Macedonian fortress of the Bulgarian king

There were many interesting sights in the Macedonian capital Skopje. Due to lack of time and heat, we did not all examine them, but tried to visit at least the most important and famous ones. For example, the famous Macedonian fortress Skopsko Kale. By the way, they call it in different ways, who is just Krepstta in Skopje, who is Kaleto (fortress), who is Justinian, the main thing here is to make it clear what it is about.

The fortress is located in the very center of the city, or rather rises above it on a forty-five-meter hill. It offers beautiful views of Skopje. Once it was not only a defensive structure, but also housing, because in the lowest perimeter of Skopsko Kale, the townspeople lived - a civilian population.

The medieval fortress of Skopsko Kale had its ancient predecessor in the form of the Roman fortress of Skopje. It is assumed that the fortress was taken by the Goths in the IV century, and in the VI century it was restored by Justinian and again conquered, but by the Slavs at the beginning of the VII century. After these owners abandoned the fortress, it was overgrown with grass and bushes for several decades, until the Bulgarians, led by Khan Kubera, arrived in the 680s. He re-raises the walls of the fortress and significantly expands it to the west. These about a hundred decars make Skopje fortress one of the largest strongholds in the Balkans. Naturally, Skopje becomes the center, that is, a regional city, and then unexpectedly the capital of Bulgaria. The fact is that in 971 Byzantium conquered Preslav, the capital of Bulgaria, and Tsar Boris II and his brother Roman were captured and assigned to Constantinople, but after 980 they fled to Vidin. The Bulgarian border guard mistakenly killed Tsar Boris II and therefore Roman remained the last heir to the Krumov dynasty. After the coronation, the Skopje fortress was determined to be his residence.

The garrison under the command of Roman took part in the defeat of the army of Vasily the Bulgarian Slayer at Ihtiman in 986. In 992, it is unknown how, but Roman was again captured by the Byzantines, and at this the Bulgarian capital period Skopje was over. The new Bulgarian king Samuel chose Ohrid as his capital (now also the Macedonian city).

Skopje, linking Ohrid with Bulgarian fortresses in today's Eastern Serbia and Bulgaria, was fortified with additional new towers. In total, the fortress had seven different-angle towers and three perimeters, the height of the walls reached 11 meters, today's - 9 meters. The oldest surviving to date date back to the 11th century. The width of the walls is 2.85 meters.

In 1072, the fortress manager Georg Vojtech raised a liberation uprising and found one Serbian princely son - Konstantin Bodin, whose grandmother was from the Samuilov clan. Under the name of Tsar Peter II, the young hero began to reign in Skopje. Thus, this city for the second time became the capital of Bulgaria, but it lasted less than a year until Georgi Voitech and Tsar Peter II were defeated by the Byzantines.

During the time of the Bulgarian king Asen, the fortress was the backbone of the state in the extreme southwestern borders of the kingdom. But in 1278, Skopje was taken by the Serbs, and in 1346 the city became the capital of King Stephen Dushan. In 1392, Skopje fell under the rule of the Ottoman Empire.

And so the city passed from hand to hand, and for all its existence (from the 3rd century BC) managed to visit both Slavic and Ottoman, Serbian, and Bulgarian - this is such a mixture of cultures.
And Skopje became the capital of modern Macedonia in 1991.

Entrance to the fortress is free, parking is also free.

I am writing about Bulgaria, just Macedonia is nearby 😊

Thank you for your time and attention.

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With love from Bulgaria @varya-davydova