Original subtitles

Hi I'm Laura Alexandra and welcome to Serbia.

I'm exploring this beautiful European country and discovering its rich history,

unique culture and of course its modern-day offerings.

Last time I continued to explore Serbia's capital city Belgrade,

with a great deal of time spent in royal company. I even met the Crown Prince and Princess.

Our people are very welcoming people, they are warm hospitable people.

There's a lot to do in Serbia, there's really no excuse, yes.

I also enjoyed some exciting outdoor activities including kayaking through Belgrade's Nature Reserve,

War Island.

I'm now leaving the city and heading east to start a journey on an old Roman trail.

In the territory of Serbia, 16 Roman emperors have been born here and today I'm in Viminacium,

a Roman city. There’s remains of Roman Baths, also Mausoleums that have been found,

and also coins and jewellery. But not only that a very special finding that apparently is over a

million years old. I'm going to explore to find out more.

This unique archaeological park covers an area of 450 Hector's and it's open to the public from February

through to November. With so much to see I was told to start far back in the past.

So I've now made my way down here to this archaeological dig site, well apparently anyway,

but I can't actually see much down here apart from this door in front of me

and I'm not sure what I'm meant to be seeing, what I'm meant to be doing.

Let's have a little look behind here and see.

Hello?

Hello??

Hello.

Oh hi! Oh it's really cold in here isn't it? Compared to out there?

Yeah it happens

and really soily and musty inside here. Hi, I'm Laura.

My name is Miloje

What are we doing here?

Well I'm your guide.

Okay

We are on our first archaeological site, right, and we are going to see the remains of a Mammoth here.

So this is actually a Mammoth?

Yeah it's actually a Mammoth

Wow and how long ago would this have died?

Well up to 1 million years before Christ.

A million?

Yeah, yeah, yeah

I mean the first thing that strikes me, are these all her real bones?

Yeah well, we had some recreation, some, but just some really. This is actually one of the, you know,

most preserved skeletons of the Steppe Mammoth in the entire world what you see here.

Why is that?

Well the way she died, that was that story, that story, well we had here like a delta river right?

And of course it would make swampy areas you know the field would be interesting type field,

she actually stepped into the wrong kind of mud you know and, and it swallowed her yeah.

Wow so that would have like, preserved her to what we’re seeing now?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, she would be like you know in vacuum basically you know

and that is why we do not have any bite marks, scavengers and such

I've never seen anything like this before and what kind of weight are we talking?

Well she was quite the handsome lady you could say yeah, 9.5 tonnes yeah

Wow

4 metres high right? 4.5 metres long, yeah

And what kind of stuff would she have eaten to maintain that?

Well greenery basically that was on the menu of course since we had the river here yeah

and how you know was she actually found here? Was she found a bit further away? Where did you find her?

Well actually she was found 250 meters in this direction in year 2009

Wow, So she’s literally, you laid her here but the interesting thing is I've sort of had a little look around

and there's other remains around here as well have you got more mammoths?

Yeah, yeah we've got plenty

And you've only uncovered what is it three percent of this area at the moment?

Oh well you could say three percent I mean this area is very scratched. I mean this is really, really interesting

So starting with the fact we found this really well preserved mammoth, that might be a million years old,

I don't know how it can get any better than this but you know what?

We're gonna try so let's see what else you've got come on

Yep

Talk about starting off big.

There are so many dig sites here, some of which are active, so I've asked Miloje to take me to his favourite.

So Miloje, where are we now?

Well actually where we are, at the Emperor's Mausoleum this is of one of our most interesting

archaeological sites that we have in Viminacium of course

And let me just say actually, just in case people hearing this squeaking going on do not adjust your sets.

It's actually the protection that's over here that's squeaking in the wind,

but this is really important isn't it? To protect all that we have under here.

Right you're 100% correct I could not say more so we can go and check it out if you want?

Ok are we actually I can't believe that we're allowed inside here

Yeah well we can, we can.

This is amazing!

and it's quite interesting for people that come you know, for the first time and has no idea about

Viminacium. They get you to know to be quite amazed, what what's, what's it? What's wrong with this place?

Well we don't know

Exactly I can't believe there's not loads of ropes around and that we can actually touch things inside here?

Well it might not be really recommended to touch it you know

I won’t, I'll behave myself

yeah yeah

This column here how tall would that have been?

