Virunum

The new Roman foundation was situated on the main route from the Adriatic to the Danube, with a branch through south eastern Carinthia connecting Virunum with the Amber Road.

Being unfortified and situated in a flat valley, during the Migration Period (the "Barbarian Invasions") the city was probably partly or totally evacuated by its inhabitants, who left for the surrounding hills such as Ulrichsberg or Grazerkogel.

The city's layout is that of a checkerboard, with the main axis running SSW–NNE, along which the Forum and the Capitolium with two adjacent blocks to the west have been excavated.

Apart from the city capitol, a Dolichenum for the military god Jupiter Dolichenus[2] was excavated, inscriptions have been discovered proving the existence of two Mithraea,[3][4] and in 1999 two votive relief plates were found from a Nemesis temple near the amphitheatre.

[5] Proof of an early Christian church, whose existence had been presumed for a long time, has recently been found in the northern section of the city.

Several Roman stone slabs from Virunum have been incorporated in the Prunnerkreuz ("Prunner's Cross"), a small shrine from 1692 at the northern limits of the city.