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Robert Mihajlovski the Medieval Town of Prilep

Robert Mihajlovski the Medieval Town of Prilep

Robert Mihajlovski

The Medieval Town of

The Medieval settlement of Prilep (Прилепъ), or Byzantine Prilapos (Πρίλαπος), was situated near the Roman site of Ceramiae.1 In , north of Thessalonica, the town of Prilep had a strategic position on the vital route of communication between the junctions of the Via Egnatia near and the road corridor of the river system at Stobi (Fig. 21). It was situated in the centre of a network of small roads and communications and guarded the passes of Mount Babuna and controlling the gates to the Pelagonian valley and the Via Egnatia.2 The fortress of Prilep was literally attached to the rocky hilltop, and “Prilep” in Slavonic means “stuck on the rock”.3 (Fig. 22). It was first mentioned by John Skylitzes in connection with the Tsar Samuel, who died there from apoplexy two days after hearing the news from the Battle of Kleidion near Strumitsa on 6 October 1014.4 After the definitive victory, Basil II reorganised Tsar Samuel’s realm and its former Patriarchate into an independent Archbishopric named after Justiniana Prima, based at Okhrid and encompassing the territory of the whole of conquered , without abolishing its autocephaly nor reducing its scope. In the first chrysobull, issued by the Emperor Basil II in 1019 the town of Prilep was mentioned as a part of the bishopric of Bitola ():

And the bishop of Bitola shall have Pelagonia, Prilep, Debreshte and Veles with fifteen clerics and fifteen parishes.5

In Varosh, the “suburbia” of Prilep’s castle, a Cyrillic Church Slavonic inscription was found in the monastery of the Holy Archangel Michael, referring to Bishop Andrew in the year 996.6 The title of Bishop Andrew mentioned in the inscription is enigmatic and it may

1 F. Papazoglou, Les Villes de Macédoine à l’êpoque Romaine (-Paris 1988) 291; N.G.L. Hammond, A History of Macedonia (Oxford 1972), vol. 1, 17, 67, maps 5, 9; I. Mikulčić, Anticki gradovi vo Makedonija ( 1999), 86–89; idem, Pelagonija u svetlosti arheoloskih nalaza, od egejske seobe do Avgusta (Skopje-Beograd 1966), 75–87. 2 Papazoglou, Les Villes de Macédoine, 291; I. Mikulčić, Srednovekovni gradovi i tvrdini vo Makedonija (Skopje 1996), 249–250. 3 A. Kazhdan, s.v. “Prilapos”, ODB 3.1718–1719; B. Babić, “Materijalnata kultura na makedonskite Sloveni”, in K. Bojadžievski (ed.), Umetničkoto bogatstvo na Makedonija (Skopje 1984), 121–125. 4 Ioannis Scylitzae Synopsis Historiarum, ed. I. Thurn (CFHB 5, Berlin-New York 1973), 349; P. Stephenson, ’s Balkan frontier. A Political Study of the Northern , 900–1204 (Cambridge 2000), 71–74; idem, The Legend of Basil the Bulgar-slayer (Cambridge 2003); F. Curta, Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 500–1250 (Cambridge 2006), 244–245; G. Ostrogorski, History of the Byzantine State ( 1969), 275; V. Kravari, Villes et de Macédoine occidentale (Paris 1989), 319. 5 Καὶ τὸν ἐπίσκοπον Βουτέλεος εἰς τὴν Πελαγονίαν καὶ εἰς τὸν Πρίλαπον καὶ εἰς τὴν ∆ευρέτην καὶ εἰς τὸν Βελεσσὸν κληρίκους ιε (15) καὶ παροίκους ιε (15): I. Snegarov, Istoriia na Ohridskata arhiepiskopiia, ot osnovavanieto i do zavladvanieto na Balkanskiia poluostrov ot turcite (Sofia 1924; repr. 1995), vol. 1, 55–56; H. Gelzer, Der Patriarchat von Achrida,Geschichte und Urkunden (Leipzig 1902; repr. 1980), 30. 6 I. Ivanov, Bulgarski starini iz Makedoniia (Sofia 1931; repr. 1970), 26–28. The rare Slavonic epigraphic document can be read as, “In the year 996 Bishop Andrew departed this life, 17 February”.

