Kučar is an inselberg with two peaks that rises above the Kolpa River. It is an important historic site, not only in the history of Bela Krajina, but also that of the entire area. At an altitude of 222 metres above sea level, Kučar used to be an important strategic settlement for managing nearby farmland and river transport, as the Kolpa River is deep enough here to be a waterway for larger river boats.

Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age

The earliest settlement on Kučar was established in the late bronze age, between 1200–800 BC, and through the Early Iron Age (800-300 BC) it developed into a characteristic central hill-fortified settlement. It was protected by a wall with foundations of dry stone and a wooden superstructure. The core or nucleus of the settlement was formed by dwellings made of wooden treated logs smeared with clay and lime, the roof was covered with dry straw.

Throughout the Iron Age, the development of Kučar continued, and the settlement expanded to the foot of the hill, where simple dwellings and an artisan ironmaking area were organized. Kučar is thus an important strategic settlement with metallurgical crafts. Its greatest treasure was iron. The oldest cemetery near Kučar is represented by plain burnt graves a bit south of today’s Grm village. To the west of Grm the cemeteries of the two leading families of Kučar during the Early Iron Age are located, who buried their dead in round mounds. In both cemeteries there are a total of 62 mounds of different sizes gathered in two groups. So called »antene sword«, discovered in one of the central graves, represents the beginnings of the Iron Age in what is today Slovenia.

Late Iron Age

During the Late Iron Age (300–35 BC), there was a change in the leading political families on Kučar. The old cemeteries to the north of the settlement were abandoned and a new cemetery was created at the northwestern foot of the hill, where burials were made in flat burnt graves. In one of these graves, a rich leather belt with a bronze sheet was discovered, to which was added an extremely rare gold coin of the Celtic Boi tribe, dating to around 300 BC.

It seems that in the 4th century BC Kučar came under the suzerainty of the neighboring powerful tribe of Iapodes, whose territory stretched far to the south and east, all the way to the Una river in today’s Bosnia. Under the Japodian suzerainty, Kučar became the most northwestern point of the Japodian territory, which bordered the territory of the Celtic Latobici with a smaller center above present-day Metlika and the core of the territory in Dolenjska. Kučar remained outside Roman rule until the end of the 1st century BC., but in 35 BC, Octavianus, the later Roman emperor Augustus, completely subdued the Japodes, thus the territory of today’s Bela Krajina was also subject to Roman authority. Under the Roman military administration in the first decades of the 1st century AD Kučar, then a settlement more than a thousand years old, was abandoned.

A new lowland settlement grew up nearby, in the area of today’s Otok village, just a few kilometers east of Kučar. The settlement in the village of Otok succeeded the settlement on Kučar in a narrower area and in the period of Antiquity (1st–4th centuries AD) became the center of this part of the Bela krajina, to which smaller villages in the immediate vicinity were also connected and dependant. Nearby a the larger imperial estate was located, managed by a vilicus, the manager of the imperial estates, whose revenues fell under the imperial household.

Classical and Late Antiquity

The resettlement of the Kučar hill followed during the politically unstable period of Late Antiquity. During the 5th century AD the population from Otok and nearby villages retreated to the safety of the elevated ground, the Kučar hill, and established a walled settlement there, while also settling the foot of the hill itself. This is how the late antique settlement on Kučar was created, the central part of which was a walled early Christian center with two churches, a brick residence with heating (hypocaust) and a baptistery on the northern, higher of the two peaks of Kučar hill.

The Late Antiquity population of this territory was Christian, and the existence of two churches on the hill indicates a large community large, which including several nearby villages. Kučar most likely housed a high-ranking representative of the early Christian church, and there is possible presence of a bishop on Kučar, which would turn this settlement into a civitas, a late antique city with a bishop’s center. The church center on the northern peak of Kučar was protected by a wall with towers, which testifies that the settlement and the broader area were under threat. For unknown reasons, the late antiquity settlement, together with the early Christian center, was abandoned by the beginning of the 6th century, and was not inhabited again in the Middle Ages.

The discovery of a gold coin (2018), typical Negova helmet, and a number of other valuables (2020) in Pezdirčeva njiva, in Podzemelj below Kučar, indicate the interesting historical dynamics. There are probably many riches hidden here, which is why the mentioned location represents an important archaeological point in Slovenia and the whole of Central Europe.