The Matka Canyon and Stobi: Part 9 of The Balkans

An Artificial Lake, The Remains of a Roman City and the Popova Kula Winery

Through Saraj and Glumovo to the Matka Canyon

North Macedonia

A study of Google maps suggested it should not be too complicated leaving Skopje in the direction of the Matka Canyon, a scenic area west of the city. With no satnav we wrote our own instructions, followed them without difficulty to the edge of the city and correctly guessed the unsigned left turn to the small town of Saraj. It was by no means the only unsigned turning we would encounter.

Beyond Saraj the turning to the road that ascends the canyon was well marked, but only to those approaching from the west. As we arrived from the east we had to go far enough past it to realise we were wrong, turn and then find out on the way back.

We passed through the village of Glumovo. Pencil thin minarets are a feature of Balkan mosques, Glumovo mosque has a pair of them.

Glumovo Mosque

Intuition took us up the right road as the walls of rock closed about us. We parked where a couple of buses had disgorged a school party and followed them on foot. The road ran beside the River Treska, here channelled into a flume for canoe slalom races, though the water was low and smooth flowing. A couple of hundred metres later we could see the tall, narrow dam filling the gap between the rock walls – a source of white water whenever it is required.

The Matka Dam

Matka Canyon and Sveti Andreja

The road wound up to a car park where we could have parked if we had known about it. A footpath took us to the top of the dam where an information board in English and Macedonian informed us that it had been built in 1937 and that a fascist plot to blow it up during the Second World War was foiled by the Partisans. It has also survived several major storms and the 1963 earthquake. Above the dam we followed a footpath burrowed into the rock face, eventually catching up with the school party at a small hotel with a landing stage for boat trips.

Lake Matka

The teachers were valiantly holding their charges back, allowing them into the hotel in ones and twos to use the toilet as they waited, presumably for a boat trip. They moved aside to let us through as we headed for our morning espresso.

The small church beside the hotel turned out to be Sveti Andreja, which we had earlier identified as our destination for the morning. We were pleased with ourselves for finding it – and a little surprised by our success.

Sveti Andreja, Matka Canyon

When it was built in 1389 it must have been a remarkable sight, tucked on a rocky ledge in a steep canyon above a rushing river. Today it is at water level, a small building beside a larger hotel. The inside, though, remains magnificent, the walls covered in frescoes. A vigilant guardian made photography impossible, though, to be fair, he was helpful and friendly and gave us the brochure from which I have scanned what I think is the Birth of Christ. Its a lovely picture, whatever it is. Its so wrong it is not just right but nearly perfect. Sometimes I wonder if the invention/discovery of perspective actually spoiled painting.

Fresco of the Birth of Christ, Sveti Andreja, Matka Canyon

Finding Our Way to Stobi

Leaving Sveti Andreja we walked to the car, drove back through Saraj and found our way to the motorway which circles northern Skopje before turning south. Motorway driving in Macedonia is very easy, providing you keep awake. There is little traffic on most Macedonian roads but the motorways are largely empty, maybe the modest tolls put drivers off; it cost us a total of 180 denars ( £1.10) at four toll booths on the 100 kilometre journey between Saraj and the small town of Gradsko where we exited.

We had not intended visiting Gradsko, which is north of the turn off, as we were headed south to the remains of the Roman city of Stobi. The confusing signs, however, meant that we took an unintended trip down Gradsko’s one main street, lined with a few shops and cafés, and briefly out the other side to the huge Stobi Winery – very modern and definitely not a Roman ruin - before finding somewhere to turn round.

Skopje to Demir Kapija via the Matka Canyon and Stobi

Now going the right way, we drove down the old road running parallel to the motorway. After a while we saw a large Macedonian flag flying over what looked like an earthwork away to our right. Then we passed the derelict Stobi Restaurant and crossed the Crna River. ‘It should be by the river,’ Lynne told me. A mile our so later I turned round and we returned to the derelict restaurant and parked in its forecourt. A fence ran across the back with an open gate and a small sign staying ‘Stobi’. In the field behind a group of men were busy removing some felled trees. A man in uniform wandered over to have a look at us. ‘Stobi?’ we asked in our fluent Macedonian. He pointed across the field into the distance. 'Tickets,' he said, his English ever so slightly better than our Macedonian.

Theatre, Stobi

The Roman City of Stobi

Following a tough track across a meadow of wild flowers, we reached the Roman site, walked through it and on the far side found a car park and a souvenir shop selling tickets. We walked in. 'Have you come from the other side?' the girl asked as though we were apparitions at a séance. Only now could we see that the new entrance was beside a dedicated Stobi motorway exit not shown on our road map (the latest Freytag and Berndt edition that Amazon could sell). This new entrance had presumably killed off the old Stobi Restaurant. Our enquiry about a replacement café elicited a shake of the head, which was a shame as we had been relying on the Stobi café – praised in all the guidebooks - for lunch.

