I left Donji Milanovac fairly early and drove through the beautiful Serbian countryside south. It seems that most of the big highways in Serbia are toll roads, so I’ve been sticking more to the back roads and passing through lots of smaller one road towns. Now that I’m out of the big cities I see a lot more Yugos on the roads and parked around. I thought briefly about stopping to take a pic of each one, but I wouldn’t get anything done if I did that. After about two and a half hours I reached Zajecar. There’s really not much to do or see in Zajecar. I came here for one reason only, Felix Romuliana. Romuliana was a palace complex built by Roman emperor Galerius in the early 4th century for his mother, Romula. But first I started with a visit to the national museum in Zajecar where most of the artifacts found at Romuliana are kept.

Archeologists first thought this was a Roman military outpost, until they started discovering statues of gods and eventually the relief bearing the name of the place (see the pic at the top of the post). Unfortunately, Romuliana’s life was short lived as it was attacked by Huns repeatedly and Romula herself died just a few years after it was built. I was especially surprised to learn that it was built here because this was Galerius’ hometown and also that more Roman emperors came from Serbia than any where else outside of Italy, eighteen of them!

After gawking at all the artifacts and reading all about the site, I headed out to the site itself. Interestingly, no one at the museum or the site wanted any money from me. I read that I needed tickets for both, I tried to ask about tickets, but they just let me into both for free. That’s ok, I like free stuff.

Apparently, there’s a ton of mosaics all around that are covered with sand for protection. I walked all over them and didn’t even realize it until I looked up some information online later that night. Only one small section of mosaic was exposed and covered by a tent. Hopefully they can build a cover of some kind for the rest so everyone can enjoy it. Until then this little section will have to do.

Two mausalea on top of Magura Hill nearby are where Galerius and Romula were interred. As a small bonus I hiked up to see them up close and get some birds eye views of the whole of Romuliana.

I have a long long drive to my next stop, but on the way I took a little detour to Manasija monastery, founded in the early 15th century. It’s one of the best examples of medieval architecture in Serbia. Not only a monastery, it’s also surrounded by stone walls and towers. The inside of the church was pretty amazing also. The original marble floors and most of the frescoes are preserved inside. No pictures though, and they were very serious about it!

That wraps it up for Zajecar. I need to finish my long day of driving and then the next stop will be a quick one too. Stay tuned…