Martin Mosser, Stadtarchäologie Wien, Austria
The paper gives an overview of history, archaeology and society at the site of the Roman legionary fortress and the adjacent settlements of Vindobona. That includes a chronology from the beginning during the 1st century AD until the abandonment of the fortified late Roman town in the 5th century AD. Archaeology contributes six building periods for the fortress and an almost complete reconstructed layout of the fortified area. Apart from the military camp there existed further settlement and workshop areas as the “canabae legionis” (suburb) enclosing the fortress, a civil village 1 km southeast or a legionary brickyard 3 km to the west of the centre. Their flowering periods were in the 2nd and the beginning of the 3rd century, after that a demographic decline resulted in leaving those areas and a concentration of population within the former fortress. Sometimes former settlement areas, especially the “canabae legionis”, turned to cemeteries of the rest of the inhabitants. But nevertheless half a century later medieval Vienna had its origins within the boundaries of the old Roman fortress.