Ilya Burlak

USA - 10-Feb-25 -

While in Budapest in November of 2024, I stopped by two of the locations of this serial submission.

Aquincum archaeological site marks the location of the capital of the Roman province of Pannonia in the 1st-4th centuries CE. The site is mainly about neat outlines of city structures, with a few columns and portals thrown in. One covered pavilion contains recovered mosaics. Unfortunately, there are a couple of defined components of the site – including the reconstruction of a Roman building called House of the Painter – that can only be visited on a very limited schedule which did not coincide with my plans for the day. So I only perused the onsite museum, which has a reasonable collection of artifacts dating back to Roman times.

I spent a little over an hour at the site, which should have been closer to two hours if all its parts were accessible throughout the day. Aquincum is not difficult to reach via public transport, as several bus routes and a couple of regional trains have stops nearby.  

I also stopped by the location marked on Google Maps as "Római maradványok" (Roman Remains) on one of the central squares of Óbuda, Florian Square, which corresponds to "Aquincum Obudai" in the listing on the right. There is not much to explore here: also a few wall outlines and a bunch of pillars. What I enjoyed the most was the curious visual contrast of the Soviet-looking apartment buildings on the western edge of the square as the backdrop for the Roman ruins (lower-right picture). You can also see ancient artifacts around the square and in the pedestrian underpasses.

I am giving this site a thumbs-up mostly because I recognize that it is meant to be an extension of one of the existing Frontiers of Roman Empire properties, which are full of much less impressive locations than just these two that I visited in Budapest.

Read more from Ilya Burlak here.