ULPIA TRAIANA SARMIZEGETUSA

Colonia Ulpia Traiana Augusta Dacica Sarmizegetusa - the capital of the Roman Dacia - raised at the bottom of Retezat Mountains, in the South-Western part of the Hateg region. The town was at 8 km from the pass between Banat and Transylvania, which old name was Tapae, today Iron Gates of Transylvania. The settlement date of th capital is not known exactly. An inscription descovered at the begining of the 14th century, in the village Gradiste - Sarmizegetusa says: "On the comand of the emperor Cesar Nerva Traianus Augustus, son of the debine Nerva, was settled the Dacian Colony by Decimus Terentius Scaurianus, its governor". The name of the governor shows the the settlement of the new town was done in the first years of the concering of Dacia (after some opinions in 106-107, after others 108-110). The settlement of the colony was marked also by the emision of a coin (sestertius) at Rome, from the Senate order, dedicated to "the best ruler", Traian emperor. The choosing of the place of the town by Traian was not at random. The metropole had some strategical and economical advantages. Retezat Mountains at the South and Poiana Ruscai Mountains at the North were natura barriers difficult to cross for the eventual invadors. The capital which territorium was from Tibiscum to Micia till the entrance in the Jiu pass, was developing in peace, defended by the Roman camps Tibiscum (today Jupa), Voislova, Micia (Vetel) and Bumbesti. By Ulpia Traian was crossing the imperial road from Danube and maked the link between the North of the province to Porolissum (Moigrad). The antic city had an area of 32 ha surrounded by walls. In the hearth of the city were to main roads (cardo maximus oriented North-South and decumanus maximus oriented East-West), at its crossing being the main public building - Forum. But the city was not only inside the walls. Outside the walls, on a great area, were the villae, the craftmen workshops (brick makers, glass blowers), the temples and other public or private buildins. Also outside the walls were the cemeteries of the city (sepulcreta) identified at East and also at the West. The population was around 25.000 - 30.000 people. The archaelogist have had discoverd and get out to light the constructions form old times of Ulpia Traiana, as many objects which are hosted in the museum from nearby. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Amphitheatre Schola gladiatorum Goddess Nemesis Temple Liber Pater Temple Gods Aesculap and Hygia Temple

6. Temple Basilica 7. Big Temple 8. God Silvanus Temple 9. Glass Blowers Workshops 10. Horreum 11. Finacial procurator's Office; Thermae 12. Forum
Last update: 1999, August 20

AMPHITHEATRE

Situated at about 100 meters from the norhten side of the city wall, the ampfitheatre is the most big construction. In it's elliptical shape, it is build on a high and leveld place, it is 88 m long and 69 m width. It's capacity crowd is about 5000 people. The primary material witch it was build with is river rock and on other places canion rock and bricks. The date of the construction is not knowed precisely, but it's estimated that it was built in the first years after the roman conquer. Restauration works were done in 158, witch is proved by the date on the roof tiles that were found by the researchers. The amphitheatre is composed from two parts: the arena with some paralell elliptic wals, perpendicularely crossed by some other wall, in ray shape. It had two main gates (east&west) witch were used by the gladiators to enter and exit, and another two gates with marble coloums, for the workers. In the middle of the arena there was a kind of sewer pipe, from witch was there able to get water. After Dacia was abandoned, the building was used as a fort to defend against the atacks from the migrating people.

SCHOLA GLADIATORUM

The building was used for training and sport exercises, living and fizic recovery for gladiators. The buiding (38,5m * 25,3m) is sitated north-east from the amphitheatre and it is formed by two buldings who were build in different times. The older part, in a rectangular shape is the north-east part of the building and has 6 rooms, 2 pool with cold water and an interior yard. The newer building is in L shape and it's in the south and the east of the first building.It has another 6 rooms, from witch 3 of them have hypocaustum heat instalations.Two rooms had mosaic flors. In the souts side, in the mosaic room there was also the entrance in the complex. The eastern wing had two rooms, a pool with cold water along with a water-tank, a yard and the toilets situated in the northic end of the building. The whole construction was followed on the west&north sides by a sewer.

