Podgorica tour guide

At the confluence of the Morača and Zeta rivers, just four kilometers north of downtown Podgorica, lie the ruins of Duklja – the most significant and best-preserved Roman city in Montenegro. Founded in the 1st century AD, Duklja soon became a municipium and grew into a cultural, commercial, and administrative center of the Roman province of Dalmatia. The town followed a typical Roman layout with streets intersecting at right angles, a central forum, baths, temples, palaces, and a triumphal arch. It was encircled by fortified walls with towers and had four gates and three bridges. Of special importance are two early Christian basilicas from the 5th and 6th centuries, one of which was later partially overbuilt by a small 9th-century cruciform church . Duklja was devastated by the Goths, struck by an earthquake in 518, and ultimately destroyed by Slavic incursions in the 7th century. Today, its remains offer a glimpse into the life on the southern edge of the Roman world.