Roman roads

The Romans built trade and military roads through this region to connect Italy with Pannonia, and the main route from the Pannonian plain to Italy ran across what is now Slovenia. The best-known of these roads is the Via Gemina, which linked Aquileia at the head of the Adriatic with Emona. Along it lay the forts of the Claustra Alpium Iuliarum, and the defended stretch ran from Castra ad Fluvium Frigidum at Ajdovščina over the Hrušica pass, where Ad Pirum stood, down to Nauportus at Vrhnika. From Emona another road continued east to Celeia; the cemetery at Šempeter grew up along it.

A road is a difficult thing to list in a guide, because most of it is either under a modern road or under a field. We do not create an entry for a route. We create one for a place where the road is actually visible: a paved surface that has been excavated and left open, a cutting through rock, a stretch of embankment across a marsh, or a milestone still standing where it was set. At Šempeter, for example, some 300 metres of the Roman road are presented inside the archaeological park alongside the tombs, so the Šempeter entry is listed under roads as well as under necropolises.

Roads make good walks. Where a visible stretch continues as a footpath, the entry aims to say how far you can follow it and where it becomes impassable or private. As with the forts that guarded them, many of these sections are on high ground, so read the visiting notes before setting out.