Archaeological Park Viminacium, Research and Tourist Center — Attraction in City of Pozarevac

An amazing historical site that should not be missed. Still in the early phases of discovery and excavation, visitable sites are still limited (especially today, as some that were previously open were closed, like the museum and Mammoth Park), but it was still exciting to see what progress has been made, and we will return next year, when more exhibition spaces become available to the public. Although limited, we were glad to support the continued excavation of the site with our entrance fee. The site is huge, and the work to be done is not fast nor cheap to accomplish.

One thing must be mentioned about today's visit: the extremely RUDE and SELFISH behavior of a lecturer (Ljubomir Jevtović) and his group. His group was supposed to be finished with the area when our tour began at 11am. Upon seeing they were still occupying the space, first we were delayed, then our tour guide attempted to lead us down to start our tour ahead of them, but the lecturer made a fuss, and insisted we BACK OUT and BACK UP THE STAIRS OF THE AREA, and let his group go ahead of us. Since he loved the sound of his voice so dearly, this meant that we were waiting for an eternity (OVER 30 MINUTES!) as he repeated his stories to groups of 2 or 3 underground, when our group could have quickly passed through, and then he could have taken all the time he needed. The entire incident was ridiculous, we were CROUCHED in a LOW CEILING underground tunnel waiting for him to repeat things over and over again, and due to the claustrophobic circumstances, most of us skipped seeing the underground sites he was selfishly hoarding. A pity, not knowing how little there was to see after this point!

As a PROFESSIONAL GEOLOGIST, who has worked extensively both in the field and in academia, I was disgusted by this behavior. This lecturer is the exact example of someone who gives those in academia a bad name. His arrogance, lack of awareness, and on top of that, his flirting with a couple of the participants (did he think he was Indiana Jones?!) was appalling. Our tour guide was very apologetic, and we understand it was not his fault (thank you, Alexander!).

In the future, please do not let these groups act as if they are more important and do not let them bully their way into interfering with the experience of others. Extremely disappointed at the uncaring negative impact of this egomaniac to our tour.

That being said, I look forward to returning and having a better...

I’d have skipped the drive out to this area not proximate to much else. I did not learn much.

Site feels like it is trying to be a theme park with big playground, reconstructed villa that is a hotel & cafe. You need a guide to get around. On my tour I was the only person and I was grateful the tour went ahead regardless.

Mausoleum is interesting but reconstructed. Staged skeletons are strewn about. Visitors permitted to go through a tunnel and pop their heads up into various small chambers to look at frescoes. I was quite surprised to see that the frescoes were actually some kind of vinyl prints affixed to the stone. There is no sign stating what you’re looking at is not genuine. The reproduction is even presented with plexiglass "protecting" what's behind.

I asked my guide and he said the real frescoes are in a museum. Fair enough. But it shouldn’t be presented as real where you go into a dark space, turn on your phone light, and play Indiana Jones. That’s deceitful and undermines integrity of facility overall.

Tour went to a building with a mammoth skeleton moved from a coal mine. I wasn’t there for a mammoth skeleton, I traveled to this site for Roman history. This for me was an unwelcome diversion.

Went to site with remains of a bath. That’s legit but undistinguished if you’ve seen those anywhere else.

There’s an amphitheater reconstructed. Interesting but not what I came for.

We ended in an area with exhibits and text. I was told I could only be there with a guide and wouldn’t have time to read anything. Guidance was for me to take photos and read later. Never mind.

There is a big model of what entire city layout looked like as per ground-penetrating ultrasound readings. Why didn’t we start here first? That was the most educational part of the whole tour.

In that same area is a new room with reconstructions of statues. In exit hallway, not even presented as exhibits, were lead coffins strewn on the floor. Those artifacts were the highlight for me.

Overall I would’ve loved to have visited their current archeological sites. It seems this complex with the cafe, hotel, restaurant, playground, mammoth, reconstructed amphitheater has the objective of raking in tourist dollars rather than focusing on archeology. If that pays the bills, I get it. But at least have a track for people focused on history to skip the other stuff and deep dive on what makes this site...

Viminacium was a major city and military camp of the Roman province of Moesia (today's Serbia). Viminacium was the place where the procurator of Moesia Superior had his office: this man was in charge of the taxes and the imperial domains, and was a very important official.The city, which had a Christian community of some importance, had a bishop and was raised to the rank of archdiocese in 535. city dates back to the 1st century AD, and it is believed to have had 40.000 inhabitants, making it one of the biggest cities of that time. Viminacium was probably the place where, in 196, the emperor Septimius Severus proclaimed his son Caracalla Caesar. So-called " curse tablets" made od gold and silver have been discovered here in 2016. Romans used them to curse their neighbors, relatives or unrequited loves. Here they also found that Christians and pagans were buried together, so they concluded that, at that time, they lived in harmony and tolerance. Within about 100 years the city was destroyed by the wave of incoming Huns following by the invasion of the Slavs in the 6th century AD. It is 12km far from modern town Kostolac. The archaeological site is open for visiting from the beginning of February to the end...