General information
The Archaeo-Ethno Park is located in Ravna 8 km north of Knjaževac, in the yard of the old village school. The oldest houses in the village were built at beginning of the XX century along with the building of the school in 1906. Today, it is a historical monument. The choice of this village for positioning of The Archaeo-Ethno Park was influenced by the proximity of the ancient fortress Timacum Minus. The construction of the park began in 1977 and it was officially opened in 1989.
The main idea was to present significant archaeological findings from the Timacum Minus site within the archaeological exhibition in the school building and the Lapidarium and also to make visitors familiar with the history of archaeological research of the nearby site. One of the main ideas was to illustrate the ambient of the XIX century patriarchal village community with residential and commercial buildings as its parts. The Ethno Park consists of the house from Gornja Kamenica, with a Wine Museum with wine cellar in its basement, a house from Berčinovac, a barn form Beli Potok and a cauldron for brandy with the pipe of cherry wood from Pričevac.
This kind of exhibition made it possible to preserve years of experience and a range of traditional folk architecture and also to allow visitors a direct contact with objects. The visitors have the possibility to learn about traditional culture of housing and buildings of folk architecture of the region. In the last ten years the Archaeo-Ethno Park was supplemented by another object built according to the model of the house "Gazdić" from Radičevac on Stara Planina in which, besides the smaller room for conferences and tasting the traditional cuisine, wines and brandy of the Knjaževac area, there is an information tourist center with souvenir shop. In the park a workshop for manufacturing traditional pottery with replicas of antique and traditional pottery kiln was formed. Inside the old village school a conservation laboratory was made and equipped. The Archaeo-Ethno Park, besides various educational and creative programs, organizing workshops offers the possibility of accommodation and organization of various conferences, cultural, tourist and educational programs as well as scientific and research camps.
Lapidarium
Monuments are composed of gables, embossing, inscription field, skirting and shank. These tombstones are most often decorated with floral motifs. Frequently there is a vine motif, symbolizing the belief in a new life, the eternal renewal and new birth. The inscription field contains basic information about the deceased. In the embossed field there is usually an image of the deceased or the deceased with family members. A number of gravestones from Ravna is in Niš in the lapidarium in the Niš Fortress.
Lapidarium and well
Altars
In addition to the altar which is dedicated to the goddess Diana there was an altar dedicated to the god Mars. Despite the fact that he was the god of war, Mars also protected the rural population which prayed to him as the patron of fertile fields. He promoted the fertility of fields and protected them from bad weather conditions.
The School
The School in Archaeo-ethno park in Ravna
Folk Architecture
House from Gornja Kamenica
House from Berčinovac
house of "Gazdić"
A Barn from Beli Potok
In the open space by the barn there are items used in a village household and are rarely used today: a carriage, a plow, a sleigh, old beehives „trmke“, a cauldron for brandy from Pričevac with a pipe made of cherry wood.