Well it would be 12 meters higher right even maybe in taller than this construction

is right now so quite impressive

Let's have a look all around here as well, what we what have we actually got here?

Okay, so if we are talking about the emperor's Mausoleum? It is 251 after Christ right?

Only two tombs are from that time period. All, all, all the rest of the tombs are from the period later on

you could say and more of it the type of burial was really interesting.

Yeah?

Romans, it was actually a ceremonial type burial and it would last for a longer time period you know

since Romans believe that the soul would still be in this realm you could say right?

And in the end he would be burned right? The fire would come up from the podium right?

And his remains fall into let's say underground crypt, in the instance of him being burned they would let an

eagle fly towards, let's say the heavens, so that that would also have a symbolic.

It would actually represent apotheosis or him becoming a God actually right?

That’s absolutely incredible, that's the best type of burial one that I'd like to be honest not to be too morbid

but I've noticed as well there's lots of different sort of stones that these are made up of why what is that?

Well you know different time periods of course but let's say different beliefs. Different, different, different

beliefs meaning different ways of maybe ways of burial You will see also that we have Christian skeleton here

so Christians were also present here will be from the fourth century you know Milan and such.

Interesting stuff you know, before that we had persecution of Christians and so on so forth.

You know forty thousand tombs, graves, fresco tombs we have found you know like it's ten percent of,

I believe ten percent of the necropolis itself.

Looks like a hole in its head

Yeah, well it might have been a specific type of a theological intervention actually, trepanation.

It would take place when you, you would, when you would have blood pressuring

Yeah

Actually maybe making pressure I mean inside your head so they would use a specific instrument right,

we thought we have one!

Really?

Found and excavated and then, then they would make a circular incision right?

Unfortunately you know, that the wound would, the wound did not heal, so he would cease, I mean he died.

So this fascinates me the fact that actually somebody

You can be peak in, you can peak in right

Exactly so somebody can actually come here

Yeah

And sort of, take a little look inside and it almost transports you back in time doesn't it?

Yeah, yeah it's actually like a glimpse into the ancient world where

it's totally amazing but I still would not recommend touching

Yeah of course but the fact is that you are up this close and up this personal to it

and that's the one thing that I just don't think you can get in any other places

Yeah well you are, you know, in one rare archaeological site right now what can I say?

It really does feel like a rare experience and as if this isn't enough they have another ace up their sleeve.

Miloje we've had such a busy day and now we're somewhere really grand where are we?

Actually this is the reconstruction of a Roman villa

and this is as close to the real thing as you could get isn't it?

As it gets, as humanly possible in Serbia at least.

Do you know what? I've just had a little thought and if you don't mind waiting actually hang on here

for like two minutes something like that

Two minutes?

Two minutes, I'll be back

Okay, okay right.

What do you think?

Well I think you're quite a Roman lady

Yeah?

Yeah

Excellent and tell me actually why am I dressed like this?

Oh because it's part of our, let's say offer to the tourists right?

You can dress up as a Roman lady, you can dress up I mean as an Heiress, there’s a General,

I don't know if you would dress up as a general?

Why not I mean people can do what they want to do and that's the great thing about here,

it's somewhere you can come to relax but it's not just about you know

coming and taking part in the Roman banquet,

yeah

You can also actually go out on an archaeological dig with experts?

Yes there was, that's one of the unique things about Viminacium, you can basically,

you can basically have Roman lunch here, you can eat like Roman, you can dress up as Roman right?

You can stay over right? Sleep in Roman villa and also doing the digging right? With our archaeologist so yeah,

living basically as close as it gets living a day as a Roman, right?

This sounds really, really good. It's something I definitely want to come back and do,

and come back and actually stay here because I think the rooms are only about 15 Euros a night?

So Miloje I've had so much fun it's been brilliant, thank you so much for your company.

and you're also a great company I must say I had fun

Oh bless you I think I'm gonna be coming back to discover my very own mammoth that'd be so cool.

See ya

I'm exploring Serbia's rich history and following the path of the river Danube to a very special fortress,

which happens to be just a stone's throw away from Romania.

I found myself here such a scenic location at Golubac Fortress.

Matija is here to tell me a little bit more about the history behind it

Yes the Golubac fortress, which is located behind us, lies at the entrance to the Đerdap Gorge which

sprawls all over the next 100 kilometres all the way.

