GAMZIGRAD

THE PLACE OF ASCENDING TO GODS

In September 2007, the UNESCO flag began to flatter at Felix Romuliana - Gamzigrad, an important cultural/tourist center of Serbia, since this late ancient archaeological locality was put on the World Cultural Heritage List.
The Roman Emperor Gaius Galerius Valerius Maximianus had a great fortressed palace constructed in the quiet valley near the Black Timok and called it Felix Romuliana, to the honor of his mother Romula. The construction project lasted between the years 297 and 311. The Felix Romuliana complex takes the area of 6.5 hectares and it is surrounded by a system of 20 towers, in which there are the Tsar's Palace, atriums, thermal pools, beautiful floor mosaics, high columns, marble sculptures and granite items in rosé color and green porphyries from the Peloponnesus.
The monumental facilities were constructed, in order to be a safe home for living and the Tsar's monument forever after his death. Especially pointed out by their beauty are the important mosaics Dionysius, Ventra and Labyrinth, included in the permanent exhibition of the National Museum in Zaječar. On the Magura hill, near the Palace, a sacral complex was discovered, with two mausoleums and two tumuli, on which the Emperor Galerius and his mother Romula were burned at the stake and thus ascended to Gods.
The motif for the Emperor Galerius to had his Palace constructed there, in addition to the quiet environment, were also numerous sources of thermal mineral water, curing from the rheum. Thus, in 1920, in the close vicinity to the locality, the Gamzigrad Spa was constructed, one of the most important tourist health care centers of Serbia.
The remnants of the famous Roman Palace of the Emperor Gaius Valerius Galerius Maximianus are about 220 km far from Belgrade and they are not far from the main road Zaječar - Paraćin, 11 km from Zaječar itself.