Felix Romuliana

Galerius, the Roman emperor who ruled at the start of the fourth century, built this palace complex near his birthplace and named it after his mother Romula. It is a fortified rectangle with massive walls and twenty towers enclosing palaces, temples, baths and a basilica, and on hills nearby are the mausolea and consecration monuments where he and his mother were buried and deified, an arrangement found nowhere else in the Roman world. Mosaic floors survive, including a striking Dionysus panel now displayed in the museum at Zaječar. It sits in open farmland in a quiet part of eastern Serbia and receives very few visitors, so the scale registers without distraction.

What you actually see

• The fortified walls and towers - the massive enclosure with its twenty towers.
• Mosaic floors - surviving palace pavements, with major panels in the Zaječar museum.
• Magura hill - the mausolea and consecration monuments above the palace.
• The palace complex - temples, baths and residential ranges inside the walls.

When to go

April to October; the site is open and exposed with little shade. Mornings and late afternoons give better light on the walls. It is quiet at almost any time.

Honest expectations

The site is remote from Serbia's usual routes and needs a car. Much of the interior is foundations, and the best mosaics are in the museum in Zaječar rather than on site, so doing both is necessary to make sense of it. Facilities are minimal and interpretation is limited.

Nearby

Zaječar's museum holds the mosaics; the Timok valley and Rajac wine cellars are nearby.