18 May 2011 Gladiator school at the Austrian border

The discovery of a gladiator school from Roman times was announced eleven years ago by Austrian archaeologists. Its dimensions are among the largest ever. Experts have even created a 3D model and computer visualisation of this historic building.

How huge the school was is evidenced by the fact that the courtyard alone was 2,800 square metres. Up to 60 gladiators could train there at one time. The remains of the gladiator school were discovered by archaeologists in the Petronell-Carnuntm area.

The former town of Carnuntum was once the capital of the province of Upper Pannonia. It had about 70,000 inhabitants. It was founded shortly after the birth of Jesus Christ. It existed until the year 400 and was rebuilt and destroyed twice.

The discovery of the remains of the gladiator school is the result of the work of an international team from the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological research and virtual archaeology in collaboration with the Carnuntum Archaeological Park using modern ground-based radar.

According to the management of the local archaeological site, the discovery of the gladiator school was literally sensational. They even spoke of a world unique, because the local gladiatorial school was really huge.

"It is a sensational archaeological discovery in terms of its intactness and size. It is, without exaggeration, a world unique," also said Lower Austrian Governor Erwin Pröll.

Its site is 1,700 years old and the total area was around eleven thousand square metres. The aforementioned training arena, where up to sixty gladiators could train at once, was nineteen metres in diameter. There was also a training hall, which could be heated in winter. Even the floors have been preserved, which is very rare. The building where the gladiators lived was 170 square metres.

There were also baths, office buildings and a cemetery where those who did not survive the training or the match ended up. Near Petronell-Carnuntum, the foundations of an arena built in the second century AD have already been uncovered. The arena had a capacity of up to thirteen thousand people. It was used to entertain the legionnaires and the local population. Spectacular festivals, games and gladiatorial fights were held here.

If you're interested, you can visit the city of the Romans. All info in English can be found on the website www.carnuntum.at

Sources: www.sme.sk, www.hn.cz, www.novinky.cz, www.carnuntum.at