It is a medieval fortress that was built well, we don't know the exact date when it was built

either, neither by whom.

What we do know is that it was built somewhere around the 13th or 14th century and it was

built by either Serbs or Hungarians.

Now the Danube in those days was the border on the other side in today's Romania was Hungry

and Hungarian Kingdom right on this spot we were located it was Serbian Kingdom.

And this area, small area of the fortress, changed hands a lot of times and it was

basically a border fortification and it was the site of many, many battles, many violent and turbulent events

and generally it has a really violent history which can be attracted to people I think.

Sounds pretty interesting and looking across I can't believe I'm saying this but,

looking across to Romania and as I'm looking now it looks quite wide at this point.

Yes this is the widest point of the Danube, it's about six and a half kilometers wide and at the entrance

to the gorge it narrows all the way down to 200 meters.

So you can imagine it's a pretty, pretty big wide narrowing I guess and it's actually one of the windiest

spots in entire Serbia and it's definitely the best sailing spot because the wind here is constant.

The wind called caution which blows from the southeast, is very, very violent as well as the history

of this place. So there are very brutal things, very brutal location I guess but yeah

And the reason you know, we've got Romania sort of to the side of us here. We've got the fortress behind us,

what a lovely backdrop that is, and also in the National park. So in terms of tourists thinking about coming

here, um, it's a great spot where everything comes together isn’t it?

Yes, yes the National Park. The Djerdap national park is the site rich with cultural history, rich with nature, with

natural spectacular, natural scenic locations and it's one of my own, in my opinion, the most beautiful

National Park in Serbia and one of the most beautiful ones in the entire of Europe.

And behind us, obviously getting back to the fortress itself, it's being restored at the moment,

but I've read some interesting things that actually, normally you can kind of go up to it and sort of touch

the walls and get really close to the history inside is that true?

Normally yes, the fortress is undergoing reconstruction and it will be done pretty soon and when it's over the

fortress will be closed to mandatory that will come also to many events with medieval themes,

music, concerts, theatre, shows

And where better to visit and come to an event here? A music concert or maybe a medieval themed event

as well. Where you've got Romania one side, you've actually got the beautiful Danube River here,

you've got the National Park and of course the backdrop of the fortress it's absolutely perfect isn't it?

It's sensational, that's all I can say.

I think it's safe to say at this point that Serbia is definitely a place to visit if you're into history.

With such a rich variety of historical monuments and sites of natural beauty,

it certainly adds to Serbia's attraction as a country to tour.

My history tour started in Belgrade, before travelling east following the Danube River

where I stopped at Viminacium, a Roman archaeological site.

Then I continued eastwards along the river to find Golubac fortress of unknown origins,

but estimated to be from around 13 or 14th century.

Now I'm heading to another site which, apparently has artefacts from a prehistoric civilization

it's called Lepenski Vir and I can't wait to find out more

Hi

Hi

Thank you so much for having me at Lepenski Vir, I'm Laura

Very glad that you are here, my name is Vladimir Malkovich.

Nice to meet you

I'm the general manager of this visitors centre and archaeological site

So what's this place all about?

Ah this is very unique and very old archaeological sites, representing the culture which is

more than eight thousand years old

Wow!

and what you see over there are actually the dwellings of the houses which people made here in this time.

Oh Really?

This is considered as one of the oldest organized human settlements in Europe,

because these people made this settlement in the period between 6500 and 6300 BC.

Wow

Yeah it's quite a long time ago and

they will in that time Mesolithic culture which means they were still fisherman's hunters and food gatherers.

I have to tell you that, this the archaeological site wasn't discovered here on this location where you can

see it today. It was discovered just 100 metres downstream,

Okay

it was placed on small gang of terraces but unfortunately when this big dam was built downstream,

50 kilometres downstream from here, our archaeologists decided to replace all archaeological

site here to save it from flooding now original location is about 10 meters below the water level.

Oh amazing I mean what sort of, looking around these houses or dwellings you know,

what's the sort of central bit in the middle for example?

Yeah in the middle of the house was fireplace

Okay yeah

Generally people in prehistorical period were very practical if I may say so

Yeah, yeah

They were just considering how to cover the fire and to save it from the rain, or snow,

so basically that is how first houses have been made.

And the thing about this house is that they have very specific shape it the first site it's like trapezium shape,

yet it is a 1/6 of the circle.

