The capital of the Roman province of Upper Moesia, located near present-day Old Kostolac, 12 km of Pozarevac. At the end of the I century at the site a Roman military camp was formed, along whose walls a great city with wide streets, squares, amphitheater, large baths and aqueducts developed. The town had a population of tens of thousands and was among the largest in the Roman Empire. It had a coin mint. The town was destroyed by the Huns in 441. It was restored during the reign of Byzantine Emperor Justinian in the 6th cent. The town was visited by Roman emperors Septimius Severus, Gordian III, Philip the Arab, Trebonianus Gallus, Diocletian, Constantine, Constantius I, Julian and Gratian. Today you have the opportunity to visit the ancient Roman city. In a well-designed archaeological complex, in addition to the research center in the form of the Roman Domus, there are underground tombs, painted with beautiful frescoes, baths, memorial buildings with sarcophagi, magnificent gates and an amphitheater.
Viminacium is the capital of the province of Upper Moesia (Moesia Superior), subsequently, First Moesia (Moesia Prima) and the permanent camp of the Seventh Claudia Legion (VII Claudia Pia Fidelis). Based on the most recent archaeological finds, it is estimated that the military camp was probably set up in the first decades of the 1st century AD. Stereoscopic analysis, and that of the digital soil sample, indicate that the original camp (castrum) was twice the size of a camp normally considered to be billeting the 7the Claudia Legion. This is unequivocal proof that immediately after it had been created, Viminacium was where two legions were based. This civilian settlement under the rule of Hadrian was granted the status of a municipality (municipium); however, the finds of the thermae indicate that life in this city was very dynamic already at the time of Domitian (81-96 AD). The municipium status also implied civilian administration. During the reign of Gordian III (238-244 AD), it became a colony (colonia) of Roman citizens and was given the right to coin its own local money. Colony was the highest status that a city could be granted within the borders of the Roman Empire. Amid the preparations for the Dacian Wars (Dacia – present-day Romania), between 101- 107 AD, Emperor Traianus chose Viminacium for his troop build-up and as the staging area for attack on Decebalus, king of the Dacians. With its position in the plain, the last wide and open space before the Đerdap gorge, it was ideally placed for amassing larger military forces even at that time and on many other occasions later on, during its long history as a city. Downstream from Viminacium, it is only in the area of Kladovo that it is possible to regroup any larger forces. It is precisely for this reason that in the Đerdap gorge could be found only smaller fortifications for auxiliary units. Its location where the Mlava river empties into the Danube has enabled its rapid economic development. Exceptional finds in the necropolies around the city confirm the assumption of great wealth of its residents. The threat posed to the city as a result of the construction of the thermal power plant and coal mining at the open-cast mine Drmno has made necessary extensive excavations of the city necropolis. The excavations revealed more than 14,000 tombs with extraordinary contents and more than 40,000 artefacts, of which more than 700 gold and silver artefacts and dozens of unique world value. The Viminacium necropolis contained a number of fresco-painted tombs, including the one with a fresco depicting a young woman, which belongs to the masterpieces of late ancient fresco-painting from all territories of the Roman Empire. The use of most sophisticated technologies contributed to the detection of 21 artefacts prior to archaeological excavations. It was the first time that stereoscopic analysis of an archaeological site was made in our country, along with an analysis of satellite pictures, and a wide use of geo-radars, magnetometers, thermal vision filming, application of GPS (Global Positioning System) of sub-centimetre precision, including the use of three dimensional soil and object scanning by a 3D scan. Inside and around the city, archaeologists unearthed an amphitheatre, streets surrounded by buildings, monumental thermae and traces of a developed infrastructure, most notably streets, an aquaduct and sewerage. Multidisciplinary studies are now underway of the urban core and the immediate surroundings. In addition to archaeologists, they also involve geophysicists, mathematicians, electrical engineers and experts in three dimensional models of objects in the ground, remote control detection and satellite navigation. The fact that Viminacium is located in the furrows, among the fields, and that there is no modern settlement built above the Roman ruins, provides a unique opportunity to learn about all aspects of life in ancient times. The one-time Roman city and the military camp of Viminacium occupy more than 450 hectares of greater city and 220 hectares of inner city area. Situated on a clearing amid hundreds of hectares of arable land, it contains artefacts and fragments thereof from the Roman period, scattered about in the fields. Archaeological explorations undertaken in the last quarter of the twentieth century helped Viminacium to come slowly out of the scarce historical accounts and to become a city which, in its history that stretches over six centuries (1st-6th centuries AD), enjoyed a dynamic development and was a place where not only the cultures of the East and West met, but also one gladly descended on by the merchants from the Roman Empire. It seems that the material base of this city, whose goods attracted buyers even beyond the borders of the home province, was the basis for the establishment and maintenance of various art workshops in this area. It was these workshops that left us, from the 4th century, some of the best known works of the fresco-painted tombs of the late antique period. Fresco-painting, together with numerous tombs, also provided significant information about the beginnings of Christianity in this region. The unearthed, built tomb with the Heavenly Rider and Christ’s monogram, gives an idea of how the process of transition from paganism to Christianity evolved and how first Christian communities were created in these territories.
The size and importance of Viminacium is the consequence of several factors, of which special mention should be made also of the rich hinterland in the Mlava valley, but also an exceptionally favourable geographic position, both within the system of defence lines of the northern borders of the empire and a network of communications and commerce. Out of the facilities examined thus far, a certain number of them have already been covered by specially built constructions made of laminated wood and have been put on display.
Source: www.viminacium.org.rs
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