored, so we can see most parts of the camp nowdays too!This is just a short overview, not the full camp.
1. Porta Pratoria, the Eastern gate of the camp
2. Towers, wall
The imaginary reconstruction of the southern part of the wall, gate and a watchtower what you can see as a shadow on the modern highway.
6. Thermae Maiores
The large military bath is now an underground museum: a higway was built up on it.
The columns shows the Roman main road in the military camp. This road leads to the contemporary underground,where you can avoid the highway as a pedestrian, but you can see the Thermae Maiores, the great bath. Not just the museum, lots of little reminders, tombstones, columns are shown in the underground, part of the landscape.
The past and present lives together in Budapest, in my opinion that's the beauty of the city. Not just the ruins of the Roman era, but all historical times. Budapest is like patchwork blanket: sewn together so many memories, history and the inhabitants. You can sit down and have a little rest or admire the lively city - under a Roman pillar.
The modern district called Óbuda is built on the Roman military camp. So every excavation in the modern city results new information about the Roman era. Luckily in the 1970s the city management was so forward-looking, thanks to them, we can still see the Roman ruins in the densely built-in city. A new highway was built, that is exactly on the Roman Bath. But the ruins remained!
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