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The name of the settlement is more likely to have been Ovilavis than Ovilava, and is based on a Celtic word. The Roman settlement lies today beneath the centre of the city of Wels, at a junction of the roads leading from Virunum over the Pyhrnpass and from Iuvavum to the Danube, at a ford over the river Traun. A vicus at this intersection had probably already developed in the second half of the 1st c. A.D. at the latest. The town received municipal status more likely under Hadrian (his tour of inspection, 121/122) than under Antoninus Pius, and under Caracalla (211-217) it was elevated to the rank of a colony. The various civic titulatures and civic officials are frequently attested epigraphically.
The existence of a military camp in close proximity to the city can be ruled out. The nearest auxiliary camps were located at Eferding (Ad Mauros?) and Lentia (Linz), approximately a day’s march away. After the late 2nd century, Ovilavis, in addition to Lauriacum (Lorch-Enns), where the legio II Italica was stationed, served as the administrative centre of Noricum, and possibly also for a short time as the seat of the governor.
Little is known regarding the development of the settlement; a destruction of the city by flood waters which is assumed to have taken place during the reign of Commodus, with accompanying relocation of the settlement, is today being more closely investigated.
The city walls, traditionally dated to the late 2nd or early 3rd century and associated with the elevation in status to a colony, although possibly significantly later in date, enclosed an area of 90 ha. and frequently were built on top of earlier structures. The course of the walls, with a maximum width of 1.4 m., was punctuated at various places by towers and had up to four pointed ditches laid out in front. Without doubt, Ovilavis was built according to a grid plan, but until now too few of the streets have been recorded to enable the system to be reliably represented. The northernmost of the three east-west running streets which have been established to date possessed a portico, and continued its course beyond the city (milestone); this can be identified as the decumanus maximus. Equally, three north-south running streets are known, one of which led to the bridge over the Traun. An aqueduct found to the south of the Traun must also have followed a course over the river. A number of attempts have been made to locate the Forum, most being hypothetical and less than convincing. In the region of the mediaeval Minoriten monastery, a building complex was constructed in about 200 A.D., its dating based on brick stamps which name a Norican governor; this structure was fitted with lead water pipes, mosaics, and underfloor heating, yet its ground plan is uncertain. It might have served as one of the official residences of the commander of the legion.
To date, no coherent ground plans of residential buildings are preserved.
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In the city museum of Wels (the former Minoriten monastery), finds from the governor’s building, and reconstructions of furnished living rooms and a street of tombs are on view, in addition to the regular collection of exhibits.
L. Eckhart, Die Skulpturen des Stadtgebietes von Ovilava, CSIR Österreich III 3 (1981).
M. Hainzmann, Ovilava – Lauriacum – Virunum. Zur Problematik der Statthalterresidenzen und Verwaltungszentren Norikums ab 170 n. Chr., Tyche 6, 1991, 61–85.
P. Karnitsch, Die Reliefsigillata von Ovilava, Schriftenreihe d. Inst. f. Landeskunde v. Oberösterreich 12 (1959).
R. Miglbauer, Ein römerzeitlicher Verwahrfund aus Wels, OÖ., Bayer. Vorgeschichtsblätter 53, 1988, 287–292.
R. Miglbauer, Die Gefäßkeramik der Grabung Wels Marktgelände, RCRF Acta Suppl. 7 (1990).
R. Miglbauer, Ovilava – Wels. Der Übergang von der Spätantike zum frühen Mittelalter,
BeitrMAÖ 17, 2001, 149-161.
R. Miglbauer, Ovilavis, in: M. Šašel Kos – P. Scherrer (Hrsg.), The Autonomous Towns in Noricum and Pannonia – Die autonomen Städte in Noricum und Pannonien: Noricum, Situla 40 (2002) 245–256.
H. Sedlmayer, Die römischen Fibeln von Wels, Quellen u. Darstellungen z. Geschichte v. Wels 4 (1995).
S. Zabehlicky-Scheffenegger, Römerzeit, in: Stadtmuseum Wels. Katalog, Jahrbuch Musealverein Wels 22, 1979/80, 45–128.