Travel Destination The Tale of the Biggest Fortress

hile driving down the E-75 between the continental climate to the north highway from to and the Mediterranean climate to the south. WThessaloniki at some point the Of course, thanks to the wide River Vardar, traveller experiences a drastic change occasionally, the Mediterranean influence akin to entering another world in fantasy may be felt as far as Skopje, but beyond fiction or horror movies. All of a sudden it is a rule. the highway ends, and while the driver Each nation and kingdom that existed is still adjusting to being on a much in this area had their own name for this narrower road, the passengers are taken important point. The Greek and Roman by the astonishing landscape including name Stenae means “narrow”, while the the wide Vardar River being swallowed by Slavic name Prosek means “cut through”. huge picturesque cliffs. And then, almost Unfortunately, the multiple waves of immediately, the car disappears in a long building and destroying, had not left many scary tunnel, which briefly opens in the traces of the earlier civilizations in this middle, just to let you cast a look up on location, but archaeological excavations the huge vertical blocks of limestone have revealed the walls of a huge town rocks, and, then, down at the small river on the uneven plateau above the cliffs. with stubborn vegetation below. The There are remnants of at least four towers gorge continues beyond the tunnel as a and the original walls which cannot be larger canyon with the cliffs still taking the seen from the busy road. Prosek was the passengers’ breath away. And then you biggest fortified town in . Its notice that it is not only the landscape but walled territory was 17 hectares on one also the climate, the vegetation, and the plateau and 14 hectares on the other, far air that have changed. more then the area of the medieval towns This gorge is the present-day Demir of and Skopje, both of which were Kapija, which translated from Turkish means Emperors’ seats. “iron gate”. While the name refers to its The excellent strategic position turned strategic military position, Demir Kapija is Prosek into a complex of fortifications. also a natural gate and a climatic barrier On the left side, among the stone massifs

24 June 2014•www.dmwc.org.mk Travel Destination which stretched up to 220 meters above the thirteenth century Prosek survived multiple the riverbed, two fortified towns were hostilities. In 1201 Byzantium restored its rule built. They are now called Markov Grad for only few years, as the Bulgarian general and Strezov Grad, according to the names Cesmen took it over on a victorious march of their medieval rulers. On the right side, to . In 1207 Dobromir Strez, across the river, is Ramniste. The three another local ruler, gave up his loyalty to the of them kept the narrow pass totally central Bulgarian state and proclaimed an controlled. Another range of towers and independent principality around Prosek, which defensive walls covered a wider area stretched along the Vardar and included the forbidding any side passing. The acropolis Pelagonia Plain. In 2015 Strez died, or was of Markov Grad is built of stones without killed, and Prosek fell first in the hands of the cement, the technique testifying to its Latin Kingdom, and later of the Despotate ancient origin. Many ceramic objects, of Epirus. In 1230 Bulgarians took it again. jewellery, coins, several acropolises and From 1246 Prosek was under the rule of the necropolises tell us of the intensive life that short-lived Nikea Kingdom. With the advance passed above these cliffs. The dating of of the Serbian kingdom in the southern lands some objects proves that it was built in the of Macedonia, Prosek became their fortress in Archaic period. Red figure ceramic objects 1330. Yet only six decades later, in 1385, the found in the tombs lead to the conclusion Ottomans conquered southern Macedonia, that Ancient Greeks had a small colony including Prosek. They destroyed the city walls in the gorge. Yet, some of the building and the city above the gorge, sparing only the techniques of the walls testify to Paionian rural settlement on the river banks before the construction. Thus, archaeologists claim gorge, out of which the modern-day Demir that the town was a southern outpost Kapija grew. of the Paionian Kingdom that protected In modern times Demir Kapija did not it from the northward expansion of the lose its importance. Touched by the beauty aggressive Macedonian state. The Roman of the place, the Yugoslav King Aleksandar maps mark Stenae on the 11th Roman mile Karadjorgjevic built his summer palace from Antigoneia (present-day Negotino). here. He installed a small royal winery The ruins on the highest 220 meters tall and a breeding farm for the most beautiful rock date back to the Byzantine times and race of Lipizzan horses especially liked by reveal complex architectural and building European monarchs. The herd existed structure with a north-south orientation and until the Second World War, when the two acropolises repaired in the medieval times. Nazis took the horses and destroyed the In the early Byzantine period, the role of the farm. The winery, however, survived not fortress of Prosek changed: it protected the only the Second World War but also the ancient Salonika and the access to the Aegean Socialist era, and is now privately owned. Sea from the barbarian attacks coming from The winery is now a protected building. the north. In the sixth century the fortification It still has the caryatides built to glorify was called Miropolis. In the tenth century there Queen Marija to whom the original palace were many battles between the Byzantine was dedicated. In the cellar, one can army and the Slavic nobles who wanted to see big barrels of two to four hectolitres restore Slavic independence and kingdom. of wine placed there 80 years ago. But the Byzantine rule over the area held until With the rise of the nearby Popova Kula 1186, when the feudal archon from winery, Demir Kapija became not only Dobromir Hris took it over from the weakened an important archaeological site, but empire. This event was described in the also an increasingly popular stop on the chronicle of Nikita Honijat. In the beginning of Macedonian Wine Route.

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