Episcopal Basilica, Stobi

Stobi turned out to be a well-organized and well-presented site. The city was probably founded in the 7th century BC by the Paeonian people, Paeonia being a kingdom that occupied the Vardar valley from the mountains north of Skopje to where the Greek border is now. In 217BCE Philip V of Macedonia annexed Paeonia and from then until the Romans arrived in 168BCE it was a Macedonian Greek city. Sitting astride the main Roman road from the Danube to the Aegean, at the confluence of the Crna and Vardar rivers and in the midst of a fertile plain, Stobi could not but prosper. By 69BCE was a ‘municipium’ and had its own mint. It became the capital of the Roman province of Macedonia Salutaris and its inhabitants had the status of Roman citizens.

Baptistry, Episcopal Basilica, Stobi

In 479 Theodoric the Ostrogoth paid a visit, which did the city no good at all. Stobi recovered but was severely damaged in the earthquake of 518. Next came Slavic tribes migrating from the north – the ancestors of the modern Republic of Macedonia’s citizens – and they were not interested in sophisticated city living. It was all over for Stobi until Serbian archaeologists arrived in the 1920s.

The House of Peristeria, Stobi

During its millennium of growth the same land wasine vitably built on over and over again. Unsurprisingly most of the buildings excavated have been from Stobi's later period as part of the Eastern Roman Empire. We started at the impressive amphitheatre and moved on to the episcopal basilica, obviously an important church with impressive mosaic floors and a baptistery. Streets, houses, baths and the city's central fountain could still be seen as well as the central basilica built over an earlier synagogue.

Lynne by the city fountain, Stobi

To Demir Kapija and the Popova Kula Winery

Leaving Stobi we rejoined the motorway and continued south to Demir Kapija, a small town where we were to stay at the Popova Kula Winery. Fortunately the winery, 800m from town along a road with occasional outbreaks of tarmac, was unusually well sign-posted. A Popova Kula (Priest's Tower) once overlooked Demir Kapija, and the winery has borrowed the name and built a new tower as their tasting room.

Popovo Kula Winery, Demir Kapija

The expanding modern winery is in the heart of the Tikveš wine region, which is the only region that really counts in Macedonia. A comfortable hotel has been attached to the winery and obviously a great deal of money has been invested. It was a shame only three rooms seemed to be occupied and the 70 seat restaurant fed five people while we were there, though a party of six arrived as we left. This was early season, so I hope trade picks up later.

Vineyard, Popova Kula Winery, Demir Kapija

Popova Kula Winery Tour

We were given a tour of the winery with its stainless steel fermentation vats and modern equipment. Building started in October 2004 and the winery was ready for its first harvest in 2005. They vinify eleven different grape varieties, some like Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay are well known, others like Vranec, Prokupec, Zilavka and Temjanika are unknown outside the Balkans, while Stanušina is unique to Macedonia. The best of the Vranec (the main red grape of the Balkans and a favourite of mine for its dark, smoky, richness), Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot are aged in new oak barrels.

Popova Kula Winry, Demir Kapija

Dinner at Popova Kula Winery

Having missed lunch we were ready for dinner and for once had a starter. After a glass of mastika, a local variation on ouzo, Lynne chose vine leaves wrapped around rice flavoured with herbs while I had a plate of cheese. Starting a meal with cheese may be a little at odds with our standard practice, but is not unusual in the Balkans. Slices of four local cheeses, all very different were tasted and enjoyed by both of us. Lynne had a chicken steak while I enjoyed pork steaks stuffed with prunes. We chose a bottle of Stanušina to go with it, partly because it is uniquely local and the winery takes particular pride in it, and partly because a light red was appropriate. Served chilled it was actually too light for my taste, though clean and supple. They also make Stanušina rosé and white. I thought it might make a perfect rosé, and we took some home to find out.

The reserve wines, Popova Kula Winery

Given the investment of time, care and money that goes into these wines, they are remarkably cheap, starting at around £3 and not rising much beyond, except for the reserve wines which were over £10. The mark up policy for the restaurant was pleasingly realistic making dining as easy on the wallet as it was on the palate.

The Balkans

Bosnia and Herzogivina (May 2012)

Part 1 Sarajevo (1): The Old Town, The New Town and That Assassination
Part 2 Sarajevo (2): The Seige
Part 3 Mostar

Croatia (May 2012)

Part 4 Dubrovnik (1): Around the City Walls
Part 5 Korčula
Part 6 Dubrovnik (2): Inside the Walls

North Macedonia (May/June 2015)

Part 7 Flying into FYRoM
Part 8 Skopje
Part 9 The Matka Canyon and Stobi
Part 10 Prilep and Bitola
Part 11 The Mariovo and Lake Prespa
Part 12 Ohrid, the Heart of Slavic Macedonia
Part 13 Ohrid to Albania The East Coast of the Lake
Part 14 Struga and Ohrid Trout
Part 15 Debar and back to Skopje

Skopje: Part 8 of The Balkans

An Old City Reborn After a Disastrous Earthquake

North Macedonia

Skopje

After our late arrival the night before we did not get off to the swiftest start in the morning, but by nine thirty, after our hire car had been delivered, we felt ready to leave our new car parked for the day and head off to explore Skopje on foot. The weather was warm enough, the cloud cover offered a few sunny intervals but also the possibility of rain (which, apart from a few spots, never materialised).