With cutted peak which means that they had some knowledge about geometry since they have could

made the same shape of the house on a different size, so they had some kind of measurements in that time.

But they might not of called in geometry in that time because they didn't know

Yeah so they build the houses, which all of the houses were looking towards to Danube,

but because there is east side, an early morning Sun should go directly into the house.

In the middle of the house fireplace, behind fireplace small stone with the hole inside we

suppose this was a sacrificial stone

and also they kept very unique and interesting sculptures inside of the house.

All the houses were covered with wooden construction, covered with leaves, straw and above everything big

skins of some big wild animals because it was only appropriate material of that time.

And did they sort of live in these communities,

there's a couple of sort of dwellings that really close together there, would they live quite close together?

Yeah, yeah, yeah when you take a look like this it looks like that.

Yeah

But archaeologists left only the best examples of the dwellings.

And they left like this because they want us to see that people lived here constantly

and they built that, they built one house over the older one.

Yeah

So this community lived here for almost two thousand years on same location this is absolutely rare situation.

So they built one house over another and again and again, so they had here archaeologists discovered here

50 years ago seven cultural layers so from different periods yeah.

And this is why when you take a look you see house over another or dwelling over another dwelling

but generally probably this local one is older than the others

and there's a little example of course of all the rocks formed over there as well.

Yes, yes,yes this is just for visitors to have a little bit clearer picture how

How it lays out sure, so obviously you found these on the original site

there was something like this what else have you found?

Oh very interesting, very interesting artefacts and I would like to show you them

Oh please, ok let's go

The exhibition room is filled with objects and artefacts from the Mesolithic period,

with rudimentary tools on display, mostly made of wood or animal bones,

these people used whatever they could to assist their lives.

Life for the natives was very much focused around the river as it provided them with fish to eat.

The locals started seeing the river as a source of life and so there are early attempts of religion appearing

amongst these findings, with stone sculptures representing humans with a fish look to them

being quite common.

In fact these findings represent the oldest stone sculptures in Europe at 8,000 years old.

Skeletons were also found here which has sparked some interesting research.

All of them had full sets of teeth,

none appeared to have been killed by injury

and they are all much bigger than the rest of Europe measuring in at 2 meters 3 centimetres tall.

These were big people.

So this is how we try to make reconstruction

of Lepenski Vir house in normal size we were always wondering how it looks like.

There are many theories because wooden material literally burned under the soil for this thousands

of years, and we came to this idea that house looked exactly like this.

That it had wooden construction rising up from the dwellings. It was covered with straw in this case

but above everything they for sure, using skins of big animals

because it was waterproof material as I mentioned and it was protective material.

Inside of the house we can see that there is enough space for one average family

Yeah.

to spend time but they didn't spend time inside of the house,

they were just sleeping and burning fire and maybe eating inside of the house.

So if we considered they slept in contracted position in this house

maybe four or five people could sleep in one home.

That's brilliant, I love the fact there’s a little window area, it's almost like there's an upstairs as well.

It's just fantastic and, do you know what, I wouldn't mind living in something like this

because it's so lovely and so quiet here as well.

Yes it's colder in the summer probably warm during the winter if

we burn fire I think that they, they really knew what they did, they were doing in that time.

Thank you so, so much Vladimir it's been absolutely brilliant and culturally,

the scenery, I definitely want to come back for another visit.

Yeah I would love to see you again here you and the other people who are interested in this

ancient, prehistory of human’s thank you

Thank you so much

Thank you

It's been a long day exploring Serbia's vast history.

And as the Sun starts to set I'm in the ideal place to experience the moment.

I'm here at Djerdap National Park it's 64 thousand hectares to explore

and I'm told it's one of the most beautiful places to watch the sunset alongside the Danube.

I'm meeting with Djerdap Park Rangers who are taking me off road to a perfect spot to witness the sunset.

On route I'm learning more about this area.

So Sanja, we're going on our way to Djerdap National Park, what kind of things can we expect to see?

Now we will visit one of the most beautiful parts of Djerdap National Park.

The viewpoint called Ploce and it is above the Iron Gate that part of the Danube.

That's the narrowest part isn't it?

Yes it is, yes that is the narrowest part of Danube

And the prettiest?

Maybe we can say that, but there are also beautiful parts in Djerdap National Park.

And I've been reading up I’ll be honest, I have been swatting slightly on the fact there’s 1,100 plant species

Yes it is correct yes.

