{"id":3150,"date":"2026-06-01T20:25:44","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T19:25:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/contramargum.rs\/?page_id=3150"},"modified":"2026-06-03T13:26:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T12:26:22","slug":"contra-margum-historical-facts","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/contramargum.rs\/index.php\/contra-margum-historical-facts\/","title":{"rendered":"Contra Margum – Historical facts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

At the location of the settlement that is present-day Kovin (in the past also called Contra Margum<\/em>,\u00a0Castra Augustoflaviensia, Constantia, Keve, Kevin, Kev, Temes-Kubin, Kevevara, Kubin<\/em>) people have actively been living for thousands of years. The earliest evidence of organised life existing within human communities goes as far back as the Neolithic period\u00a0 (the Star\u010devo culture from years 6200 to 5200 BC). The fertile banks of the Danube river provided the then-inhabitants with an abundance of water, food, and materials for building towns. Due to the allure of this territory, many would have wished to live here, which led to its frequent conquests in the following epochs by various tribes and peoples (the Scordisci-Celts, the Tracians, the Dacians, the Romans, the Huns, the Slavs, the Byzantines, the Hungarians, the Turks, the Austrians, the Germans, the Yugoslavs, the Serbs). A significant civilisation milestone, much like in the rest of the world as it was known then, was brought about by expansion of the Roman Empire to these territories. Given that ancient Romans called other peoples Barbarians, it was paramount to protect their territories from their intrusion. At the border of the territory of Moesia Superior in the 1st<\/sup> century AD there was formed a settlement (Limes<\/em>) on the left bank of the Danube, initially used to accommodate small military units whose assignment was to give initial resistance to Barbarian invasion as well as warn the larger military units and the inhabitants on the right bank of the Danube (Singidunum, Viminacium and Margum). The author Miroslava Mirkovi\u0107, in her work titled The Roman Towns on the Danube in Moesia Superior, published by the Archaeological Society of Yugoslavia, in 1968, Belgrade, says, \u201cThe Roman town of Margum was situated on the right bank of the Morava, in the vicinity of its confluence to the Danube, near present-day Ora\u0161je, in the fields of Dubravica village\u201d. The Contra Margum (opposite Margum) settlement is supposed to have been built simultaneously with the formation of Margum on the left bank of the Danube, on the elevation dominating the landscape as well as representing natural protection and a lodgement across the river. The only possible way of approaching it was by the elevated where the present-day settlement stretches as the Y-shape. Contra Margum, along with Margum settlement, had a crucial role when it comes to preventing the incursion of Barbarians along the valley of the Morava into other Roman provinces. Aside from keeping the borders, another task of the military units stationed in the area was building roads in order to connect with the other parts of the Roman Empire. The very existence of roads ensured a quicker trade of goods and passengers, and consequently, blending of different cultures in this area, which has remained one of its basic characteristics to this day. The importance of a fortress at this location was crucial even in the ages to come, which made it a developed urban settlement which lasted all through the Middle Ages (12th<\/sup>– 15th<\/sup> centuries), with brief interruptions. There were frequent confrontations between Hungarians, Byzantians and Ottomans, until its demolition the Treaty of Belgrade in 1739. The remains of Contra Margum were found and mapped at the beginning of the 18th<\/sup> century by Luigi Fernando Marsili . After the Treaty Karlovy Vary (January 26, 1699), Marsili served as military on the demarcation line of the Habsbourg Monarchy and mapped the entire Habsbourg – Ottoman border, 850 km long across the Kingdom of Hungary (modern-day Croatia, Serbia, Romania). The appearance of the base of the fortification, in its youngest phase, is preserved in a drawing by Marsili from the 18th century.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

It consisted of two parts separated by a defensive moat. The southern part, which was almost destroyed, had an irregular triangular base. Today, only the foundations of the tower walls with pilasters and a small part of the ramparts can still be seen. The northern part of the fortification is a rectangular area measuring 130\u00d7150 m, the remains of the ramparts of which can be traced on the western and northern edge of the plateau. The entrance to this part of the fortification was located in the middle of the northern rampart. Smaller protective and sounding investigations at the “Stari Grad” site were carried out in 1968, 1986 and 2003, and a large number of objects from different eras are part of the archaeological collections of the museums in Pancevo and Vrsac and the Cultural Center in Kovin. With the latest archaeological research from 2020-2022, which was carried out by the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments from Pancevo, the area of \u200b\u200bthe tower was explored for the first time and the discovery of a part of the wall and massive foundations of the tower proved the existence of a total of 9 buttresses. A large number of artifacts were collected.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Unfortunately, even today, Kovin does not have a properly organized and guarded archaeological collection that could present the rich history of the locality where they live to today’s citizens. The existence of such a collection would surely help them to get to know the history of this area better, to love it even more and take better care of it in the present.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the location of the settlement that is present-day Kovin (in the past also called Contra Margum,\u00a0Castra Augustoflaviensia, Constantia, Keve, Kevin, Kev, Temes-Kubin, Kevevara, Kubin) …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"pgc_sgb_lightbox_settings":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3150","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/contramargum.rs\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/contramargum.rs\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/contramargum.rs\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/contramargum.rs\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/contramargum.rs\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3150"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/contramargum.rs\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3209,"href":"https:\/\/contramargum.rs\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3150\/revisions\/3209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/contramargum.rs\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}