In the scope of a research project begun in 1988, the OEAI has been investigating the Roman city of Cetium, founded in 121/22 A.D. by Emperor Hadrian, and its mediaeval city development which took as its starting point the monastery of St. Hippolytus. The work is connected to research by B. Saria, H. Stiglitz, H. Ubl and J.-W. Neugebauer.
The project is undertaken in close cooperation with the Diocese of St. Poelten, the Magistracy of the Provincial Capital St. Poelten, the National Commission of Monuments, the Office of the Lower Austrian Provincial Government, the Institute of Numismatics of the University of Vienna, the VIAS (botanical investigations), the Center for Anatomy and Cell Biology of the Medical University of Vienna, and the Institute for Historical Anatomy of the Veterinary-Medical University of Vienna. Research is financed jointly by the OEAI, the Diocese and the City of St. Poelten, the Province of Lower Austria, as well as half from indirect sources (Austrian Science Fund, Austrian National Bank, private sponsors).

Aelium Cetium

The developed zone of the Roman municipium could be relatively precisely localized, and the development of the high mediaeval city (its location, extent and in parts even its street system), with its kernel, the monastery of St. Hippolytus founded in the 9th century A.D., could be clarified as being heavily influenced by the Roman settlement. The Riemerplatz, the intersection of the main roads Kremser Gasse and Wiener Straße in the inner city and still important today, must already have been the central survey point of the city of Cetium.
The municipium Aelium Cetium must have been laid out nearly precisely with its street axes oriented to the cardinal points, on an area of land measuring ca. 25 ha. From building observations and emergency excavations, ten sections of metalled road could be identified. Excavations around the Rathausplatz and in the region of the former monastery of St. Hippolytus brought to light evidence of craftsmen's and traders' quarters for the western and eastern borders of the city. On the southern periphery, numerous remains of modest domestic buildings have been identified. The location of the Forum can be roughly located, on the basis of early finds of inscriptions (an altar dedicated to Neptune by a provincial governor; a building inscription from an association of smiths) in the region of Herrenplatz-Herrengasse. South of here lay the area sacra with the main temple of the city; here, the excavations of 2000-2002 revealed the corner of colonnade which surrounded the plaza. Little more of certainty can be said regarding further buildings from the infrastructure. To the north of the Forum a bathing complex can be presumed, since during excavations to the east of Kremser Gasse a large building with at least three entirely heated rooms was cut through. The meeting house of a private association, with adjoining small temple in antis, was investigated to the south of Klostergasse in the former cloister garden.
The attack of the Marcomanni bestowed upon the municipium a thorough destruction through fire (in spring of 170 A.D.?), while in the late Severan period it appears once again to have suffered a catastrophic fate (at enemy hands?). The final third of the 3rd century and the beginning of the 4th century A.D. are recognizable through reductions of the developed area, of architecture, and of finds; a notable revival only appears to have occurred during the sole rule of Constantine the Great after 324 A.D. From the last quarter of the 4th century an unstoppable decline set in that was typical for the entire region of Noricum along the Danube, and by the middle of the 5th century the city was apparently completely abandoned. Sporadic grave sites of the mid- to late-5th century within and beside the abandoned houses are testimony to the final inhabitants.
One of the main cemeteries of the city, along the Linzer Straße (Europaplatz) was investigated in sections between 2005-2006; during this research, approximately 300 cremation and inhumation burials of the 2nd-5th century were revealed. Remains of foundations indicate massive tomb buildings in the form of aediculae and tumuli along the street.

St. Poelten, Foundation of the Monastery and Development of the town

The period of migrations and the early mediaeval period have left hardly any traces in the area of the Roman city. The monastery of St. Hippolytus (St. Pölten), founded probably shortly before 800 after the campaigns of Charlemagne against the Avars, cannot yet be archaeologically identified. The new settlement after the dispossession of the Hungarians is the earliest documentable event.
Excavations have revealed essential elements of the romanesque and gothic monastery buildings, the Maximilian Chapel of the Bishop of Passau (beneath the choir of the Franciscan church), and parts of the parish church on the Domplatz, a church which was dedicated in 1133, re-erected as a gothic structure in the 15th century, and demolished in 1690. Of particular significance is the excavation of the market hall on the former Breiter Markt (today, the Rathausplatz), a building which was leveled in 1568 and in the meantime utterly forgotten. The three-aisled, 30 m. long, late mediaeval stone building is the only one of its type attested to date on Austrian soil. The market hall was erected above a smaller predecessor, a wooden post building. Furthermore, the excavations have incorporated parts of the city fortifications (the Lederer tower) which were taken down during the Napoleonic period, and have also shed light on the life of the guilds during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period, in particular that of the potters and their ceramic repertoire.

Picture Captions
Fig. 1: St. Pölten, Historic city centre with reconstructed street system of the Roman town Aelium Cetium (blue)
Fig. 2: St. Pölten, Town Hall Square
Fig. 3: St. Pölten, Town Hall Square, proposed reconstruction of the two-aisled wooden market hall

Bibliography:
P. Scherrer (ed.), Landeshauptstadt St. Pölten - Archäologische Bausteine I, SoSchrÖAI 22 (1991).
P. Scherrer (ed.), Landeshauptstadt St. Pölten - Archäologische Bausteine II, SoSchrÖAI 23 (1994).
S. Jilek - P. Scherrer - E. Trinkl, Leben in Aelium Cetium. Wohnen und Arbeiten im römischen St. Pölten. Katalog zur Ausstellung 21. April bis 20. Mai 2005 Ausstellungsraum der NÖ Landesbibliothek St. Pölten (Sonder- und Wechselausstellungen der Niederösterreichischen Landesbibliothek 26, 2005).
R. Risy - P. Scherrer, Municpium Aelium Cetium - Landeshauptstadt St. Pölten. Archäologische Grabungen und Forschungen 1999-2005. HIPPOLYTUS. Neue Folge St. Pöltner Hefte zur Diözesankunde 5. Beih. (2005).

Bibliographie zu St. Pölten (pdf-file)