The diversity of habitats has affected the diversity of fauna and flora

and at Djerdap National Park you can find more than 1,100 of plant species.

Also there are more than 50 species of mammals for example there you can see

deer, doe deer, Wild Boar, Wild Cats.

Like Lynx?

Lynx yes, the Djerdap National Park is the biggest habitat of Lynx in Serbia

really?

Yes and Lynx are very rare in Europe and as I said there are more than 170 birds also, bird species.

And Steep cliffs of cousin that that is Iron Gate on Serbia we call it that Gorge cousin and the on steep

cliffs of cousin you can see also Chamois, Mountain Goats, Falcons and Eagles.

Oh wow I'm looking forward to it as I heard there is a chance there could be a bear here

but they're pretty rare aren't they?

Yes

Okay

So we've started on the actual trail and

I wish you could appreciate how sort of death-defying this is to be honest.

It's quite thrilling because we're going up like a mountain, that's actually really steep so basically,

if you look down the side there's no barriers or anything

and there's nothing to stop you really well from rolling straight down.

Apart from the drivers amazing driving skills, which I'm so glad that we've got a fresh driver with us

in fact just speaking to one of our guides saying actually this particular company are the only ones

that have the cars they're able to come up here and also if you walk up here

you've got to be accompanied by a special ranger.

So it's basically being policed all the time and all the wildlife up here is protected as well

So yeah we're here we're gonna watch something quite spectacular right?

Yes and I am thrilled to see your reaction when you get there

Okay

Okay and then we'll be dark.

I'm a little bit scared because I feel sort of under pressure now

Don’t worry no, no, no, no just be careful

Okay,

So let's have a little look through I can't quite see what I'm going through apart from a clearing hit with loads

of rocks but it sounds really quiet suddenly you can't hear anything at all.

Half taking in the views and just I can't believe it.

It’s so, it's so eerily quiet you can see absolutely everything

and it's almost like I know that we are up really, really high but it kind of feels surreal doesn't it?

Sanja there's just no words for this I mean the fact that when you're looking down

at Danube itself all you can see there's not even any ripples it's just so still.

You can meet Djerdap from, from the water and here as we want to say oh like to say

from the birds perspective isn't it

I can't quite believe it.

Wow

So just enjoy.

Those views were so spectacular but this morning, I'm waking with a burning desire to see more.

It's early morning here in Lepenski Vir and I've decided I want to see the Iron Gate close up.

There's no better way than to have a relaxing boat ride down the Danube

Having found myself a boat and a captain, I'm off to see the famous Iron Gate for myself

So I've been on my boat journey for about 20-ish minutes

and the views are just next to nothing they're magnificent.

To the side of me this side I've got Romania, on the other side I've got Serbia

with the 64,000 hectares of the National Park just rolling alongside me.

It's one of these experiences that actually, I don't believe you can get anywhere else, it's so relaxing.

I could quite happily go to sleep, the sun shining, I'm just about to approach the iron gate which I'm told

is one of the deepest parts of the Danube between 85 and 100 metres

and, right now I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

So this is Sacha, he's been driving the boat for us today on our journey to the Iron Gate.

Sacha can you tell us a bit about the iron gate?

Yeah Iron Gate is long, 10 kilometres and 2 partition.

This is the big chasm, in first partition, and go there down in the second partition in the small chasm

and the big chasm it's very interesting because it's top in the, of this mountain, it's

Ploce, a very good point to see.

And here down and the white boat is there it, it's small it's only 170 meters

and a very good hiking road in this area.

Two hours and go and very easy road to hiking and two hours and go up and come down and very hard rolled in

top in the mountain in here and six hours you must take and go up and down and you must prepare.

and I mean also it teaches us a lot coming down the river about the history because you just touched on

there about a couple of different dates, you know going along and the sculptures

Yeah, in this area too many different countries living there.

Now it's Romanian but before it's Dakia, now it's Serbia, before then the Yugoslavia.

After that it’s Roman Empire and Turkish Empire too many castles,

too many cultures monument is stay in this area.

and also you know why would you say the tourist wanted to come here.

I mean the Iron gates been used in films hasn't it, it's iconic

You must take to see. And feeling, and taste, and the food and the natural.

