Columns of Felix Romuliana (Serbia)

Proceedings of the XI ASMOSIA Conference, Split 18 – 22 May 2015, Split 2018, 2018

The Imperial " retreat palace " Felix Romuliana is predominantly constructed of local and regional rocks. The commonest building material is hornblende andesite available on site and used most extensively for the second fortification. The dimension stones for different parts of the fortifications, for the palace proper and the two temples are of local volcaniclastic sandstone, brought from the quarry on the adjacent Magura Hill, and of regional sandy limestone of Sarmatian age, which was quarried north of Romuliana. The first fortification is built of local silty-marly limestone also used for the core of the two mausolea on Magura Hill. The tetrapylon on the same hill is constructed of lithic wacke. Mediterranean marbles were also employed in the palace, for column shafts, capitals, bases, entablatures and doorframes, as well as for the wall and floor veneering in the palace proper.

Stone and Splendor. Interior Decorations in Late-antique Palaces and Villas. Proceedings of a Workshop, Trier, 25–26 April 2019, ed. Vilma Ruppienė, Wiesbaden , 2021

The fortified palatial complex in Gamzigrad (Romuliana) represents a remarkable example of architecture and art in the area of the Balkans during the Tetrarchy period, created during the short reign of its owner and commissioner – Emperor Galerius (305–311). Remains of a complex with buildings of official, cult and residential character, protected by ramparts, were discovered. The complex had opulent architectural decorations: rooms and open spaces were decorated with sculptures, walls with frescos and mosaics, and floors with polychrome mosaics. The entire complex was finished, the decoration of the buildings included, in the period between 308 and 311. Analyses of decorative elements from the complex in Romuliana provide an overview of the program scheme which brings together the traditions and innovations of Roman crafts and art centres from different parts of the Mediterranean world.

Archaeologia Polona, 2021

As the title suggests, this work is only first volume of the final publication of German-Serbian excavations at Gamzigrad in the Zaječar District in eastern Serbia. It is very important archaeological site, one of Serbia’s UNESCO World Heritage Sites.1 The ruins itself were well known and have been excavated since 1953 by Serbian archaeologists as well as being mentioned in several publications previously (Herder 1846 [first mention]: 20–21; Kanitz 1861: 8–9; Breithaupt 1861 and few mentions in Serbian literature, Serbian excavations: Vasič 2007 and Żivić 2011). However, it was not until the 1980s that an inscription was found during excavations that allowed for final identification (Srejović 1985).The archaeological site is located south of the Danube River, near the present city of Zaječar. Its unique position on the map of archaeological sites in Europe is a consequence of being the location of the complex including palace and temples called Felix Romuliana built by the emperor G...

2024

Tauric Chersonesus in Crimea (Cherson in Byzantine sources, now Sevastopol) has been studied for over a hundred years; there are over 20 buildings of the Early Byzantine period. Several hundred architectural details in Proconnessian marble date to the 5th and 6th centuries AD. The capitals found at Chersonesus include virtually all the types known in the Late Antique - Early Byzantine period. Unfortunately, we do not have exact information regarding the current location of many of the finds. Now marbles from Chersonesus are kept in various museums. The largest part of them is collected in the State Historical and Architectural Museum-Preserve “Tauric Chersonesus” (Sevastopol). The article is the publication of the collection of Early Byzantine marble products from Chersonesus stored in the State Historical Museum (Moscow). It includes several capitals, fragments of chancel barriers and other elements.

Journal of Mining and Metallurgy Section B-metallurgy, 2009

Starinar, 2007

M. Rakocija, A marble statue from Niš of an early byzantine imperial woman, Nouvelle série volume Starinar LXXII/2022, (Belgrade 2022), 253-266.

ASMOSIA XII Proceedings, 2023

Felix Romuliana was a retreat villa of the Emperor Galerius at Gamzigrad (Serbia), the remains of which include a fair number of stone fragments belonging to its columnar architecture. In recent years, work has been undertaken with the help of students from the University of Ljubljana to comprehensively analyse the column remains. The material for analysis comprised 83 bases or parts thereof, 227 fragments and three complete shafts, as well as 72 fragments of Ionic and Corinthian capitals recovered during the archaeological excavations undertaken at the site from 1953 onwards. The text focuses on the column remains in marble, white and coloured. The white marbles mostly came from Prokonnesos and Pentelicon, but also from Thasos and Berkovica. Coloured marbles comprising marmor thessalicum, marmor troadense, marmor syenite and pink Berkovica marble (BG) were only used for column shafts and even there rarely.

North American Masonry Conference, Denver, Colorado, May 17-20, 2015

The ancient Roman-era city of Antiochia ad Cragum in Turkey (Gazipasa, Antalya) included a colonnaded street and a shopping area in antiquity. Preliminary assessment indicates that many of the columns from the Colonnaded Street survived, but none are in their original upright position. Both the as-found architectural design of the colonnaded street and the structural connections of them are peculiar. The columns are mostly granite yet there are a few marble columns. The column bases and capitals are mostly lost or are not yet found. The connections between the column, column base, and the stylobate are inconsistent. Through a robust collaboration among the engineering and archeology disciplines, this paper presents the initial stage of the site analysis (archeological, architectural, and structural) as well as the design for the re-erection of two columns on column bases sculpted from new marble from a nearby quarry. A literature review on common column re-erection designs is presented and fiber rod-epoxy solutions are compared to titanium rod-cement mortar solutions in terms of structural behavior and long-term resilience based on the available literature.