It will be exactly two thousand years in 2014 since the Roman settlement Emona, on which present-day Ljubljana was built, was founded. The jubilee will be marked with numerous events, including three major exhibitions.
On display in the Cankarjev dom arts centre between May and October 2014 will be the archaeological exhibition "Aueae Iasae", while the Museum and Galleries of Ljubljana (MGML) will host the exhibition "Emona - a City in the Empire", which will be on on display for a whole year, starting in May 2014.
The National Museum in Ljubljana will meanwhile set up an exhibition speaking about the importance of the Romans for a broader area in Slovenia. It will also be on display between May 2014 and May 2015.
The Jakopič Gallery in Ljubljana will showcase a collection of photographs of Roman artefacts by Czech photographer Josef Koudelka (between May and July), while the exhibition of photographs dubbed "2000 Years of Emona" will be on display in the Jakopič promenade between July and August.
An exhibition on the urban development of the capital from the Emona era until today will be presented between May and September in Ljubljana Castle.
The Ljubljana City Municipality also plans to organise creative and educational workshops, various presentations and exhibitions in cooperation with public institutes, schools and kindergartens.
The Roman castrum of Emona was the first settlement in the area of present-day Ljubljana, which helped connect the Roman empire with other settlements. With its universal shape, architecture, way of life, legal order and values, it raised its residents into loyal Roman citizens, according to the MGML.
Several remains of Emona, which speak about the life in a Roman city, are still found in the centre of Ljubljana. In the archaeological park Emonska hiša it is possible to see the remains of an apartment building from the late 4th century.
Another archaeological park near Cankarjev dom shows the remains of an apartment building from the early 1st century, which was reconstructed several times in the 500 years of its existence. A part of the building was converted into a chapel in the second part of the 4th century.
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 1920s by conservationist France Stele and Slovenia's greatest architect Jože Plečnik.
The Roman presence in the Ljubljana Basin is related with the conquest of the Balkans by Emperor Augustus. Archaeologists discovered the remains of two military camps on the banks of the Ljubljanica river in 2008.
The Romans established the Iulia Aemona colony in the first decade of the 1st century in the present-day Ljubljana centre, on the left bank of Ljubljanica, settling colonists from northern Italy there.
Emona was in its peak between the 1st and the 5th century. It had a rectangular shape and was surrounded by a wall with towers and occasional water-filled moats. Some of the parts outside the wall were also settled.
Because of its position, Emona had an important role in the defensive system of the Roman Empire. From the second part of the 4th century until the Hungarian attacks in the 10th century, this area was a transit route on the way to the Italian Peninsula.
Source: Slovenia Times