Skopje is an old city, but not one renowned for its beauty. Since the Romans left it has been captured, sacked, razed and rebuilt many times. Most recently, the 1963 earthquake destroyed 80% of the city, killing over 1,000 people and leaving 200,000 homeless. The subsequent drive to rebuild Skopje as a model socialist city added little to its charms.

The Balkans

From our balcony, though, Bulevar Partizanski Odredi looked a pleasant enough city street and we set out with open minds.

Bulevar Partizanski Odredi, Skopje

The Cathedral of St Kliment of Ohrid

Macedonia Square was only a couple of hundred metres from our hotel, but first we stopped at the Cathedral of St Kliment of Ohrid, because it was just about next-door.

St Kliment of Ohrid on the road by his cathedral, Skopje

The Virgin Mary Cathedral was burnt down by fascists at the end of WW2, and St Demetri's (see later) was too small so Skopje needed a new cathedral. Built in the early 1970s, St Kliment’s is an impressive structure, traditional in form but modern in execution, both outside and in.

Cathedral of St Kliment of Ohrid, Skopje

Orthodox churches have no pews, but they do always have an older person wandering round lighting candles and kissing icons.

Iconostasis (and an icon kisser) St Kliment of Ohrid, Skopje

There are frescoes high on the walls and inside the dome, and at eye-level icons on the iconostasis and around the walls. I knew that hand-positions in Buddha images have coded meanings, but had not realised the same applies in Eastern Christianity. On the enormous fresco filling the dome (Christ’s eye is, apparently, 1.5m across) the position of the right hand indicates that this is Christ Pantocrator, Christ Lord of All. The paintings round the walls, all crisply executed, mimic the fifteenth century style - they might be faux-naïve but I liked them.

Christ Pantocrator, St Kliment of Ohrid Cathedral, Skopje

The Musicians

Near the square we passed ‘The Musicians’. Macedonians can sometimes seem a bit chippy, particularly in their relations with Greece, and the Skopje 2014 project is filling the city with outsize statutes, mostly of warriors and/or nationalists. ‘The Musicians’ is a refreshing antidote, and if this is the real self-image of the city’s people, they cannot be all bad.

The Musicians, near Macedonia Square, Skopje

Macedonia Square

Macedonia Square is dominated by the statue ‘Warrior on a Horse’ erected in 2011 to celebrate thirty years of Macedonian independence. The warrior is obviously Alexander the Great, but to keep the Greeks happy (see Flying into FYRoM for the background) the statue does not officially bear his name. Most of the square is currently surrounded by barriers and work is being done inside, so we did not see Not-Alexander at his best.

Warrior on a Horse, Macedonia Square, Skopje
Behind, atop of Mt Vodno, is the 66m high Millennium Cross, the world's biggest cross (reputedly)

The Stone Bridge and The Boatmen of Thessaloniki

At the end of square is the River Vardar which rises in the northern mountains and 388km later flows into the Aegean Sea. In Skopje it is fast flowing and shallow, intermediate between a mountain stream and a mature river.

It is crossed by a stone footbridge, built in the 6th century by the Byzantine emperor Justinian who was born locally and wanted to do something for his native turf. He now sits on a huge stone chair to the left of the bridge. The symbol of the city (see Coat of Arms, above), the Stone Bridge has been rebuilt and embellished many times, most notably by the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II in the 15th century. He added the little guard tower at the far end which fell down during the 2014 restoration but has been replaced.

The Stone Bridge and the Boatmen of Thessaloniki, Skopje

The group of six to the right of the bridge is the Boatmen of Thessaloniki, a Bulgarian/Macedonian anarchist group. Between 1900 and 1903 they carried out a series of bomb attacks to draw attention to the suffering of Bulgarians, Macedonians and Thracians under the Ottoman yoke; proof (if proof were needed) that one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.

I prefer the bathers at the base of one of the piers. Like the musicians, it is an outbreak of humanity among the bombastic statues that crowd out almost everything else.

The Bathers, Stone Bridge, Skopje

As big and bombastic as any is the The Warrior (not on a Horse). He is not officially Philip of Macedon either, but everybody knows he is.

Warrior (not Philip II of Macedonia)

St Demetri's (Sveti Dimitrija)

Just past Not-Philip we dropped into the little church of Sveti Dimitrija. Built in 1886, it is unostentatious and looks smaller than it is, which pleased the Ottoman rulers.

Sveti Dimitrija, Skopje

The interior is dark and calm with an aroma of incense and candles. There is a fine iconostasis….

Iconostasis, Sveti Dimitrija, