St. Theodore's quarter at Pula
The Archaeological Museum of Istria conducted rescue archaeological excavation at this location between 2005 and 2009 (1). The archaeological excavations which extended over a surface of about 4,000 m² with the greatest depth of around eight meters resulted in a discovery of numerous remains from various cultural periods during the three-thousand-years long history of the city of Pula.
The Histrian period
The oldest traces of the city have been discovered around the freshwater spring. The first simple Histrian houses have emerged here, built in the drywall technique with a wooden superstructure pasted with clay. Numerous archaeological finds imply a continuity of use from the 11th to the 1st century B.C. (2). Safety-pins (fibulae) as possible votive gifts indicate a possibility that the area around the freshwater spring was honoured as a sanctuary already during the Histrian period.
Roman period
Roman buildings are spread over the entire surface of the archaeological site. The oldest ones have been built immediately after the establishment of the Roman colony of Pola (46 – 45 B.C.), but have been demolished after the fire at the end of the 5th century A.D. (3-5).
In the south-eastern part there are remains of a sacral complex. Amidst the open, with a wall enclosed sacred area (area sacra) containing a well that was erected over a source of freshwater spring, massive walls with temple features have been preserved. This temple is connected to a previously discovered inscription that speaks of the construction of Hercules' shrine. The find of a stone block with a relief presentation of a bludgeon, one of Hercules' symbols, definitely confirms that in this area there was a temple dedicated to this mythical hero, the protector of the Roman colony Pola (6).
The western part of the site contains remains of a part of a lavishly arranged city residential house (domus). Several rooms for various purposes with frescoes, stucco, marble decorations and mosaics have been discovered around the central yard (7-12).The house in its southern part had its own bathroom and a sauna with furnaces. In a section of one of the rooms, a small indoor shrine with a black and white mosaic that contains an altar, stylised shells and the inscription Salus which is the name of the Roman goddess of health, have been preserved (13).
Remains of public baths (thermae publicae) spread to the east of the domus. Many parts of this building have been secondarily utilised during the Late Antique construction, after its demolition in the 5th century A.D.
On the surface of the thermal and temple complex 2,119, mostly whole amphorae have been discovered, thus making this the largest continental find in the world (14). After they were no longer used for the transport of wine, in this zone the amphorae have been utilised for construction works - for drainage and levelling of an uneven terrain.
Despite having diverse purposes, all the three mentioned Roman complexes represented parts of the same totality connected to the cult of water, cleanliness and health.
Late Antique and Medieval period
In the period of Late Antiquity (5th – 7th century A.D.) this area was used for the production of olive oil. At the same time, above the uttermost southern part of the Roman baths, a single-aisle early Christian church was erected. Numerous finds of parts of its stone church furniture with early Christian and pre-Romanesque features, from the end of the 5th to the beginning of the 9th century relate to its interior (15-16). This church was demolished in the 15th century at the latest, when a much more spacious church of St. Theodore was erected on the same location.
Late Medieval and Modern History period
The Late Gothic church of St. Theodore with the appertaining female Benedictine convent was built in 1458. The entire sacral complex included a church, bell-tower and the buildings of the convent with an open courtyard. In this context, a significant number of parts of glazed tableware has been found (17). A cemetery has been discovered beyond the church, and 11 crypts have been found inside the church which contained numerous devotional medallions (18). In 1789, the nuns left the Church and the convent of St .Theodore which were demolished in 1873 during the construction of the Austro-Hungarian barracks.
In the 20th century, between the two World Wars, a warehouse of a tobacco factory was built in the courtyard which burnt down in a fire in 2002.