Vienna - Archaeologists from Innsbruck University stumbled upon references to the 1800-year-old, long since forgotten building situated near the town Lienz in a manuscript penned in Latin, dating back to the mid-18th century.
During a dig in October, in the western Austrian province Tyrol, the remains of five rooms of a building dating back to Roman times were unearthed on a 300-square-metre plot.
The remains of the walls show colourful wall paintings, but the most astounding find were large-scale floor mosaics in three of the rooms.
The heating vaults under the floors remained partly intact. The fact that they had not collapsed as usual added to the good condition of the mosaics.
In the 18th century, the low-ceilinged vaults were believed to be the home of dwarfs, leading to the creation of local legends about a "dwarf city" in the region.
go