The first in a series of exhibitions and events celebrating 2,000 years since the establishment of Emona, the Ancient Roman-era predecessor of Ljubljana, opened on Friday, as "Emona: A City of the Empire" was launched at the Ljubljana City Museum.
The exhibition, which will run for a whole year, features some of the most recently excavated artefacts that have not been shown before, Bernarda Županek, curator at the City Museum said ahead of the opening.
The colony of Emona was connected to other cities in the empire and Rome and was a part of the
machinery that drove the empire, explained Županek.
She added that visitors are in for an authentic experience of Emona if they not only see the show but also visit the open-air sites scattered around the Ljubljana city centre.
Apart from the exhibition at the City Museum, a display dedicated to the Ancient Roman era in the entire territory of modern-day Slovenia will open at the National Museum of Slovenia. The exhibition set to open on 1 July will become part of the museum's permanent exhibition.
Already running is a photo exhibition dedicated to a similar topic. "Vestiges" by acclaimed Czech photographer Josef Koudelka features black and white photos of more than 200 Roman and Greek archaeological sites around the Mediterranean. The display will run until 3 September at the Jakopič Gallery.
Moreover, the May issue of the Slovenian-language National Geographic magazine has been dedicated to Emona and a special open-air library will open along the Emona Wall during the summer.
The southern part of the Emona Wall is almost completely preserved. It was excavated at the beginning of the 20th century and was protected from demolition planned in the 1920s by conservationist France Stele and Slovenia's greatest architect Jože Plečnik.
The Roman presence in the Ljubljana Basin dates back to the conquest of the Balkans by Emperor Augustus in the 1st century BC. Some of the most recent discoveries show that there were two military camps on the banks of the Ljubljanica river.
The Romans went on to establish Ivlia Aemona in AD 14 on the left bank of Ljubljanica in the area of present-day Ljubljana city centre, settling it with people from the area of present-day northern Italy.
The settlement had a rectangular shape and was surrounded by a wall with towers and water-filled moats. However, the settlers lived also outside the wall. Emona was in its hay-day between the 1st and 5th centuries.
Because of its position, it played an important role in the defence system of the Roman Empire.
Source: The Slovenia Times
