Acumincum Fortress
The Most Beautiful View of the Danube
The panorama of Stari Slankamen is still dominated by the silhouette of the fortification, whose ruins, although badly damaged by the ravages of time, stand out on the plateau of a trapezoidal loess outcrop, which rises above the very bank of the Danube. The ruins of the once imposing fortress are now only symbolically reminiscent of the significance that this site had in the past. The fortress is called Acumincum. It was originally a Celtic word and remained in Roman times, which indicates that the Celtic element was strongly represented in that place.
Acumincum, the earliest Roman fortification, was developed at the Gradina site. It was built quite primitively, from crushed stone with mud as a binding aggregate, and also in the drywall technique. The Roman conquests of these parts began in 146 BC and lasted until 15 AD, when the Romans managed to break the Scordisci and annex this part of the Danube to the Roman Empire. Due to the constant danger from other Barbarian peoples, the Romans organized and fortified strong defensive points with significant military forces that were connected with the then largest and most powerful settlements in the province of Pannonia (Sirmium).
Simultaneously, with the development of Acumincum as a well-fortified site, a civilian part of the settlement developed at the foot of the fortress, the traces of which – the remains of buildings and various movable finds – were recorded and collected in the wider area of today’s village. In the 2nd and 3rd centuries, Acumincum changed its physiognomy by expanding and adding new parts. The military fortification still existed at the time, but it was being built and fortified further.
During the period of turbulent migration of peoples, the history of the fortification is completely unknown. Traces of arson between ancient and medieval times, as well as strong traces of devastation on Roman ramparts and other buildings, indicate that Acumincum almost certainly shared the fate of other castra in this part of the medieval Limes.
Near Stari Slankamen, a tombstone was found erected to Titus Flavius Proculus, who bore the title of Princeps Praefectus Scordiscorum, from the second half of the 1st century BC.
In the 5th or 6th century, during the great migration of the people, the settlement was destroyed by the Gepids, Huns or Avars. A fortress was built on the foundations of the Roman Acumincum in the Middle Ages. At the beginning of the 15th century, it was in the possession of Serbian despots from the Branković family. The Turks occupied it in 1521. The remains of the fortress can be seen today at the entrance to the village and on the hill north of it.