Yeah it's a brilliant experience, thank you so much Sacha

Thank you

Behind me you can see the Tabula Traiana, it dates back to the first century and it's here to commemorate

the Roman Emperor Traianus and his many battles that were fought here in Serbia.

It's a really important part of Serbian history and below it you might even be able to see the traces of

the Roman road that's actually now sunk to the bottom of the river.

Incredible.

I was drifting off on this boat journey along the Danube River, because it is so relaxing,

but you can't because there's just so much to see.

The first thing is the fact there's two countries either side of the river and you're going through this,

it's just something I've never experienced before, the fact

that culturally you've got so much to see on both sides, the Romanian side and the Serbian side as well

you've got fortresses, you've got the fact that there's different rock formations on each side,

the different height of the different mountain ranges, the national parks again on both sides as well

and the fact that the architecture is so interesting. But not only that it's actually a little journey through time,

a brief history through time as well as you explore all the different periods along the river that are dating

back to a completely different times and with different cultures as well and one thing that really interests me,

is the viewpoints at each point are just incredible.

When you look up all you can see is greenery all around, absolutely beautiful.

In case you can't tell I highly recommend this experience to anyone coming to Serbia it takes a while

but it gives you the perfect excuse to relax and just enjoy the natural beauty.

What a great way to take in history culture and architecture of Serbia along the

banks of the river Danube right now I feel like the luckiest girl in the world.

I'm back on the road and on my way to a smaller historical village

that dedicates itself to the production of one of my favourite things.

I'm here at this UNESCO nominated World Heritage Site

to discover more about this old traditional wine village so let's go

Rajačke is located in the very East of Serbia and was once a bustling village filled with people committed

to winemaking they built their houses here over 200 years ago to be closer to the vineyards

where they worked

Resident winemakers have started occupying the buildings once again making it a unique place to visit.

Unfortunately nobody here speaks much English not to worry I'll manage.

So I've been wandering around this very beautiful and very rustic wine village,

and I found myself a local expert to help me out Gorjana so nice to meet you, thank you so much,

um can you tell us a little bit about this wonderful wine village?

This is actually Rajačke Pivnice, it's village into the village, because every family from Rajac village

get some kind of winery here actually, here at this site, so they had more than 200 houses and four homes

in the village Rajac and now they we have a remains of maybe some about 50 houses here.

Actually this is not houses this is wine cellars and houses for production of wine.

These homes were obviously for the wine producers here.

Tell me a little bit more about the wine production itself and the heritage that is left behind in this area?

The most important thing for wine production here is of course soil we have and the configuration of soil also,

so we have here some sunny hills and they may be the most important reason and also

there are many sunny days during the year. So grapes can be ready for wine production at the same time each

year because of that. We have tradition in maintaining our local stores and production of the same

wine for years.

So what is so special about the wine of this region?

Wines here are good because of sorts of wine we are growing here, and everything is natural and of course

naturally these sorts have big concentration of natural sugar. Of course the most important thing here is Sun

and these sunny days we have in this part of Serbia.

I understand there's still wine cellars that are still in production can you tell me a little bit about these?

As you can see here some houses are open, and it's traditionally a job for one family. But now young people,

they are keeping tradition they have in their families for years, or let's say for more than 100 years.

And of course they are keeping tradition and their own recipes for producing wine

and maintaining these houses.

Gorjana thank you so much for telling me about this beautiful wine village

Thank you very much and please come again

Serbia's cultural offerings continue and this time I'm exploring somewhere that is both a UNESCO World

Heritage Site and a Roman archaeological excavation.

I'm here at Felix Romuliana. It's a Roman site that dates back to the third or fourth century and apparently it was

made for a Roman Emperor. I don't know which one yet but let's go and find out.

I found myself a tour guide, Sasja, who can hopefully answer my question about who the Roman Emperor

was that I was trying to find out who this site was dedicated to earlier?

This site was actually built as an imperial palace in the late Antiquity period in the, in the early 4th century AD

and it was built in the birthplace of one of the Roman emperors his name was Galerius.

Galerius.

Yes so that's the Emperor who was born here actually 16 Roman emperors were born on the territory of

modern-day Serbia and the most famous of those emperors for everyone is Constantine the Great,

who was born actually not so far from here in modern-day city of Niš

So what does this actually mean to Serbians themselves, is this the site that's got real significance?

