Castra Alisca Ad Latus, Roman military fort in Őcsény, Hungary.
Castra Alisca Ad Latus is a Roman cohort fort in the marshy Szigetpuszta area north of Őcsény, Tolna County. Its rectangular plan measured about 158 by 193 metres, with rounded corners, watchtowers and gates; a raised road known as the Teufelsdamm led to its rear gate. The site is largely unexcavated and almost unbuilt, and no ancient structures are visible above ground.
The fort was probably founded around 100 AD or later, in the 2nd century, on the marshy Szigetpuszta plain north of Őcsény, guarding a section of the Pannonian Danube limes. Its name is debated: the Itinerarium Antonini gives Alisca ad latus without mile figures, and scholars have split the phrase between a suspected fort at Szekszárd and this site. A 1953 aerial photo traced the Teufelsdamm road for about seven kilometres to the fort's western gate.
The name Alisca ad latus appears in the Itinerarium Antonini, a third-century list of Roman roads, though the mileage between garrison sites is missing there. Researchers long debated whether Alisca named a fort at Szekszárd and ad latus, meaning off to the side, the site at Őcsény-Szigetpuszta, which sits at the end of a branch off the limes road. Mór Wosinsky instead proposed Contra Tautantum as the fort's name, taken from the Notitia Dignitatum.
The fort lies in the marshy Szigetpuszta flat north of Őcsény, in Tolna County, about seven kilometres northwest of Szekszárd. Almost nothing of the ancient buildings is visible above ground, as the site has barely been excavated. The dam-like embankment of the Roman access road, known locally as the Teufelsdamm, can still be traced in the terrain, for instance on the 1953 aerial photograph.
The fort's Latin name is debated: the Itinerarium Antonini lists "Alisca ad latus", and Mór Wosinsky read ad latus as a description of the site's position off the limes road rather than a name, proposing Contra Tautantum instead. Sándor Soproni and Jenő Fitz later identified Őcsény-Szigetpuszta with Alisca. No excavations have yet revealed the fort's buildings.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 93,240 contributors worldwide.