In the border zone between the Roman provinces of Upper Moesia and Thrace a
sanctuary dedicated to Zeus and Hera, defined by the toponymic epithet
Souidept?noi, was discovered on the Belava mountain, near Turres (today?s
Pirot). The sanctuary presumably encompassed a temenos, an altar and two
smaller temples, oriented east-west, with the entrance on the eastern side.
Unfortunately, illegal excavations were conducted on the area of the
sanctuary by thieves, who stole the small reliefs offered to the deities
venerated in the sanctuary, of which the authors of this paper could obtain
the data of 31 fragmented votive plates, most of them inscribed. A variety
of iconographic schemas, especially the standing divine couple or Zeus and
Hera in quadriga, as well as the combination of three onomastics stocks
(Thracian, Greek and Latin) illustrate the diversity of traditions and the
cultural interferences at work during imperial times. It can be presumed
that the sanctuary dedicated to Zeus and Hera Souidept?noi existed from the
2nd to the end of the 3rd or the beginning of the 4th century.