
I visited this WHS in 2022 as the first Serbian WHS en route from Pecs, Hungary. Upon arrival I chose to buy the combined ticket including an entrance to the national museum in Zajecar, since I had my hotel there for the night. Like Diocletian's Palace in Split, the palace was designed to be a representative imperial residence, and the fortification perimeter nowadays reminded me quite a lot of the Bashtava Fortress in Albania or the high walls of Villa Adriana in Tivoli, Italy.
In total, within the palace walls, there are the partially reconstructed remains of 20 circular towers and two gates, thermal baths, a number of temples with mosaic floors (only a couple visible in situ as like in Albania, the bigger ones are covered with gravel and sand, while the best ones are in the local museum (worth visiting as a value added addition to your visit)), and the remains of Christian basilicas. As such, Romuliana could be viewed as a royal palace, a church property, an early Byzantine settlement and a Medieval settlement. Entrance and exit to the site proper are through the Western Gate. Near both the Western and Eastern Gates, one can find the UNESCO WHS inscription plaques. Just behind and above the Eastern Gate, one can see the two mounds on Magura hill (with the foundations of two mausolea behind them), marking the place where Emperor Galerius and his mother Romula were buried and where the apotheosis ritual was done.
The site requires quite a lot of imagination and reading up before your visit and after to be able to better appreciate its value. The best remains of buildings within the palace walls are clustered in the northwestern quarter of Gamzigrad with a small on site cafeteria just behind, where one can see a model of how the place looked like in Roman times (an even better model can be found in the Zajecar national museum). Apart from the protected mosaic fragment, the highlight here were the remains of the columned atrium of Palace One with a fountain in the middle. The best artefacts and mosaics found at Gamzigrad are housed in the Zajecar national museum, namely a fragment of an architrave with the Felix Romuliana inscription, a porphyry bust and a left hand holding a globe, belonging to Galerius, two white marble headed belonging to Jupiter and Hercules, and the splendid mosaics of the ventatores or lion hunters, of Dionysos removed from the Palace One triclinium, and above all that of a labyrinth with geometric motifs.
Funnily enough, when visiting Gamzigrad I found out that the fragment with the Felix Romuliana inscription was on loan for a Roman exhibition in Trier, Germany, not so far from where I live, so in a way my visit continued upon my arrival back home with far better information boards and videos than those present in Zajecar. My expectations weren't so high, but I must say that I enjoyed my visit, even though it wasn't too long and it certainly isn't the best example of Roman remains on the WH list, but it certainly isn't the worst! PS: before exiting, make sure to visit the few excellent original remains housed to the left just after the entrance as they are not so evident without a guide.
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