The best museums Stip

Opened in 2014, this museum (Музеј на Дејците на ВМРО/Muzej na Dejcite na VMRO) is housed in the beautiful Andronov House, which dates back to the ^19th century. It is dedicated to the local figures of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO, 1894-1934), which fought for the attachment to Bulgaria and/or the independence of Slavic Macedonia. Designed under the nationalist and populist Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski (2006-2016), it is a bit ridiculous with its wax statues and its big hoofed propaganda. But around it, the neighborhood of Novo Selo is pleasant.

This museum (Музеј на Град Штип) is the largest, richest and best presented in Eastern Macedonia. Founded in 1950, it is housed in the former complex of the Arsovi family, which dates back to the ^19th century. In the building to the left of the ticket office is the beautiful archaeological collection. Here you can see the ceramics of the Anzabegovo-Vršnik culture, which developed in the Bregalnica Valley between Kočani and Štip from 5300 to 4200 BCThis is also where most of the finds from the sites of Bargala and the Isar fortress are grouped: for example, statuettes of Greek deities from the Roman period, but also rarer objects left by the Avars who invaded the region in the ^6th century. A small ethnological exhibition is relegated to a room in the basement. The second building, to the right of the ticket office, houses the history department, which focuses on the revolt movements of the ^19th century and the wars of the ^20th century. One part is dedicated to the city's Jewish community, which was wiped out by the Holocaust in 1943. Štip has only one Jewish family left. It also has an old Jewish cemetery, just above the municipal cemetery, 3 km southwest of the center. A memorial to Jewish victims has stood next to the museum since 1985. In addition, the museum has two other collections: icons in the Church of the Dormition of the Mother of God (Novo Selo district, 1.4 km east) and works of art in the bezistan.