TEURNIA
(St. Peter im Holz) Upper Carinthia, Austria.
Located 4 km W of Spittal on the Drau,
on the Roman road Virunum-Aguntum-Brenner where
this intersected with the road to Iuvavum (via Radstädter
Tauern). The origin of the name is obscure, and of the
history of Teurnia little is known. We know from Pliny
(
HN 3.146) that it became a municipium with Virunum, Celeia, Aguntum, and Iuvavum at the time of
Claudius (A.D. 41-54); Ptolemy (
Geog. 2.13) mentions
it among the Noric towns. It had no garrison since its
location was strategically unimportant. Because of its
out-of-the-way location the town was evidently unaffected by the Marcomannic wars and the invasions of the 3d c. A.D.; at least no traces of sacking have been found.
The settlement is located on an elongated, isolated
hill, the so-called Lurnfeld, on the N bank of the Drau.
The first excavations (1910-15) provided only scant information about the town of Early and Middle Imperial times. Only two buildings from this period are known, both located on a flat stretch on the SE spur of
the hill: the baths (ca. 48 m long), axial in plan, and
N of the baths the forum (incompletely excavated), a
paved place surrounded on three sides by porticos. The
town of this period seems, however, not to have been
limited to the hill but to have extended into the plain.
At the E foot of the hill was the pagan necropolis.
More is known about Teurnia in Late Imperial times
when the town began to be more important. It is known
from the
Vita Sancti Severini of Eugippius (v. 17; 21;
25) and from other sources that Teurnia (then called
Tiburnia) was at that time a bishopric. In the 5th c.
A.D., when the former provincial capital Virunum began
to decline, it even became metropolis of the remaining
Roman province of Noricum (mediterraneum). It suffered from the increasing attacks of Germanic tribes
(siege by the Goths ca. A.D. 473) and perished ca. A.D.
590 m the invasions of the Slavs and Awari. About
A.D. 400 the hill was fortified with walls and towers.
Beneath St. Peter's church, judging by the meager
finds, was the bishop's church, which has been built
over and destroyed. The Early Christian cemetery is
located on the plain at the NW foot of the hill where a
cemetery church, probably in the early 5th c., has been
discovered. Because of the unusually rich finds there, it
is the most interesting Early Christian church building
in Austria Romana. The plan is unusual, without clear
parallels. Its latest condition is certainly the result of
several building periods. The original plan included a
rectangular hall (ca. 22.2 x 9.25 m) with two apsidal
side chapels including anterooms. Later additions are a
narthex, two corridors on the sides, and the vestry for
the N side chapel. The foundations and fragments of
the stone furnishings give an idea of the interior. The
presbytery was set off by barriers decorated with reliefs. The unattached clergy bench had a service table
at either end. The reliquary was sunk into the paved
altar square, and above it rose the four-legged table
altar. Fragmented stone reliefs from the presbytery
barrier are all that is left of the other side chapel. The
right side chapel was better preserved. The apse was
separated, and the pedestal table altar stood on a reliquary that had been constructed from a Roman sepulchral altar of the 1st or 2d c. A.D. The most important find was a floor mosaic (6.10 x 4.25 m) in the nave. Dating from ca. 500, it is the latest work of art of Austria
Romana. It is in excellent condition, containing within
an ornamental frame 12 fields, representations predominantly of animals. One field is reserved for the inscription of the donors: the governor Ursus, called a vir spectabilis, and his wife Ursina.
These buildings—unique in the E Alpine area—have
been turned into a museum. The ground plan has been
preserved, and a protective building has been constructed over the right side chapel with the mosaic floor.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
R. Noll.
Frühes Christentum in Österreich (1954) 95ff
MPI; R. Egger, Teurnia.
Die römischen
und frühchristlichen Altertümer Oberkärntens (7th ed.
1973)
MPI.
R. NOLL
