Travel Destination kopje Valley with its wide plain with and Salonica. Even today, both and surrounding hills has always the regional road and the highway pass been attractive to settlers. Even the village following the same route. though the area is not large by Tauresium has been a famous and modern standards, in olden days disputed archaeological site since the visit Sit maintained many independent villages, paid by the famous archaeologist and towns, and castra (Roman camps), of travel writer Arthur Evans in the beginning which Skupi is the most famous. To the of the 1900s. Evans visited both Skupi east of Skupi there were other settlements, and Tauresium identifying the latter as and there were also several medieval the native town of the Emperor Justinian towns around and Skopska Crna I (527-565), mentioned by the Roman Gora Mountains. Among them are the historian Procopius: ancient town of Tauresium and Baderiana “...Among the Dardanians of Europe castle, which were not less famous than who live beyond the boundaries of the in their heyday, but have since been Epidamnians, close to the fortress which forgotten and today are hardly known to is called Baderiana, there was a hamlet visitors and tourists. named Tauresium, whence sprang the Tauresium is an ancient settlement Emperor Justinian, the founder of the situated in the immediate vicinity of civilised world. He therefore built a wall the present day village of only 20 of small compass about this place in the kilometres to the south-east of . It form of a square, placing a tower at each stretched along Via Axia, the road down corner, and caused it to be called, as it the River , which connected Skupi actually is, Tetrapyrgia. And close by this

26 June 2015 • www.dmwc.org.mk Travel Destination

place he built a very notable city which he defensive wall. A drainage system and a named Justiniana Prima (this means “firs ” water supply cistern were introduced. The in the Latin tongue), thus paying a debt new defences, however, could not protect of gratitude to the home that fostered the town from constant raids by Slavs him...”. and Avars. After several attacks the town As with many other ancient sites, the was deserted and left to decay. It is also location of the actual Justiniana Prima and believed that one of the famous Ostrogoth the birthplace of Justinian is disputed. Some kings, Theodahad, was born in Taor. place it near Leskovac, in Southern Serbia, Life in the town picked up again in the others in Bulgaria. However, to Evans, and 9th and 10th centuries, when the migration to Macedonian archaeologists, the modern pattern and social structure stabilized again. villages of Taor and Bader, which have the Rich find ngs including fragments of vessels, ancient roots in their names, seem the glassware, window panes, weaponry, locks most convincing location. The excavation and keys testify to a rich and varied life at that started in the 2000s revealed a city this site. More than 250 coins and several stretching over 1.6 hectares on the south- jewellery items (earrings, fibulae, rings) eastern side of today’s village of Taor on indicate a wealthy population. the hill consisting of the acropolis and two The most significant finding are from settlement terraces. the golden age of Justinian. Marble The exploration revealed civic life columns, capitals with early Christian spanning three periods, prehistoric, motifs and pythoses (storage vessels) late antiquity and early medieval. The prove the wealth of the city. The most prehistoric time is dated between 2200 intriguing is the pythos with fragmented and 1700 BC. Small stone axes, short mouth and neck decorated with a seal, flint knives and numerous fragments of which is actually the monogram of ceramic vessels typical of the early Bronze Emperor . Age were excavated there. During the late If someone visits Taor today, one thing antiquity, the disastrous earthquake which becomes clear. The ancient people surely hit Macedonia in 518 AD was a watershed. knew how to choose a perfect spot for a The stone buildings dating back to the town. The surroundings are so magnificent period before the earthquake had mud as that this area was proclaimed an ecological a binding material and did not have any protected zone. Today it is full of birds and defensive ramparts. After the earthquake animals thriving on the fertile soil, in and the settlement was rebuilt with a new around its marshy waters.

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