Die Gradina auf dem Jelica-Gebirge und die frühbyzantinischen Befestigungen in der Umgebung von Čačak, Westserbien

Abstract

The Early Byzantine fortress of ""Gradina"" on mount Jelica is located in the area of western Moravia. Ringed by three concentric ramparts (approximately 250 x 150 m), it contained three secular buildings and also three or four churches oriented east-west and labeled A-d, and all dated to the 6th century (frescoes, sculpted fragments, ceramics, glass, a bronze coin). Church ""C"" it the only one securely located intra muros.lt has a vestibule flanked by a pair of annexes (on the north, a baptistery with a cruciform font) in addition to a single nave, which is framed by two rooms on the east and terminates in a semicircular, projecting apse. The synthronos in the apse was enlarged and supplemented by two lateral benches. The three other churches are funerary. Building ""D"" (memoria ?) yielded a reliquary in silver inscribed. Church ""A "", originally having a single nave and a semicircular, projecting apse, became three-aisled in a secondary phase and acquired a triple apse with a three-part vestibule. The central apse contained a synthronos. Traces of the stylobates indicate the limits of the rectangular choir and of the chancel curtailing the east end of the southern aisle. Cemetery church ""B"" with a single nave was certainly extra muros. The 63 graves excavated in the site reflect the history of the indigenous peoples who were ""Romanized"" between the 6th and 8th centuries, and who fled the valleys for the fortified heights -a phenomenon confirmed by four neighboring fortresses.. Ostra-Sokolica. Liška Ćava-Grad, Viča-Stojkovića Gradina. and Vučkovica-Gradina. [J.-P. Caillet. Translated by D. Parrish]