The Romans built camps, forts and watchtowers along the Danube, at the so-called Danube Limes, the northern border of the Roman Empire. A border fortification for defense, especially against the Germanic tribes on the other bank. The best-secured river border of the Roman Empire, which also ran through today's Upper Austria, Lower Austria and Vienna. The Danube Limes was added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites a few months ago, initially in Germany, Austria and Slovakia. Other states as far as the Black Sea are to follow.
The "Dokumentation am Feiertag" from the ORF regional studio of Lower Austria (creator: Sabine Daxberger, camera: Franz Cee) goes on an exciting journey along the Lower Austrian Danube Limes to some of the sites of this new World Heritage Site. There you will find extraordinary buildings, a criterion for inclusion in the World Heritage.
Trailer of the documentary on the ORF NÖ site
From Carnuntum via Mautern to Pöchlarn
In Carnuntum, the world city at the Danube limes, for example the amphitheaters or the pagan gate. Unique in the world is the city quarter rebuilt on the original Roman foundations. In Zeiselmauer, the late Roman structures of the Cannabiaca camp are unique in Austria, and in Mautern, the longest Roman masonry, part of the Favianis camp. Pöchlarn and Tulln were bases of the Roman Danube fleet.
Often, thousands of years of use contribute to the preservation of architectural monuments, as in the case of the fan tower of Zeiselmauer, which stands in a private garden. The Roman monuments in Lower Austria have been restored by the Federal Monuments Office, the state and the respective municipalities in recent years. The UNESCO World Heritage Site is associated with the task of preserving it and communicating it to the people. This is the case with the Roman workshop in Traismauer, which playfully introduces schoolchildren to the ancient heritage of the city, to the generation that is to appreciate and protect it in the future.
Last but not least, people and life stories along the Danube Limes come alive in the film through finds. Children's toys from Tulln, tablets in Mautern with a Roman woman's plea to the gods to punish her unfaithful husband, or the touching gravestone of Augustania Cassia Marcia from Carnuntum. In play scenes, the documentary accompanies her through the ancient metropolis. Deeply human things also connect us through the times in the Danube Limes World Heritage Site, as the film from the ORF Regional Studio of Lower Austria shows.
