In the South [Part 1/3]: Mogorjelo, the Roman country house

We begin our journey to the south of Herzegovina, with one of the better known tourist spots around the city of Čapljina: Mogorjelo. 

Mogorjelo is a so called Roman villa rustica. A Roman villa was originally a Roman country house built for the upper class during the Roman republic.

The area is currently protected by the state and is surrounded by a park and a horse farm, which we didn't get to visit on this particular day. The nearby horse riding club was founded 2004 and attracts over 300,000 visitors per year.

This is a multi-part series, other parts include:
Part One: Mogorjelo, the Roman country house
Part Two: The Kravice Waterfalls
Part Three: The River Trebizat and Lunch

When we arrived on the site, it was already 12 in the afternoon.

The building of Mogorjelo started when an Italic settler had a private manor complex built for agricultural purposes on this site in the mid first century.

This site consisted of the aforementioned salient on the hill (which housed the agricultural complex), and a residential building.

Coins discovered on this site, were minted by Honorius in 388, so it can be assumed that Mogorjelo fell into enemy hands some time after 401 with the Visigoth invasion of these parts.

The Visigoths were branches of the nomadic tribes of Germanic peoples who flourished and spread during the late Roman Empire. They emerged from earlier Gothic groups who had invaded the Roman Empire beginning in 376 and had defeated the Romans at the Battle of Adrianople in 378.

To judge from various conversion works within the buildings, it appears that they were converted to residential use.

The outer walls are a perfect spot for gazing into the distance.

Small woods surround the complex.

A path leads to the parking spot and a local restaurant.

I really like this broken-up wooden fence, that is located on the far end of the complex.

Many stone engravings can be found on the site, like this one in the image below.

End of Part One

To be continued...

I hope you enjoyed this look into the past of Bosnia and Herzegovina, that is really rich and full of undiscovered secrets.

In the next part we will visit the Kravice waterfalls, just a couple of miles away from Mogorjelo.