Járdányi Paulovics István Romkert

This ruin garden in central Szombathely preserves excavated remains of the western quarter of Savaria, the Roman town that preceded the modern city. Systematic excavation began in 1938 under the archaeologist István Járdányi Paulovics, after whom the garden is named, and the site was opened to the public in 1943 following restoration overseen by Hungary's national monuments authority. Its principal feature is the floor of a large reception hall, roughly 50 by 17 meters, that formed part of an imperial palace complex and retains the most extensive continuous Roman mosaic surface yet found anywhere in the province of Pannonia. The shaded grounds also contain the foundation walls of a Roman bathhouse and a sanctuary dedicated to Mercury, as well as later medieval wall fragments from Szombathely's ninth-century inner castle, which served as an administrative seat for the bishop of Győr until 1777.