Mithras Shrine I in Spodnja Hajdina

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Mitrej I v Spodnji Hajdini

Spodnja Hajdina, SI-2250 Ptuj

http://www.pok-muzej-ptuj.si

muzej-ptuj.uprava@siol.net

Phone386 (0) 2 784 0350

ProprietorPtuj Regional Museum

Aleš Arih, Director

ales.arih@pok-muzej-ptuj.si

The oldest temple of Mithras in Rome's Danubian provinces was discovered in the western area of Roman Poetovio, which is in present-day Spodnja Hajdina. The temple was unearthed in 1898-1899 by archaeologist Dr Wilhelm Gurlitt and a protective shed was erected over it immediately after its discovery. Votive inscriptions indicate that the temple was erected in the mid-2nd century by Illyrian customs officers who were based in Poetovio.

The temple is divided into an anteroom and a central area with three sections, the central one of which is lowered. In the western wall of the central area a niche is preserved, into which the main altar-piece was built. The central temple area contains 12 votive stones with inscriptions and reliefs depicting, among others, myths and attributes connected with the individual degrees of promotion of the dedicators. At the entrance to the central room stand two sacrificial altars, dedicated to Cautes and Cautopates, the deities of the East and West. The central lowered area has several sacrificial altars and on one of them is a full-size sculpture representing the birth of Mithras. The principal section of the temple is the pillared altar with a sculpture of a bull-slayer, dedicated to the transition (transitu) cut from a single stone block.