In 1973-1976, the foundations of a Roman settlement were excavated in Enns, the former Lauriacum. From one of the houses, there seemed to be enough material left of a wall painting that its reconstruction could be undertaken. A major problem was raising the innumerable pieces of fresco, laid out onto a sand bed and the missing areas filled in with mortar, in order to mount it onto a support. Mr. Mora of the Istituto Centrale des Restauro, Rome, suggested covering the front with polyurethane foam. First, several tests had to be conducted in order to become familiar with handling the foam and to see how the surface of the fresco and it reacted to each other. The restoration workshop of the Austrian Department for Monuments and Landmarks in Vienna ran another test covering the fresco's surface with two layers of gauze and a methyl cellulose glue. This test showed that the surface had to be completely sealed off, because the polyurethane foam penetrated into the tiniest cracks when it expanded while hardening.Voest-Alpine AG, Linz, accepted the commission to develop a suitable foam for the support for this fresco. In cooperation with BASF, an elastocoat-material was formulated with limited expansion but great elastic properties, so that all parts could be completely suffused. Moreover, the material was not to absorb any moisture while being turned into froth. For this purpose elastocoat-system C 6911/3 was reformulated. Elastopor H 123/4 was used as a hard foam. As this system had to process supporting properties, the data given by the distributing company were rechecked in the laboratory and proved to correspond to the technical description given. -- AATA