The Skopje Fortress (; ; ), commonly referred to as Kale (from '' kale'', the Turkish word for 'fortress'), is a historic fortress located in the

old town In a city or town, the old town is its historic or original core. Although the city is usually larger in its present form, many cities have redesignated this part of the city to commemorate its origins. In some cases, newer developments on t ...

Skopje Skopje ( , ; ; , sq-definite, Shkupi) is the capital and largest city of North Macedonia. It lies in the northern part of the country, in the Skopje Basin, Skopje Valley along the Vardar River, and is the political, economic, and cultura ...

, the capital of

North Macedonia North Macedonia, officially the Republic of North Macedonia, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe. It shares land borders with Greece to the south, Albania to the west, Bulgaria to the east, Kosovo to the northwest and Serbia to the n ...

. It is located in Centar municipality "the medieval Kale fortress – which overlooks the Old Bazaar – and the Ottoman Old Stone Bridge (Kameniot most) crossing over the Vardar have remained under the responsibility of another municipality – that of Centar." and situated on the highest point in the city overlooking the Vardar River. The fortress is depicted on the coat of arms of Skopje, which in turn is incorporated in the city's flag.

History

The first fortress was built in 6th century AD on a land that was inhabited during the

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

and

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

s (roughly 4000 BC onwards). It was constructed with yellow

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

and travertine, along with fragments of

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

inscriptions. Material for the fortress originated from the Roman city of Skupi, which was completely destroyed by an earthquake in 518. The fortress is thought to have been built during the rule of

emperor The word ''emperor'' (from , via ) can mean the male ruler of an empire. ''Empress'', the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), mother/grandmother (empress dowager/grand empress dowager), or a woman who rules ...

Justinian I Justinian I (, ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was Roman emperor from 527 to 565. His reign was marked by the ambitious but only partly realized ''renovatio imperii'', or "restoration of the Empire". This ambition was ...

and constructed further during the 10th and 11th centuries over the remains of emperor Justinian's

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

fortress which may have been destroyed due to a number of wars and battles in the region. The city was capital of the

First Bulgarian Empire The First Bulgarian Empire (; was a medieval state that existed in Southeastern Europe between the 7th and 11th centuries AD. It was founded in 680–681 after part of the Bulgars, led by Asparuh of Bulgaria, Asparuh, moved south to the northe ...

between 992 and 1015, and was center of the uprising of the Bulgarian Empire against the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived History of the Roman Empire, the events that caused the ...

under the rule of Peter Delyan. Not much is known about the

Medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

fortress apart from a few documents which outline minor characteristics in the fortress' appearance. In 1346 at the Skopje Fortress, Stefan Dušan adopted the title of

Emperor The word ''emperor'' (from , via ) can mean the male ruler of an empire. ''Empress'', the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), mother/grandmother (empress dowager/grand empress dowager), or a woman who rules ...

at his coronation and he had transferred the capital of

Serbian Empire The Serbian Empire ( sr-Cyrl-Latn, Српско царство, Srpsko carstvo, separator=" / ", ) was a medieval Serbian state that emerged from the Kingdom of Serbia. It was established in 1346 by Dušan the Mighty, who significantly expande ...

to Skopje. In 1660, Evliya Çelebi, a

chronicle A chronicle (, from Greek ''chroniká'', from , ''chrónos'' – "time") is a historical account of events arranged in chronological order, as in a timeline. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and local events ...

r of the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

, wrote an in-depth account on the appearance of the fortress while traveling through the territories of the Empire: The fortress was partially destroyed yet again by an earthquake in 1963 but was not reconstructed until recently.

