November the 2nd, 2025 – There’s an impressive museum called Narona near Metković in southern Dalmatia, and it pays homage to the formerly magnificent Roman settlement that once thrived there.

Croatia is packed solid with Roman finds which span the entire time frame of the Roman Empire. In places like Zadar, you’re practically falling over Roman discoveries dotted here, there and everywhere. Head much further south, however, and you’ll come across a real historical treat – Narona, a museum displaying around 900 impressive Roman artefacts in the village of Vid located on a former ancient forum, which is actually what remains of a temple from the 1st century BC.

As Putni kofer/Ivana Vasarevic writes, on the banks of the freezing cold Neretva River, in the far southeast of Dalmatia, lies Metković. Just three kilometres away is the small village of Vid, a picturesque little settlement built along the banks of the Norin River, on the site of the former Roman city of Narona. It was there that the Narona Archaeological Museum was opened on May the 18th, 2007. It is unique in that it is the first in Croatia to be built on the former Roman site itself (in situ). It houses around 900 exhibits, allowing visitors to follow the history of that ancient Roman city from the end of the 3rd century BC to the 15th century.

a once bustling roman settlement during caesar’s reign

Narona is, as stated, located on the former ancient forum, i.e. the remains of a temple from the 1st century BC, which was dedicated to the first Roman emperor Augustus. It is assumed that the magnificent Narona stretched over an area of ​​25 hectares in its heyday. Its buildings were made of hewn stone and brick, the roof bricks were imported across the Adriatic Sea from Italy, and old roads connected it to Salona (now Solin, not far from Split) and Epidaurum (modern Cavtat).

Turning the clock all the way back to the 1st century BC, during the time of Caesar’s reign, Narona became a Roman colony with full Roman civil rights and the military, administrative, judicial and cultural heart of what was then the Naronitan district. Trade, construction, sculpture, painting and much more all well and truly flourished… A square (forum) with public buildings like a Roman temple and a curia was built in the centre of the city, while the amphitheatre was probably located just outside the city itself.

narona’s transformation into the seat of a diocese

Stjepan Ujdur’s presentation of Roman-era Narona

During the fifth and sixth centuries, Narona became the seat of a diocese, and today we know that it had at least three churches from the early Christian period. The largest, perhaps episcopal, was the basilica on the site of the present-day church of St. Vitus, and the other two are the basilica on the site of Erešove Bare and the basilica in the aqueduct, i.e. on the aqueduct route towards Korčula, under the Vid-Ljubuški (in what is now Bosnia and Herzegovina) road.

The single-nave basilica at Erešove Bare was built on the site of a former villa rustica at the end of the sixth or beginning of the seventh century. It was then a church with a narthex and an apse, which was square on the outside and semicircular on the inside. A bench for the clergy was found against the wall of the apse, on the inside, and fragments of an altar partition were also discovered, which divided the space of the church into the one intended for the faithful and the one reserved for the clergy themselves.

As for the single-nave basilica on the site of the present-day church of St. Vitus, back in 1992, an early Christian baptistery with a 115-centimetre-deep, octagonal-shaped well was discovered in its northern annex. Its exceptional value is sufficiently demonstrated by the fact that it has been recognised as the only known baptismal well in the entire Dalmatia area that is painted with multi-coloured marble.

how did the once glorious narona meet its end?

The very demise of ancient Narona is still the subject of much research today, with no exact answers yet found. Although cataclysms and invasions by the Slavs and Avars are often mentioned, archaeologist and professor Emilio Marin, who led the excavations in Solin and Vitus, believes that Narona simply ceased to be.

The most significant discovery for the museum was the Roman temple of Augusteum, built around 10 BC, which was excavated in 1995 and 1996. In addition, 17 statues depicting various Roman emperors and members of their families were found there, including a marble statue of Emperor Augustus donning full military armour. Interestingly, none of the statues mentioned has a head, and it is assumed that they were destroyed and dethroned in the 4th century, when Christianity became the official religion of the Empire and such practices were typical of the time.

Two heads, of the god Mercury and the empress Livia, were moved to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England. Next to the forum, a mosaic was discovered, which most likely belonged to a Roman tabernacle, and in 1978 the head of Emperor Vespasian was found, made of white limestone and processed with a rotating drill. The Narona Archaeological Museum in Vid is open to visitors every day except Mondays and holidays, and the entrance fee is a mere six euros, or three for pupils, students and pensioners.

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