After the true Capernaum synagogue was discovered in 1904, Andreas Evaristus Mader (1881-1949), an archeologist and Salvatorian patre conducted exploratory excavations at the ruin and its environments on behalf of the Görres Society in 1911-4 and again in 1931. Identifying a large quadratic structure with outer walls and corner towers, he thought it to be a Roman fort or castrum.[3]:14