These two lonely Roman arches have been standing in the Croatian countryside for almost 2,000 years
In the quiet inland of Dalmatia, near the village of Kistanje in Croatia, you’ll find these two solitary arches rising from the grass.
They are almost all that remains of the principia, the headquarters building of the Roman legionary camp of Burnum.
This was once a major military base. Legions such as the XX Valeria Victrix and the XI Claudia were stationed here in the 1st century AD to control the strategic area around the Krka River and keep the local tribes in check. The principia sat at the very heart of the camp. It was where the commander worked, where the legion’s records were kept, and where the sacred standards (including the eagle) were stored in a special shrine.
Today the rest of the building is gone, but these two arches of the original arcade still stand, looking almost surreal against the open landscape and distant mountains.