The Albertfalva fort and settlement

Before the Roman conquest, the Celtic tribe of the Eravisci lived in the area of Budapest. Their main settlement lay on the southern slope of Gellért Hill. In the first half of the 1st century, the Roman administration resettled the Eravisci for political reasons to Óbuda and the Albertfalva plain.

We do not know the Roman name of the latter settlement. Located between Aquincum and Nagytétény (Campona), the Albertfalva fort played a significant strategic role on the frontier of the Roman Empire in Pannonia. In Buda the border was defended by three cavalry units until the AD 90s (stationed in Óbuda, Bem Square, and Albertfalva). The first fort on the Albertfalva plain was constructed in the mid-1^st century AD. The Albertfalva auxiliary fort was suitable for a 500-strong cavalry unit. It was a palisade fort with towers and double-trenches. Sarmatian attacks from across the Danube destroyed the fort multiple times, but it was repeatedly rebuilt. The initially earth-and-timber fort was rebuilt in stone after 106 under Trajan. Its area was expanded to accommodate a full cavalry company which was sent there.

The area of the new fort was 190 m by 210 m. The buildings were damaged again in 178, but were repaired in the late-2^nd century. The fort and its environs burnt down during a larger Barbarian raid in 259-260. The fort was never rebuilt.

A vicus settlement of 720,000 sq m surrounded the Albertfalva fort. This was the second largest contiguous Roman settlement in Budapest after Aquincum. In the first century, its residents lived in mud-walled houses, pit houses, and timber-frame houses. West of the fort, excavations found a pottery workshop connected to the master potter HILARIUS, and other workshops (tanning, metal processing) along with the remains of building sections with an economic function and a road station. South of the fort were houses with porches, central corridors, many rooms and hot-air heating. The cavalry unit buried its dead next to the fort and settlement. We know of carved tombstones and statues from Albertfalva. Some sections of the Albertfalva fort and settlement ruins have been partially conserved, but heritage site conservation has not been carried out yet.