Doclea Roman Ruins

Podgorica, Montenegro

Doclea (also Dioclea) was a Roman city, the seat of the Late Roman province of Praevalitana, and an Archbishopric, which is now a Latin Catholic titular see.

The Romanized Illyrian tribe known as Docleatae that inhabited the area derived their name from the city. It was the largest settlement of the Docleatae, founded in the first decade of the 1st century AD. Doclea was built to conform to the terrain. It was a large town with 8–10,000 inhabitants. The surrounding area had a relatively high population density within a radius of 10 km due to the city's geographical position, a favorable climate, positive economic conditions and defensive site that were of great importance at that time.

After the administrative division of the Roman Empire in 297, Doclea became the capital of the newly established Roman province of Praevalitana.

In the 4th and the 5th centuries, it was taken by the barbarian tribes and went into decline. At the beginning of the 5th century, it was attacked by the Germanic Visigoths. A severe earthquake destroyed it in 518. The South Slavs proceeded to rebuild the settlement in the 7th century. The historical ruins of the town can be seen today.

Circa 400, the city became the seat of an archdiocese, apparently Metropolitan as capital of a Late Roman province Dalmatia Superior. It was suppressed in 927. From 1034 till circa 1100, it was nominally united (as a title) with the then still Metropolitan Archdiocese of Bar (Antivari), also in modern Montenegro.

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Podgorica, Montenegro
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Details

Founded: 0-100 AD
Category: Prehistoric and archaeological sites in Montenegro

Rating

4.3/5 (based on Google user reviews)

User Reviews

Lucas (Javfox) (7 months ago)
Large historical site, very little tourist value. 2 information signs, no parking, no other facilities. It was free and had turtles though!
stefan stancescu (8 months ago)
Roman ruins as in all Balkan peninsula. Sorry, slavian peoples do not keep them well, takes old stones for their new homes. No special arrangments for such very old archeological place.
Aleksandra P (9 months ago)
If you are interested in history you should come here. The place is in the very quiet area, but the road is fine. We walked here by feet. Entrance is free of charge. There is a gates, but they were opened. The place was totally empty and quite abandoned. The grass was too high and big part of ruins were deep in the grass. There are signs with information in Serbian and English. We liked this place, cause there we found a lot of interesting parts of buildings and colomns. But it would be super nice if municipality of Podgorica took some care of this place.
Владимир Кулаков (10 months ago)
A wonderful place to see and touch ancient history. There was a temple, a market square, two thermae, and several houses built by Romans and destroyed after 300 AD. Entrance is free of charge.
Vince Prince (2 years ago)
A great place to visit. Free entry. A small equestrian town abandoned in about 350ad. Placards explain some of what you can see. There is still a lot not marked but if you know q little how the empire built its towns then you can see the layout. We'll worth a visit.
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