Arheološko Nalazište Mogorjelo

This 7.6-hectare site (Arheološko Nalazište Mogorjelo) lies 1 km south of Čapljina, between the Neretva and Trebižat rivers. It houses the remains of the Bigeste-Turres castrum , a Roman military camp that served as a staging post between Salona/Split (Croatia) and Scodra/Shkodra (Albania). It's a pleasant place to visit, with trees providing shade and, just next door, a restaurant and the Vranac equestrian center offering horseback rides. The castrum was founded by an Italian settler in the middle of the ^1st century on the model of a villa rustica, a residence combined with a farm. The farm supplied Narona/Vid (Croatia). In the ^3rd century, the complex expanded to form a latifundium, a large farm. Around 401, it passed into the hands of a Visigoth clan chief. Around fifty years later, with the region under Byzantine control, Mogorjelo was transformed into a village: two basilicas were built and the farm buildings became dwellings. The site was occupied for a long time to come, and was eventually used as a cemetery in the ^19th century. The villa rustica remains easy to identify. Facing south-east, it consists of four wings forming a rectangle measuring 50 x 40 m, now bordered by rows of trees. The foundations of the two basilicas (^5th-7th centuries) are visible to the northeast. Both have a single nave and are built in parallel, typical of the "double churches" of the early Christian period in Dalmatia.