Gabela is a national cultural monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Due to its strategic location, Gabela was also inhabited in Roman times, from which we have the remains of a brick factory and farm buildings on the outskirts of the town. Of the large number of medieval buildings, the remains of the old fort and a stone plaque with a large winged lion, the symbol of the Republic of Venice, are the most impressive to this day. Gabela was from the 15th to the 18th century a large trading center, but also an important strategic fortress on the Venetian-Turkish border. At one time it was known as the slave square. Various political and economic interests were competing for supremacy over Gabel. The Turks occupied it in 1477, and after several failed attempts in 1694, the Venetians occupied Gabela, then with the Peace of Požarevac in 1718, Gabela belonged to the Turks, and the Venetians demolished all the important buildings. Gabela is again under Turkish administration, but without its former power. During the Austro-Hungarian rule and the construction of the narrow-gauge railway, Gabela was a junction from Sarajevo to Dubrovnik and Metković. The Mexican scientist Roberto Salinas Price developed a hypothesis based on geographical information in the Iliad that the Trojan War was in the valley of the Neretva River, that is, that Gabela was Ilios, the capital of the state of Troy.