BEZISTEN (БЕЗИСТЕН)

This Ottoman three-domed building (Безистен/Bezisten) has housed the Štip Museum Art Gallery since 1964. Built in the ^16th or ^17th century, it was part of a large commercial complex of which it is the only survivor. As elsewhere in the Ottoman Empire, the bezistan (from the Persian bazzāzestān, "place of the clothiers") was used to store the most valuable goods for the night: silks, gold, jewelry, etc. Here, its almost pyramidal shape is unusual. But its openings in the domes and walls allow for good lighting of the interior.