ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE OF MOGORJELO

This area of 7.6 h (Arheološko Nalazište Mogorjelo) is the most important archaeological site in the country. It contains the remains of the Roman castrum (military camp) of Bigeste-Turres, an important relay on the road that connected Salona (Split, Croatia) to Scodra (Shkodra, Albania). It was excavated in 1898 by the Austrian archaeologist Carl Patsch (1865-1945). The site is well laid out with trees providing shade and, next door, a restaurant, a winery and the Vranac equestrian center. The castrum was founded by an Italian settler in the middle of the first century A.D. on the model of the villa rustica ( "Roman villa"): a residence coupled with a farm. This one supplies then Narona (Vid, in Croatia). In the 3rd century, a fire destroys a part of the buildings. The complex becomes the property of the Empire and grows to form a latifundium (large farm). Around 401, it passed into the hands of a chief of the Visigoth clan. About fifty years later, when the region was under Byzantine control, Mogorjelo was transformed into a village: two basilicas were built and the old farm buildings were transformed into houses. The site continued to be occupied for a long period and was used as a cemetery until the 19th century.

Visit. The original agricultural function of the site is still clearly visible in the landscape, with the old estate bordering the Neretva and, in the center, the villa rustica itself. Facing south-east, it consists of four wings forming a rectangle of 50 x 40 m, today delimited by rows of trees. Originally, the courtyard was empty and served a series of workshops and warehouses distributed in the fortified wings. Thehabitatoria (residential quarters) was located in the southern wing, but it disappeared during the fire of the 3rd century. The courtyard was used in the^fifth century for the construction of village houses served by a central street following the axis to the southeast. The two basilicas were built between the^5th and 7th centuries to the north-east of the complex (on the left after the entrance). Their layout is clearly visible. They both have a single nave and were built in parallel. The larger one measures 21.40 x 14.05 m and the one to the south 21.40 x 10.40 m. These "double churches" of the early Christian period are typical of the Dalmatian coast (Split, Zadar, etc.) with some rarer examples as far as the heart of Bosnia, such as Zenica.