Excavation and restoration efforts

In late 2006 and early 2007, research and excavation of the Skopje Fortress funded by the Macedonian government had finally commenced. Researchers discovered

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s and

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...

ornaments dating as far back as 3000 BC. Excavation of the main fortress also revealed houses below the fortress' visible level. The discoveries are believed to have belonged to inhabitants of Scupi on which the fortress was built. Archaeological excavations continued in 2009. In May 2010, archeologists unearthed the largest stash of Byzantine coins ever found in Macedonia at the fortress. After the foundations of a 13th-century church were found within the complex, the Cultural Heritage Protection Office actioned a project to restore it in the form of a church museum. Ethnic Albanian groups, with DUI at the forefront, claimed the site contained an older Illyrian structure, and that by virtue of their claimed Illyrian ancestry, the site should be theirs. The dispute revolved around competing claims to the area as being either Christian or Muslim and Macedonian or Albanian. On February 10, 2011, late at night, a crowd of about 100 ethnic Albanians converged on the site to find over 50 construction workers from Bitola working on the steel church museum.Dramë në Kala të Shkupit, kisha ndërtohet natën
Retrieved 8/20/2012 When questioned who ordered the construction the workers refused to answer but revealed that they were instructed to start building from 10:00 PM over the night. Some of the crowd proceeded to destroy and vandalize parts of the scaffolding, the same day restoration was resumed after it was officially halted by the government. The construction workers were removed from the building site by the Macedonian police. According to media footage, high-ranking ethnic Albanian ministers and members of DUI leadership were among the crowd. Two weeks prior to the event, DUI spokespeople had demanded the termination of the project. During the next two days, Macedonians on

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called on each other to converge on the site and protect the site and its workers. Members of both groups arrived almost simultaneously on February 13 and a violent clash erupted, leaving around 10 injured, including 2 policemen. The opposition, Macedonian and Albanian, condemned the violence, criticized the

prime minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

Nikola Gruevski for creating inter-ethnic tensions and called on the government to take responsibility for it. The Social Democratic Union of Macedonia, the most numerous opposition party, claimed that this event was staged as an attempt to distract the people of Macedonia from the reigning poverty and corruption. The Albanian New Democracy also reacted that "they should not destroy the future of the country by focusing on its past". The Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs reacted:

"The decision of the Government of Macedonia to construct a church-museum on the Skopje Fortress on its most visible spot is going to create serious tensions in the society.
Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...
pays special attention to preserving and protecting the cultural heritage that is left in Macedonia from the
Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...
."

Various political analysts claimed that the incident was orchestrated by the Macedonian and Albanian governing parties, namely VMRO-DPMNE and the Democratic Union for Integration. Vlado Dimovski, head of the "Center for inter-ethnic tolerance" in Macedonia, stated that "the coalition partners (VMRO-DPMNE and DUI) orchestrated the violent event on the Skopje Fortress to distract the public from the problems that the country is facing".

Gallery

File:Tower from the Skopje Fortress.JPG, Tower at Kale Fortress File:Kale Skopje.jpg, Minaret of Mustafa Pasha Mosque from Kale Fortress File:Skopje kale spomenik.jpg, Statue at the fortress Vista de Skopie, Macedonia, 2014-04-16, DD 82.JPG, View of the Skopje Fortress (right-center) from Vodno File:Skopje kale iskopini.jpg, Ruins inside the fortress File:Skopskoto kale.jpg, Skopje Fortress in the early 1920s File:KaleFortress-Skopje2.JPG, Front side of the fortress Fortaleza de Skopie, Macedonia, 2014-04-17, DD 51.JPG, View of the wall from the interior Fortaleza de Skopie, Macedonia, 2014-04-17, DD 84.JPG, Night view of a tower File:Kaleto, 20 vek.jpg, Historical images of Skopje: view of Kale File:Skopje Fortress.png, Plan of the medieval fortress Skopje File:Panorama od Skopje, stara slika.tif, A view of Stone Bridge and Skopje Fortress, Skopje

References

External links

Official site dedicated to the Skopje Fortress
{{Castles in North Macedonia Castles in North Macedonia Buildings and structures in Skopje Old Bazaar, Skopje

History

Excavation and restoration efforts

Gallery

See also

References

External links