Felix Romuliana (Gamzigrad)

Eleven kilometres west of Zaječar, on the edge of Gamzigrad village, lies the reason this corner of eastern Serbia appears in guidebooks at all: Felix Romuliana. Emperor Galerius began building it in 298 at his birthplace, following his victory over the Sasanian Empire. He named it after his mother Romula, a priestess of a Dacian cult.

Early visitors mistook the massive walls and twenty towers for a Roman military camp, a misreading that persisted well into the twentieth century. Systematic excavations from 1953, initiated by Vekoslav Popović, then director of the Zaječar town museum, revealed an imperial palace district instead. The proof arrived on 23 June 1984, when Dragoslav Srejović uncovered an archivolt carrying the inscription FELIX ROMULIANA.

Visible today are two temples, two palaces, baths, a tetrapylon and several remarkably preserved floor mosaics, including depictions of Dionysus and Medusa. On the neighbouring Magura hill stand the two mausolea where Romula and Galerius were buried and subsequently deified. This interlocking of ceremonial residence and memorial precinct is what makes the site archaeologically unique.

After the Huns plundered it in the mid-fifth century the palace became a settlement of farmers and craftsmen, and was abandoned entirely when the Slavs arrived at the beginning of the seventh century. UNESCO added the site to the World Heritage List at its 31st session in 2007.