Castellum of Intercisa – The limes castellum of Intercisa is the most completely excavated auxiliary fort in Pannonia. It can be found on the territory of Dunaújváros. At the end of the 1st century AD, during the reign of Domitian a military fort was built here and some 500 strong cavalry unit was sent there. The fort was built on a site that subsequently was used as a cemetery therefore it had to be replaced with a new palisade fort on the northern side of the embankment at the beginning of the 2nd century AD under the rule of Trajan. The turf and palisade walls were supported by an earthwork. After the Marcomannic wars this palisade fort was replaced again by a stone built fort, which can be seen in the photo. Due to the danger of erosion it was built 20 m away from the edge of the plateau, so the vallum of the former palisade fort became visible on the western side of the fort. Inner corner-towers, and slightly projecting gate towers were added to the fort shortly. The main roads were covered with flagstones. The principia, the house of the commander (praetorium), the storage units, shrines and the barracks were built of stone. The bathhouse was inside the castellum at the beginning but later it was rebuilt outside, in front of the northern gate. The building of fan shaped corner towers to the walls, and the re-building of the rear gate refer to the 4th century military building process. The southern gate of the fort has recently been reconstructed.
Intercisa principia –
The structures of military forts were very similar to those of the towns. As
the centre of the towns was the forum in military sites the principia was in
the heart of the fort, where the most important buildings were erected. In
Intercisa on two sides of the central square there were storage rooms for the
weapons, at the rear wing there was the shrine, on the middle between the offi
ce buildings of the troops. In front of these a large building, the basilica was
built, providing rooms for assemblies just like the central courtyard. There
was a slightly raised platform on one end for the commander and his company. In
Intercisa the larger than life-size statues of Septimius Severus and his son
was exhibited in this basilica, but only the bases have survived together with
some fragments of the sculptures. At the same time the castellum undergone some
reconstruction work and the principia had been extended. Because the weather
was much tougher in Pannonia than in Italy they needed to construct a covered
hall, though it was not an easy task as there were earlier buildings on the
selected site. Nevertheless they came up with the solution and put the big hall
above the via principalis, that was running along in front of the forum. The
new building was big enough
to accommodate every soldier (some 1000 people) of the unit, the cohors I
Hemesenorum.
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