The Venetian traders, who were the most frequent users of the road, used it for export of wheat, animals, silver and grape from Serbia and Bulgaria to Italy. It was among the most important communication links of Ragusa and its hinterland. The other road connecting hinterland Serbia with the Adriatic was that from Niš, through the mining province of Kopaonik, to Via Drine. Two other [smaller] roads went through Bosnia to the northeast: one was Via Narenta, traversing the canyons of the Neretva, and the other was Via Argentaria, that connected Split with the silver mines of Ilidža and Srebrenica and in turn Sremska Mitrovica in the north.
It had an important cultural role as in connecting the hinterlands with the Adriatic cities which also had a Latin population, and Venice.