Die Basilika St. Laurentius in Enns

The Roman town and legionary fortress of Lauriacum, modern Lorch near Enns in Upper Austria, was an important centre in the Roman province of Noricum. According to written sources, in Late Antiquity Lauriacum was one of the first Christianized areas on the Roman Danube frontier. Lothar Eckhart undertook excavations between 1960 and 1966 in the basilica of St. Laurentius in Lorch, and the publication of his results provoked a discussion that has continued until today. In particular, stratigraphical questions concerning the building phases in Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages, including the discovery of an early Christian church, were heavily disputed during the next decades. The author offers a new analysis of the structural remains under the basilica of St. Laurentius, beginning with the Roman periods up to the early modern period, with an emphasis on questions of cult and settlement continuity between the 5th and 10th centuries.