Gamzigrad
UNESCO imperial palace—Gamzigrad's Felix Romuliana honors Emperor Galerius's mother, a 4th-century complex that spent 1,300 years forgotten before excavation.
Gamzigrad exists because an emperor wanted to honor his mother—and because birth sites become sacred when the child becomes divine. Emperor Galerius, born around 260 AD near present-day Zaječar, built Felix Romuliana as a late Roman fortified palace complex named for his mother Romula. Inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2007, the site features double walls with 36 towers, two temples, two palaces, hot baths, and floor mosaics depicting Dionysus and Medusa.
The palace's history captures the arc of Roman imperial power. Galerius commissioned construction around 298 AD, during the Tetrarchy that briefly stabilized the empire. He retired here in 311 AD and was buried nearby with his mother. The complex was never completed; later emperors donated it to the Christian church. Huns plundered it in the mid-5th century. Justinian I rebuilt it as a border stronghold in the 6th century. Slavic arrival in the 7th century ended Roman habitation.
Today, Gamzigrad anchors the 'Roman Emperors' Route' connecting birthplaces of 17 emperors born in modern Serbia's territory. The site draws archaeology tourism to an otherwise unremarkable corner of eastern Serbia, 11 kilometers from Zaječar. By 2026, the UNESCO designation continues protecting ruins that spent 1,300 years as farmland before excavations revealed their imperial origins—a reminder that the most monumental constructions can be forgotten when empires fall.