Temple of Mithras

The cult of Mithras, a mystery religion spread across the Roman Empire by soldiers and merchants, reached the Balkans in the first centuries AD, and the Jajce sanctuary dates from the late Roman period, when the valley was part of the Roman province of Dalmatia. The temple was carved into the rock as a small, enclosed chamber oriented around the Tauroctony relief, following the typical plan of a Mithraeum. It was later buried and forgotten as the town changed hands and faiths above it, and was only rediscovered in the early 20th century. The relief and the chamber are now protected and can be visited, though the cult itself — its rites known only to its initiates — remains largely a mystery.