Unique Roman gladiator ruins unveiled in Austria

Sensational find

The Carnuntum ruins are part of a city of 50,000 people 45 kilometres east of Vienna that flourished about 1,700 years ago, a major military and trade outpost linking the far-flung Roman empire’s Asian boundaries to its central and northern European lands.

Mapped out by radar, the ruins of the gladiator school remain underground. Yet officials say the find rivals the famous Ludus Magnus — the largest of the gladiatorial training schools in Rome — in its structure. And they say the Austrian site is even more detailed than the well-known Roman ruin, down to the remains of a thick wooden post in the middle of the training area, a mock enemy that young, desperate gladiators hacked away at centuries ago.

“(This is) a world sensation, in the true meaning of the word,” said Lower Austrian provincial Governor Erwin Proell. The ruins are “unique in the world... in their completeness and dimension.”

The gladiator complex is part of a 10-square kilometre site over the former city, an archaeological site now visited by thousands of tourists a year.