Burnum

Burnum (/ˈbɜːrnəm/; or Burnum Municipium), an archaeological site, was a Roman Legion camp and town. It is located 2.5 km north of Kistanje, in inland Dalmatia, Croatia. The remains include a praetorium, the foundations of several rooms, the amphitheatre and the aqueduct.

Burnum is also popularly called Hollow Church (Šuplja Crkva) and is one of many ruins in the Balkans identified in folklore as Traianus' Town (Trojanov Grad). Only two of the original five arches have been preserved (at the end of the 18th century Alberto Fortis mentioned three of them).

History

The Roman writer Plinius wrote about Burnum, as "fortress distinguished in wars." - "In hoc tractu sunt Burnum, Andetrium, Tribulium nobilitata proeliis castella." The Pagana chart from the 16th century presented marked traits of Burnum as the ancient locality, but it did not reach archeological interest until the 19th century, when it occupied the attention of renowned Croatian archaeologists, father Lujo Marun and father Frane Bulić. The first excavations were conducted by Austrian archeologists.