Well Serbia is very rich in late antiquity heritage actually, this site is and I'm saying this not because

I work here, because but because it's true this site is presently the only site in Serbia archaeological site

in Serbia inscribed into the UNESCO World Heritage List.

and what can we see around us?

Well actually to your left and to my right, we can see the ruins of once complex of halls of ceremonial halls,

and also the ruins of a Basilica in the central part of once a complex of holes

The Basilica is from the 6th century, early Byzantine period, it was probably used as a part of a church

property and then it was in the during the Middle Ages it was a part of the Slavic medieval settlement

up until maybe a thousand years ago, when it was deserted and no one has ever lived here ever since

and what else can we see around here?

There are the ruins of two temples, one is to my right over there,

the other one we cannot see it from here but it's over there.

There are public baths, banqueting halls with the under floor heating system, we have mosaics here but

unfortunately the mosaics are buried under the sand on the site because of the climate here we have very hot

summers, very strong sun in the summer period, and then very harsh winters.

So we protect the mosaic, the original authentic mosaics from that period by burying them

under the sand so, we have displaced from the site a few more representative fragments of those mosaics

into the museum in the neighbouring city of Zaječar, so our visitors can see them in the museum.

That's incredible thank you so, so much Sasja you've been brilliant.

thank you you're welcome

It seems that there's no end to ancient Rome's influence over Serbia's heritage.

As I approached the city of Niš there's one more site waiting for me to discover.

I'm here in Mediana today, the Palace of Constantine the Roman Emperor. He commanded for luxurious

villas to be built here way back in the early fourth century and actually the remains span over

40 hectares, which just show how grand they really were. I've actually managed to find myself a local

expert Marco, who's going to tell us a bit more. Thank you so much Marco.

Thank you for visiting and welcome to this great house of Roman emperors.

Well this house was built by a busy military and civil road that connects Belgrade and Istanbul, ancient

Singidunum and Constantinople. Used by Constantine and six additional emperors as temporary residence

on their long journeys to east and the military campaigns.

Villa covers 6,000 square meters and it was of great importance for Romans and also citizens here that

live in Nysos, Nysos present day Niš, is the birthplace of Emperor Constantine one of the most important

European leaders.

And for Serbians themselves, I mean that sounds like he'd be really important to them,

and this particular place would be important as well is that right?

Of course very important because it is a proof of continuity of civilization here,

unbroken continuative civilization, from way behind even from pre-roman times

because we have we found findings from pre roman period.

But the most important is late antiquity, three Roman emperors were born in our city and 18 in Serbia

so we ruled over Roman Empire for 200 years you can say that.

wow

and there is proof of great engineers work here in Mediana also

It's actually really interesting, we talked about engineering, architecture, but another thing I've noticed

is really important to the Romans was the fact we found sculptures here, artefacts

Well Laura I have one big surprise for you let's have a look follow me

Okay interesting

I'm literally walking up a plank at the moment look at this though

We're now in the reception room of the Roman villa and room for parking.

Okay and lots of important people would come here for parties?

Including Emperor and his important guests they organized dinners here

and along the way entertainment for the guests.

and one thing I noticed as we've walked in here we're obviously standing on so quite a primal

scaffold piece at the moment and what's the reason for this?

Because conservation and exploration is undergoing so archaeologists removed some parts of this room,

separated, numbered and after the conservation and after the work they will return the exact place

So let me have a look just over here and just clarify that, we've actually got tons of plastic pots are just

around this area and there's loads of tiny stones they actually get even smaller than this one here

they're all numbered up

Yes

How much longer do you think the process will be just of this room uncovering it?

I think we're talking about months

Months? Really?

Really.

As soon as that?

yes

That's very exciting and in terms of the patterns here were these significant?

There are lots of interesting patterns here they've, Romans put those patterns all the way from Belgrade

all the way to Niš you can see them but the most important and

you can say interesting are those swastikas.

Okay wow

So that is testimony that swastika is not painted first by Hitler but that is then all symbol used here in Europe,

before the Romans and during the Roman period and also Indian symbol from Hinduism and Buddhism

Wow it's absolutely beautiful and so worth seeing. Marko thank you so much for showing us around

Thank you for visiting and come again when work is done

I will do.

Next time on Serbia Old and New.

I take a break from ancient history and experience Serbia's modern offerings as I go shopping,

mountain biking and just relax.

And I marvel at one of Serbia's natural wonders, the scarily named Devils Town.