Ad Pirum

Ad Pirum was a Roman fortress active during the time of the late Roman Empire. It is located on the Hrušica Plateau in southwestern Slovenia, in the hamlet of Hrušica in Podkraj. It was built in the 320s.^[1]

1863 lithograph with a reconstruction of Ad Pirum

Structure and function

Remnants of Ad Pirum

Excavations reveal the fortress to have an oval shape, 250 metres (820 ft) in length, 30 to 80 m (98 to 262 ft) in width, and with a wall at a height of 6–8 m and a thickness of about 2.7 m; the wall towers were 10 m high.^[2] This structure represented a major fort of the Claustra Alpium Iuliarum, a network of forts and walls to securing Roman Italy from eastern invasions, including the road between Roman Italy and Pannonia. It was typically manned by 500 soldiers.

External videos
A 3D reconstruction of the fort, YouTube[3]

Further reading

• Kos, Peter (2014). Ad Pirum (Hrušica) in Claustra Alpium Iuliarum [Ad Pirum (Hrušica) and Claustra Alpium Iuliarum] (PDF) (in Slovenian). Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Slovenia. ISBN 978-961-6902-67-0. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-24. Retrieved 2017-02-08.