Monuments to visit Ohrid

Built around 200 BC, this theater (Антички Театар/Antički Teatar) is the only one in the country of Greek origin. The architects of Lychnidos took advantage of the relief to place the stands on the sides of two hills. This configuration offered good acoustics and protection against the wind. What to allow the spectators to benefit from the melodies of the chorus and the whispers of the actors during the representations of comedies or tragedies. The building was modified by the Romans between 140 and 70 B.C. to accommodate up to 5,000 spectators (which suggests that the city then had between 20,000 and 25,000 inhabitants) and gladiatorial and wild animal fights. After the Edict of Thessalonica in 380, which made Christianity the only legal religion in the Empire, the theater was destroyed. Many of its materials were used for the construction of houses, basilicas and, later, the cathedral of Saint Sophia. Rediscovered in 1960, the theater retains only part of the arena walls and its first twelve rows. Among the lowest stands, on the left when you are facing the bleachers, notice the names written in Greek: they are those of families of the local elite who had assigned seats. But the best view of the lake today is from the twelfth row. Since 2001, the theater has been renovated with a capacity of 1,700 seats. It hosts performances, especially during the Ohrid Summer Festival, from mid-July to mid-August.

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.

Erected in 1726, this Ottoman tower (Саат-Кула/Saat-Kula) stands 12 m high. Square and built of stone, its upper part and roof are made of wood. It was originally used to indicate the prayer times of Muslims. Its alla turca mechanism (placing the beginning of the day at sunset) was replaced by a classical alla franca system (which counts down the hours from midnight) after the Balkan wars (1912-1913). This one is still in use.