Hercules-villa

About the museum

The Hercules-villa was one of the luxurious residences built in the northern strip of the extensive soldiers' town surrounding the legionary camp in Óbuda, decorated with mosaics and wall paintings. Its owner was presumably a member of the elite living at the seat of the governor. The Roman building drew attention through a mosaic discovered during sewer laying; to preserve and present the excavated building, the modern school to be built on the neighbouring plot was also redesigned.

The first building period of the villa can be dated to the first half of the 2nd century AD; then, at the turn of the 2nd and 3rd centuries, the eastern row of rooms was extended to the north and south, and the new rooms were decorated with mosaic floors. At the very end of the 3rd century or the beginning of the 4th century the house was abandoned; later the site was used for burials.

Beneath the school building is a reception hall with a semicircular apse, whose mosaic shows a harvest procession in honour of Dionysus-Bacchus and a drunken Hercules. The large protective building contains three rooms with mosaic floors, and in the small, separate protective building is the mosaic of boxers in the bathhouse changing room. In the garden there are late Roman stone coffins.

Highlights

• Mosaic floors in protective buildings
• Mosaic of the harvest procession of Dionysus under the school building
• Mosaic of boxers in the bathhouse changing room
• Late Roman stone coffins in the garden

Permanent exhibition

• Hercules-villa mozaikjai – Rooms with mosaic floors, a mosaic depicting the harvest procession and Hercules, and the boxers' mosaic of the bathhouse changing room.

Operated by

Budapesti Történeti Múzeum – Aquincumi Múzeum

Admission & discounts

Payment in cash (in forint only) or by bank card. The BTM+ ticket, priced at HUF 5,500, is valid for the Aquincum Museum, the Kiscelli Múzeum, the Budapest Galéria and the Vármúzeum.

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