Iuvavum

Iuvavum was a Roman town on the site of present-day Salzburg’s Old Town. Founded after the Romans took Noricum in 15 BC, it stood in the Salzach valley between the Nonnberg, Festungsberg and Kapuzinerberg. The settlement replaced earlier Celtic villages on the hills and became a municipium under Claudius in the 1st century AD. Its importance is clear from the sources. Pliny the Elder lists Iuvavum among the five chief cities of Noricum, while Claudius Ptolemy calls it Claudivium. A stone altar found at the Residenzplatz shows a dedication to Jupiter and to the local god Iuvavus, suggesting the town gave its name to the river rather than the other way round. Historians such as Karl Forstner argue the place may mean ‘yew-wood’, linking it to the Celtic word for yew. Visitors today walk the same valley floor where the forum once stood. Excavations beneath Salzburg’s Residenzplatz have uncovered walls, streets and the temple precinct. Along the Salzach’s banks traces of Roman bridges and river crossings remain. The city’s museums hold inscriptions and altars that once marked the town’s shrines and boundaries.