ROMAN SITE OF FELIX ROMULIANA - GAMZIGRAD

Felix Romuliana was the permanent residence of the emperor Galerius (or Galerius, c. 250-311): he was born and buried there. Galerius was part of the tetrarchy set up by Diocletian, whom he assisted as vice-emperor, in charge of the western part of the Eastern Roman Empire based in Nicomedia, not far from Constantinople. He then became emperor himself in the place of his boss who had retired (to his villas in Croatia), but did not manage to maintain order in the empire which sank into civil wars. His reign, finally quite short, is interrupted when a strange affliction strikes him (one thinks, very seriously, of a genital cancer) which kills him quickly. His fortified palace, copying the complex of Diocletian's in Split, is located at the foot of a plateau extending to the southwest and was built of rubble and brick. Today, you can visit the remains of villas with mosaic floors, red brick buildings and a Roman palace. This town was part of the Dacia Ripensis, from the moment it was organized by the emperor Aurelian, in the third century AD. Placed at the crossroads of several important Roman roads, this castrum played a considerable role in the surveillance of the region; it also constituted an administrative center which collected the gold of the mines of the surroundings. Still occupied in the early Byzantine period, the fortress of Romuliana was destroyed by the Avars in the 6th century.

The site covers an area of 6.5 hectares, where Galerius had built a fort with large walls, surrounded by 20 towers. The western entrance gate and the main walls can still be seen. But, above all, we visit the rectangular palace which was located at the north-west of the castrum: surrounded by 9 columns still in good condition, the atrium kept its mosaic on the original ground. Visible in the vestibule and the old baths, these Roman mosaics present geometrical motives, Adonis or hunting scenes. The site is also characterized by the use of materials such as marble, pink granite or green porphyry for the sculptures. Above the site, on the Magura hill, a complete sanctuary consisting of two tombs and two tumuli was later exhumed. It was here that the emperor Galerius, who died prematurely, and his mother Romula were burned and cremated. To admire the most beautiful mosaics, go to the National Museum of Zaječar.