Fortifications and ramparts to visit Northern Macedonia

Brightly lit at night, this fortress (Скопско Кале/Skopsko Kale, Kalaja e Shkupit) is worth it mostly for the views it offers: it overlooks the Vardar River on the highest point in the city center, 268 meters above sea level. Unfortunately, it is poorly maintained. It is, however, the oldest inhabited site in the city, with discoveries made here dating back to the ^4th millennium BC. The fortifications were created by the Byzantines in the ^6th century from materials of the Roman colony of Scupi, destroyed by an earthquake. But its present structure dates from the Ottomans. There remains a gate and a portion of Byzantine wall to the east and, above all, a 121 m long rampart and restored defensive towers facing the city center. It is possible to walk the walkway during the day. Inside, traces of a Byzantine building, an Ottoman mosque and a medieval Serbian church are visible. It was in the latter that the Serbian king Dušan was crowned emperor "of the Serbs and Greeks" on April 16, 1346, briefly becoming the most powerful ruler in Europe. The fortress also has a museum installed under a glass structure. But it has been closed for several years. Finally, along the southern rampart stands the monument Strength, Glory and Victory created in 1953 by the sculptor Jordan Grabulovski, to whom we owe the Makedonium in Kruševo. It represents a woman holding a laurel wreath at a height of 5 m with a soldier and a small child at her feet.

This fortress (Самуилова Тврдина/Samuilova Tvrdina) offers magnificent views of the old town and the lake. But you should not be impressed by the crenellated walls rising up to 16 m high, the three fortified gates and eighteen defensive towers: almost everything here is new. This ancient stronghold was completely rebuilt in 2002-2003 in a pseudo-millennium style in order to artificially recreate what was the capital of the Bulgarian Empire during the reign of Tsar (Emperor) Samuel ^I between 997 and 1014. In the context of the new national narrative, everything was done to accredit the official thesis that Samuel was "Macedonian"... even though a Slavic Macedonian identity only emerged at the end of the ^19th century. On site, signs explain that a first stronghold was established here in the ^4th century BC by Philip II of Macedonia, the father of Alexander the Great. But no international research came to support this thesis. It is however admitted that fortifications existed around 200 B.C. Reinforced by the Romans and the Byzantines, they made it possible to push back a raid of the ostrogoth king Theodoric the Great in 478 of our era. In the double enclosure, the Roman, Byzantine, Serbian, Albanian or Ottoman vestiges are not highlighted. Only is visible the old palace of the Albanian governor Xheladin Beu Ohri (beginning of the ^XIXth century). But the barracks and the mosque of the Ottoman soldiers remain in ruins.

This fortress (Китино Кале/Kitino Kale) stands on an isolated hill some twenty meters above Kičevo. It was erected by Serbian prince Marko Mrnjavčević in the ^14th century and occupied by the Ottomans until 1860. Only the remains of a tower and a rampart remain. Since 1963, the fortress has housed a major memorial complex designed by Jordan Grabulovski, who also built the Makedonium in Kruševo. At the top, a semicircular ossuary contains the bodies of partisans who liberated the town twice, in 1943 and 1945.

This 15 m high stone tower (Маркови Кули/Markovi Kuli) was erected around the ^12th-13th centuries. Recently restored with its battlements, it was part of the Kožle fortress, the remains of which remain. The origins of this stronghold date back to the early Middle Ages, when it guarded the passage between the Byzantine provinces of Macedonia (south) and Mesia (north). The site is unkempt, full of garbage, and access is through thorny trees and along a ravine. But the views over the Badar Gorge are delightful.

This ruined fortress (Тврдина Исар/Tvrdina Isar) offers a beautiful panorama. Placed on a hilltop plateau, 360 m above sea level, it overlooks the city to the west, but also the confluence of the Bregalnica and Otinja rivers to the south, from a height of 100 m. The site was permanently occupied from the ^3rd century BC by miners. They exploited an iron deposit on the site. The plateau was then equipped with a wall defending an area of 7 ha. Later, in the Middle Ages, when the deposit was exhausted, only a part of the plateau was used. The Bulgarian and Byzantine empires succeeded one another here and built powerful walls, in some places more than 1.50 m wide. These are partly preserved as well as the remains of a keep. Two necropolises, one ancient, the other medieval, have also been discovered, as well as a basilica and a cistern. The site was occupied again by the Serbs in the ^14th century, then abandoned by the Ottomans in the ^17th century. The road that leads there stops in front of the necropolis of the partisans of the Second World War dating from 1974. It is marked by beautiful stone blocks carved by the Serbian designer Bogdan Bogdanović (1922-2010). Then you have to climb a long series of steps to reach the top. The most courageous can make the whole climb on foot: a path starts in the city and passes by the beautiful church of Archangel Michael erected in 1332. But this one lost its frescoes when it was transformed into mosque.