The little market town of Petronell (Carnuntum), with a population of 1250, on the right bank of the Danube, can look back on a long history spanning almost two thousand years. Although the earliest finds made in the region date from the Late Stone Age, it was 9 A.D. when the Romans founded the legionary fortress of Carnuntum about 2km/1.25mi
east of the present town. The name "Carnuntum" is of Illyrian origin and means "stone" or "fortified place". Between 69 and 79, under Emperor Vespasian, it grew into a fortified military base with a harbor. During its heyday under the Emperors Hadrian and Marc Aurel Carnuntum had a population of more than 60,000, was an important trade and traffic center and formed the east-west route along the river as well as being on the "amber road" running north to south along the eastern Alps. The Roman civilian settlement which has been uncovered to the west of present day Petronell boasted some magnificent villas, large functional and welfare buildings and sophisticated plumbing and drainage systems. Carnuntum was the capital of the Roman province of Upper Pannonia, and it was here that Septimus Severus was appointed Emperor and Diocletian called an imperial conference. The camp lasted until 375 before being razed by the invading hordes. The excavated Roman town has been made into an open-air museum. Visitors can see foundations of dwellings, the ruins of a palace built in the first half of the second C., and owned by the Roman governor, with remains of the central heating systems, cellars, bathrooms and marble cladding, the fourth C. Heidentor ("Pagans' Gate"), over 20m/65ft high, and the second C. amphitheater, discovered in 1922, which would have seated 15,000 spectators in seats only 4m/13ft above the arena. Finds relating to the plumbing system in the auxiliary castle and to the burial ground can be viewed in the new Petronell-Carnuntum Museum on the eastern edge of the town.
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