Napoca, Romania (archaeological site)

Founded in or shortly after A.D. 106, Napoca was an important military center and city, which served as the administrative center of Dacia Porolissensis. Emperor Hadrian already elevated the city to self-governing status in A.D. 124, naming it Municipium Aelium Hadrianum Napoca. In the second half of the 2nd century, Marcus Aurelius or his son Commodus considered the city Colonia Aurelia Napoca (the highest rank a city could have below Rome itself). Napoca was abandoned by the Romans in A.D. 271 when the emperor Aurelian withdrew Roman administration from the Dacian provinces. The city was only significantly resettled in the 12th century and became an important commercial and political center thereafter.

Because the large city of Cluj-Napoca overlies the remains of the Roman city, little has been excavated. The line of the perimeter walls is known and portions of the forum were excavated in the early 2000's below the main square of the city, Piata Unirii.
(composed 2015 for website of Transylvania Alive Association for Cultural Heritage) 

 

Roman forum of Napoca. (photo Eric De Sena, 2006).