The reception of Roman Mithras in Transylvania in the 18th-19th century

Abstract

Transylvania became part of the Habsburg Empire in the late 17th century. Between 1686 and 1848, the region’s urban landscape was radically altered by several large-scale infrastructural and architectural projects that also uncovered a substantial amount of archaeological material from its Roman past. Construction of the Vauban fort and other major urban projects in Alba Iulia (Gyulafehérvár, Karlsburg) after 1711 contributed to the creation of the city’s first archaeological collection, established by Ignatius Batthyány in the late 18th century. This paper focuses on the first Mithraic finds from Alba Iulia, the Batthyaneum Library’s valuable collection and the role of Mithraic finds from Apulum in the history of Mithraic studies.