On Friday, 23rd of November 2018 in Department of archaeology (St Blaise Franciscan monastery, Pridvorje) Museums and galleries of Konavle organized a lecture about recent archaeological excavations on St John’s church in Ljuta. The presenter was Domagoj Kristović from archaeological firm Arheo plan d.o.o., contractor of archaeological excavations. Archaeological excavations were conducted in the interior space of church and its immediate surroundings during 2017 and 2018.
First among the explorers who saw the importance of the site was Sir Arthur Evans. Around the middle of the 19th century, passing through Konavle region he saw a Roman epigraphic inscription. For more than a century that inscription was lost to the local community until recently, it re-emerged following the archaeological excavations. Today it is displayed in Department of archaeology.
The continuity of the site can be traced from the Antiquity and Late Antique phases which have been confirmed and defined in the remains of an architecture of villa rustica - an ancient residential and commercial complex. The church was built in the early Medieval period on the remains of an earlier architecture (villa rustica). Today’s church was erected over the remnants of early Medieval church. Its walls testify a series of remodelling that have been happening throughout the centuries.
