Vindobona - Austria

I wanted to reach 1000 UNESCO sites still this year but I don't think I'll cards from 4 new sites in the next weeks. The last addition to my collection was this one from Austria, sent by Óscar to thank me for a card that I sent him from France. Frontiers of the Roman Empire – The Danube Limes (Western Segment), was the only Austrian site I was still missing.

This roughly hand-sized fragment is part of a bronze plaque on which the municipal law of the Roman legionary site of Vindobona was written. A long-cherished but never proven assumption is now certain: Vienna's oldest municipal law most likely dates from Roman times and is therefore around 1,000 years older than the previous "oldest municipal law", which dates from the Middle Ages.

The Vienna fragment was found in 1913 during excavations in the first district at the address "Am Hof 4", near the southern wall within the former Vindobona legionary camp.

 Foto: Birgit und Peter Kainz

Like many other cities of Continental Europe, Vienna originated in ancient Roman times. In the first century AD, the Romans set up a military camp, called Vindobona, which formed part of the large number of similar facilities along the Limes frontier. The camp was situated in what is today the core of the city. The course of the wall is reflected, to this day, in a series of very striking streets in the inner city. From the third century, there is evidence for a civilian settlement in the southeast, a little outside the camp. Much less is known about its layout and buildings, however, than about the camp. Neither of these facilities on the site of the present city had any significance within the ancient "cityscape" of Austria. The late 4th and 5th centuries began to see the dramatic decline not only of the Roman Empire in general but also of Vindobona in particular. - in: https://www.wien.gv.at