Lauriacum Museum

UNESCO - History - Architecture

Lauriacum, the Roman settlement in the area of today's city of Enns, was an important transportation hub. The legio II Italica, the Second Italic Legion, established the only legionary camp in the province of Noricum here at the end of the 2nd century AD. The approximately 6,000 soldiers of this unit in the display collection give an idea of the importance of such a base.
 
The Lauriacum Museum, founded in 1892, is located in the former town hall in the center of Enns. The display collection, which has been redesigned for the 2018 Upper Austrian Provincial Exhibition, enables visitors to embark on a voyage of discovery into the Roman past with over 1,200 artefacts, reconstructions and media stations.

The archaeological finds from the area of the Roman legionary camp Lauriacum near Enns and its surroundings prompted a group of interested people to found a museum association for Enns and its surroundings in 1892. The owner of the castle of Ennsegg provided a room in the Meierhof of the castle for the museum. In 1898, the museum's own collection was united with the city-historical collection of the Old Town Hall and the Fürstenberg private collection. In the course of this, the association received permission to set up its collection in the old council hall.

This laid the foundation for the later Lauriacum Museum. After a longer period of emergency accommodation due to bombardments and the great shortage of space in the post-war period, it was not until 1964 and 1967 that the exhibits could be re-installed in the museum. In one of the most important Roman collections in Austria, the diversity of Roman culture in the most important military base on the Danube limes in the province of Noricum is presented. The monumental building inscription of the Lauriacum legionary camp, the military equipment, the funerary monuments, the numerous testimonies of Roman everyday life, the unique ceiling fresco and a late antique fabric fragment are particularly noteworthy among the numerous exhibits. Aspects of the medieval and modern history of the town of Enns are conveyed by, among other things, old views, historical weapons, the council chamber with its magnificent paintings and the room with sacred art objects.

In 1988, the Lauriacum Museum was awarded the Austrian Museum Prize and it is the bearer of the Austrian Museum Quality Seal. In view of the anniversary "800 years of the town charter of Enns", extensive reconstruction work has been carried out since autumn 2011.