218 The Medieval Town of Prilep be that he was bishop of Bitola or the Choroepiskopos of Prilep who was under the bishop’s jurisdiction. The valley of Pelagonia with its towns of Bitola and Prilep was involved in the insurrections of Peter Delyan in 1041 and George Voytekh in 1072.7 In 1041, when the Byzantine Emperor Michael IV was suppressing Delyan’s revolt, the local military commander Manuel Ivatz tried to stop the at the Pass of Pletvar, northwest of Prilep, but without success.8 The Byzantine administration engaged in military intervention in order to pacify the province. The nearby military camp of Pelagonia near Bitola served as the imperial base for the (1081–1118) and (1143–1180). Between 1198 and 1204 the importance of Prilep increased and the valley of Pelagonia was assigned under a “Partitio Terrarum Imperii Romaniae” as Provincia Prilapi et Pelagoniae cum Stano, but there are no indications of the Latin Crusaders’ occupation.9 In the decisive battle at Pelagonia in 1211, however, the region was taken from the local ruler, Strez the by the alliance of Michael I Komnenos of Epiros and Henry I, the .10 Starting from 1215 this territory changed masters: it was taken by the Despotate of Epiros under Theodore Doukas, then it was retaken and included in the Bulgarian Empire of Tsar John Asen II in 1230 who replaced the Byzantine administration and clergy with his own officers.11 In the period between 1246 and 1259, the area of Pelagonia/Bitola and Prilep rapidly changed hands between the Despotate of Epiros and the Nicaean Empire. In 1246 Prilep was retaken by the Despotate of Epiros under John Doukas, then in 1252–1253 by the Nicaean Empire and again by the Epirotes under Michael II in 1257–1258. According to George Acropolites, Prilep was a strategic fortress, (φρούριον) on the border with the Serbian kingdom in the north.12 The seat of the Pelagonian diocese was temporarily transferred to Prilep in the twelfth and again in the fourteenth century because of its strategic position in the region – as mentioned above, the city’s location intersected a number of important roads and served to guard the Pelagonian valley from nearby mountains. The upper fortress of Prilep was virtually an acropolis and according to the historian Acropolites writing in 1258, it could easily be defended by only forty soldiers.13 In 1259, a battle took place in the southern region of the Pelagonian valley between the forces of the Empire of and a triple alliance led by Michael II Komnenos Doukas of

7 Lj. Mandić & R. Mihajlovski, “XIth century Byzantine Seal from Heraclea, near Bitola”, Byzantion 58 (2000), 273–277. 8 Kazhdan, “Prilapos”, 1718; Scylitzes, 414.45–47. 9 P. Magdalino, Between Romaniae: Thessaly and Epirus in the Later Middle Ages, Latins and in the Eastern Mediterranean after 1204 (London 1989), 104–105. 10 Nicetas Choniates, Historia, ed. A. Meineke (CSHB, Bonn 1835), 643–672, 707–708; Kravari, Villes et villages de Macédoine occidentale, 312; K. Adžievski, Pelagonija vo sredniot vek, od doagjanjeto na Slovenite do pagjanjeto pod turska vlast (Skopje 1994), 126–132. 11 M. Spinka, A History of Christianity in the Balkans, a Study in the Spread of Byzantine Culture among the Slavs (Chicago 1933), 110–112; Adžievski, Pelagonija, 126–132; N. Ovčarov, Istoriia i arheologiia na Vardarska Makedonia prez XIV v. (Sofia 1996), 104. 12 G. Acropolitae, Annales Byzantini (PG 140, Paris 1887), 1048; Lj. Doklestić, Kroz historiju Makedonije ( 1964), 44; A. Ducelliér, La façade Maritime de l’Albanie au Moyen Âge, Durazzo et Valona du XIe au XVe siècle ( 1981), 174–175. 13 Acropolitae, Annales Byzantini, 1048; Kravari, Villes et villages de Macédoine occidentale, 320; A. Deroko, Markovi kuli-Prilep, Starinar n.s. 5–6 (1954–5), 83–104; Ovčarov, Istoriia i arheologiia na Vardarska Makedonia prez XIV v, 107–109; Mikulčić, Srednovekovni gradovi i tvrdini vo Makedonija (Skopje 1996), 252. The small fortress was built between the 11th and 13th centuries; the large fortress (300 x 150m) was built at the end of the thirteenth century or at the beginning of the fourteenth. The castle-acropolis on the hilltop “Chardak” had dimensions of 150 x 120 m.

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