The Roman necropolis at Šempeter is a cemetery on the Roman road through the Savinja valley, where notables from nearby Celeia built their family tombs. What you come for is four marble funerary monuments standing whole, rebuilt from their fallen pieces, carved with portraits and scenes from myth.
What is there today
An open-air archaeological park, hedged round, south-west of the church of St Peter. Its centrepiece is four large tombs reconstructed after the excavations of the 1950s, surrounded by smaller gravestones, architectural fragments and the marked-out ground plans of other graves, with a stretch of the Roman road beside them (sl.wikipedia). The tombs are of Pohorje marble, carved with figures of the families buried in them. The largest is the tomb of the Spectatii, with reliefs of the four seasons, which still stands where it was found; the tomb of the Ennii, the one the operator rates most beautiful, shows the abduction of Europa (the operator).
Is it worth the trip?
Yes. Here you walk among Roman tomb monuments at full height, in the open, with the sculpture still on them. It is a single park rather than a whole site, so it makes a stop rather than a day out. The catch is practical: at the moment it opens only by appointment, so a casual drive-by will find the gate shut.
Getting there
The park is at Rimska cesta 35 in Šempeter v Savinjski dolini, about 3 km from the centre of Žalec (address: Visit Žalec; distance: OpenStreetMap). There is a free car park about 60 m away and a bus stop about 180 m away (OpenStreetMap).
Visits are by appointment for groups and for individual visitors alike; individuals need to book at least two days ahead, by phone on +386 31 645 937 or by email to info@td-sempeter.si. A ticket is €7, or €5 for pupils, students and pensioners, and includes a guided tour by a local guide, available in German or English as well. Payment is in cash only (Turistično društvo Šempeter, read 26 September 2026).
Visiting details
- Opening hours
- By appointment only. Groups and individual visitors are both welcome, but individuals must book at least two days ahead, on +386 31 645 937 or info@td-sempeter.si.
- Tickets
- €7 for adults, €5 for pupils, students and pensioners; groups of more than 20 pay €5 (adults) or €4 (children and students) each. The price includes a guided tour by a local guide, also in German or English. Cash only.
- Parking
- A free surface car park about 60 m from the site (OSM way/1427328967, fee=no).
Before you go
- There are no walk-in opening hours at present; book before you go.
Hours and prices checked 26 September 2026 on the operator's own site. Confirm before travelling.
History
Almost 2,000 years ago the main road from Aquileia to Emona, Celeia and Poetovio ran through Šempeter, and many Roman notables and officials from Celeia had estates nearby; some of them built their family tombs here (the operator). The cemetery lay on the north side of the road, with the Savinja running to the south. It was in use from the middle of the 1st century until the 3rd, when a flood that hit the whole valley undercut part of it. The monuments nearest the river fell into it and were buried under its sand and gravel, which is why they survived; the rest were eventually carried off as building stone (the operator; sl.wikipedia). A new cemetery was laid out north of the old one. Beneath the Roman graves, excavators also found six cremation burials of the Hallstatt period (heritage register). The settlement the cemetery served has not been found, though it probably lay beside the main road (the operator; sl.wikipedia).
The site was found by chance in 1952, when work in an orchard turned up the statue of a seated woman. The Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, with the Celje regional museum and the University of Ljubljana, excavated until 1956, and a further part of the cemetery was uncovered on the east side of the village in 1964, along a road 9 m wide and 315 m long. More than 100 family tombs and over 600 significant objects have been recovered. The park opened in 1960 with four fully restored tombs, and the whole area has been a cultural monument of national importance since 2003 (the operator; sl.wikipedia).
More photographs
Nearby
Straight-line distances.
Sources
Every fact on this page comes from the records below, each used under the licence noted.
| Source | Licence |
|---|---|
| Pleiades 404195046 | CC BY |
| Wikidata Q71990907 | CC0 |
| Vici.org 25553 | CC BY-SA (text), CC0 (metadata) |
| OpenStreetMap way/354702116 | ODbL |
| Turistično društvo Šempeter — Rimska nekropola (the operator) | licence not recorded |
| Turistično društvo Šempeter — prices and booking | licence not recorded |
| Visit Žalec — Roman Necropolis | licence not recorded |
| Register nepremične kulturne dediščine, unit 1053 (Ministrstvo za kulturo RS, CC BY 4.0) | licence not recorded |
| Wikipedia (sl) — Rimska nekropola, Šempeter v Savinjski dolini | CC BY-SA 4.0 |