GODDESS NEMESIS TEMPLE

Nemesis the Godess of fortune and fate was adored by the gladiators, that is the reason that the temple is just nerar the East gate of the amphitheatre. The temple was descovered between 1891-1893, when the amphitheatre was partially uncovered. Initially on the place of the temple was an other building, part of its walls were reused, A rectangulare precincts is built. Inside the precincts a small temple was built, 8*6,50 m, surrelevated, a few steps leading to the pronaos. Cella is an almost rectangulare room, 4,50 * 3,55 m, having a basement, accesed from inside. In the last period of the building operations, the precincts was enlarged by destroying the wall or the porch from the East side, and by adding a second room in the South-East corner. At the Nortern side, is added also, a big building, which connect the temple with the schola gladiatorum.

LIBER PATER TEMPLE

Archaic divinity from central Italy, Liber Pater was, together with his pair Libera, the protector of vineyards and of the fields fertility. This got to his assimilation with Dyonisos - Bacchus and at the speadig of his cult in the whole Roman Empire. The Liber Pater Temple is situated at aproximatelly 300 m North-East from the Amphitheatre and it is oriented N-S. The entrance is on the South side and have had two Corinthian columns made from grit stone, put on blocks from the same material. The Pronaos of the temple is bordered towards the interior by a portico comunicating with two rooms (cubicula) disposed simetrically from the third on, the central one. In the Western room can be seen the base of the altar, made from tiles and bricks, dedicated to God Silvanus, identified from some reliefs representing the divinity. The temple cella is small, 6,5 *5,8, and keeps the stairs going up to the altar. The platform is bordered with two marble Corinthian columns The temple had the pronaos covered. The roof is supported by the exterior walls and by the columns line of the portico. In the center remains and uncovered yard. The cella, raised due to the stairs, and the central cubiculum have had a common roof, higher than that of the pronaos. The temple imposed by its monumental entrance and by the high columns of the cella, even if the exterior columns, characteristical to the antique cult buildings, were missing.

GODS AESCULAPIUS AND HYGIA SANCTUARY

A complex dedicated to the divinities of the medicine. It have had several phases of building and several edifices. From the first phase were identified the remains of a big building, which Southern wing had 2 rooms. To the North continued with a hall with stone and mortar walls. The building from the first phase was demolished in the II century A.C. and are build four independent edifices from the second phase. The first edifice is a small temple, Gallic-Roman type, made from a square room. In the center was the cella of the same shape, with the entrance on the Eartern side. The second edifice was built at South from the first and is a rrectangulare naos, same as the cella and the cubiculum from the back. In the front of the naos are kept two brick platforms, bases of the columns that bordered the entrance. In the front of the temple is a stone platform on which was the sacrifices altar. The third edifice, situated Soth-West from the second, is a rectangulare building, with a superficial foundation. At the Eastern side corners are kept two blcks, from grit stone, bases for the entrance. In thr front of the entrance was a threshold from grit stone blocks put on the remains of the building from the first phase. The forth edifice is at 2 m South from the third one, reuses for the Western side a wall from the first phase and is composed from a porch to the East, from which four column platforms were identified and a cella having in the center the base of a square altar made from brick. From this phase of the building is also a circular well digged West from the first temple. The second phase seems that ended after a fire from the second half of the II century A.C. In the third phase of the construction, three buildings (1, 2, 3) are modified and the fourth edifice continues to function in its former shape. In the temple was a stonecutter work shop of which there is today a stone platform with a round hole in the middle. There is not excluded that, near the temples, was an hospital, an usual presence near the sanctuaries dedicated to the God of medicine.

