Campona Victrix

Campona Victrix, now located in Budapest's Nagytétény district, was a Roman cavalry fort on the Pannonian Danube Limes. Here the Danube served as a natural imperial frontier, secured and patrolled by the garrison. The fort was originally built as a timber-and-earth camp and later rebuilt in stone. The complex had the typical rectangular layout with rounded corners and was surrounded by a double defensive ditch. Massive towers stood at the corners and gates; over time they were reinforced with additional bastions and fan-shaped towers to improve defenses against attacking tribes such as the Iazyges. Inside were the headquarters building, known as the principia, as well as an impressive colonnade along the main street.

Today, visitors can mainly see the preserved remains of the military settlement outside the fort walls. Here you'll find the surviving foundations of the east and south gates, as well as the wall stumps of a building at the intersection of the main axes. The site has been archaeologically investigated several times in recent decades, though many finds were lost during World War II. Even so, the remains bear witness to the long history of the place, which was already settled in the Neolithic period and later used by Celtic peoples. After the Roman troops withdrew in the 5th century, the area continued to be inhabited by civilians, Huns, Avars, and Slavs.

An important part of Campona's legacy is the numerous stone monuments, gravestones, and altars on display in the Nagytétény Castle Museum. These inscriptions shed light on the social and military life of the era. Among the most remarkable finds are a small statuette of Venus bearing the features of an empress, as well as a large coin hoard from the 4th century, which probably represented the garrison's payroll and is kept in the Hungarian National Museum in Budapest. The archaeological sites are protected as a nationally significant cultural asset.