Greece & Rome · AD 80–171 · Regensburg, Bavaria, Germany
Bavaria's oldest Roman Mithras temple found beneath Regensburg's Old Town
Coins date the wooden sanctuary, excavated ahead of housing construction in 2023, to between AD 80 and 171, before Regensburg's legionary fortress was built.
Official announcement
Regensburg, Germany Archaeologists in Regensburg, in south-eastern Germany, have identified the remains of a Roman sanctuary of the god Mithras. It was in use between AD 80 and 171. The Museums of the City of Regensburg say it is the earliest of the nine Mithras sanctuaries known in Bavaria. It is also the only Roman sanctuary of any kind found so far within the city's Old Town.
The site lies at Stahlzwingerweg 6, where the developer SDI GmbH & Co. KG is building three residential blocks. The Old Town is archaeologically sensitive, so the plot had to be excavated before construction.
The firm ArchaeoTeam GmbH carried out the work under the direction of Sabine Watzlawik. It dug in several phases between spring and autumn 2023.
A wooden temple identified after the dig
At first the dig produced what the team expected for this part of the city. It found traces of prehistoric settlement, Roman occupation layers and medieval remains. The plot was small, so the excavators had to work in separate sectors. Several large structural features were hard to interpret while digging was under way.
After the excavation, archaeologist Stefan Reuter brought all the findings together and analysed them. Only then did the team conclude that they had a wooden Roman temple dedicated to Mithras.
A Mithraeum is a meeting place of the cult of Mithras. This was a mystery religion whose members were initiated in closed groups. It was popular among Roman soldiers.
The Regensburg building was made of wood and has largely decayed. The identification therefore rests on what was found in and around it. The finds include a votive stone, but its inscription is too worn to read. There are also fragments of votive metal plates, and fittings that probably belonged to a small shrine cupboard.
Other objects point more directly to Mithraic ritual. The team recovered pottery fragments from a vessel decorated with snake motifs, a symbol repeatedly found in the cult. Incense cups, handled jugs and drinking vessels were found alongside them.
Ritual meals shared by the initiates were a central part of Mithras worship. The team reads the jugs and cups as equipment for those banquets. La Brújula Verde reports that remains of sacrificial animals were also found.
Coins date it before the legionary fortress
Coins found at the site date the sanctuary. Among them is one of the emperor Hadrian, who reigned from AD 117 to 138. The coins place the sanctuary in the period of the Roman cohort fort at Kumpfmühl and the civilian settlement beside the Danube.
That is before the large legionary camp of Castra Regina was established. Castra Regina was the fortress that later defined Roman Regensburg in the province of Raetia.
First, this is the only Roman sanctuary ever identified within Regensburg's Old Town. Second, on a broader scale, it is the earliest Mithras sanctuary among the nine known sites in Bavaria.
Maximilian Ontrup, Roman provincial archaeologist, Museums of the City of Regensburg
Most known Mithraea date from the late 2nd and the 3rd centuries AD, when the cult was at its height across the empire. It declined in the 4th and early 5th centuries as Christianity became dominant. A sanctuary in use from the late 1st century puts Mithras worship on this stretch of the Danube frontier earlier than that general pattern.
The Danube settlement the sanctuary belonged to is less well researched than other Roman centres. The find adds evidence about its religious life. No sacred texts of the cult survive. Most of what is known about Mithraic ritual therefore comes from images and from the buildings themselves.
Research project and a new museum display
The City of Regensburg and the Bavarian State Office for the Preservation of Monuments are jointly funding a research project. It will analyse the site and its finds in full.
SDI GmbH & Co. KG is donating the objects to the Museums of the City of Regensburg. There they will form part of a new museum concept now being developed.
At first glance, some of these objects may seem unspectacular. But by placing them in their proper context and visualizing their story, we can make them speak. The Mithras finds will add an entirely new dimension to our understanding of Roman Regensburg.
Sebastian Karnatz, director, Museums of the City of Regensburg
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