TEMPLE BASILICA

At the end of the II century the building was rebuilt with major modifications in its planimetry. The edifice is situated North from the Aesculap and Hygia temple, at East from Liber Pater temple. For this building, which is undoubtedly a cult edifice, there is no epigraphical, iconographical or archaelogical indication, regarding the divinity or the divinities to whom it was dedicated. The temple was built on a field occupied by two groups of wooden buildings which were destroyed by a big fire. The wooden buildins were from the bigining of the II century A.C. and have had a very short existence. The Nortern side was the wall of the sacred hall. On the South was a corridor, 3 m large, on the whole length of the building. North from the corridor was found a wall, 0.2o wide, built from bricks and tiles fragments in mortar and plaster. The area surrounded by the wall was paved. This phase of the building end after a fire caused, probably, the marcomanic attack. The Southern wall of the corridor is demolished on a 5.6 m length and at its ends two room are formed with an interior of 3,5 * 3,6 m. The space between the room is paved with small broken stones. On the way to the South wall is built a threshold from tiles and bricks. Both the rooms and the space between them were covered. Another fire distroys the roof. The edifice walls are rebuilt with river stones and mortar in opus incertum technic. The temple had functioned till the abandonment of Dacia. As architectonic the building is a variant of the Roman temple with close analogies in Britania.

BIG TEMPLE

The edifice has 46,3 * 34 m and is made from a vestibulum with two Corinthian columns abd a pronaos as a covered corridor, with the peridrome on the interior sides which surround the peribole and the cella, interrupted on the Northern side by a room of the cella. The peribole is madefrom a interior court, uncovered, bordered by the pronaos portico. The cella is on the Northern side of the court. In the interior of the temple a network of channels was found which follow the natural slope or the land. Altars, dedicated to Diana, Junona and Hercules, were put in its walls. These cannot give us the precise indication about the protecting God of this temple

GOD SILVANUS TEMPLE

The edifice was identified as Silvanus temple after a bas-relief in which is Silvanus with nine Silvanae. It is situated at South-East from the amphitheatre near the big temple, and near the city wall. The temple has rectangular form (28 * 12,80 m). The building id divided in two equal parts by a wall (East-West). At the Northern end of this wall is the cella - main room of the temple in which was the statue of the divinity and behind it is an other room which served for the rituals.

GLASS BLOWERS WORKSHOP

Situated near Silvanus temple, the building (25 * 13,40 m), is raising on a surface where was a wooden building. Build from stones - the glass blowers workshop - was the object of several extensions and rearrangings. Inside the rooms were several owens for glass preparing and processing. In this building were also descovered the remains of a bread owen and a room, annexed to that, probably a cereals storehouse. In the front of the workshop, on the South side is a porch, proof being six socles for its columns bases. During the arhaeological researches from 1986, near the glass blowers workshop, on the South side, was descovered a well from the first half of the 2nd century, after that being used as a residuum hole fro the workshop. This workshop puts Sarmizegetusa between the great glass production and processing centers from the Roman antiquity.

HORREUM

Finacial procurator's Office; Thermae

FORUM

The forum build by Traian, the civic and political-administrative center, was in the middle of thee town, at the cross road ot the two main roads which crossed Sarmizegetusa from East to West and from North to South. Its entrance was monumental and had the aspect of a triumph arch on which was graved the inscription from the colony foundation. In the front of the entrance, bordered by four huge columns was the altar dedicated to the foundation ceremony. On both sides were artesian wells made from marble and decorated with statues. In the corners were the offices of some associations, as the handicraftsmen board which was in the Eastern corner. The forum was composed first of all from a public square surrounded by the porch with columns and paved with lime and marble. In this square were many monuments and statues, some of the foundations are seen today. After that was a basilica, a big hall for several mettings, which have had a monumentale facade towards the yard, bordered by buttress. On the Eastern side of the basilica was a tribunal, the platform on which the judges were sitting (most of the time the two mayor of the town) and under which a prison was arrranged. On the basilica's side there were several rooms that were offices (ex. the archieve of the colony), as well as offices of some associations and corporations as was the augustals board. In the center of the side was the curia, the metting hall of the local council. Under it are two underground rooms, which were the thesaurus of the town. On its right is a passage to the second forum (initally the commercial market), which was built later and which was the religious center of Sarmizegetusa.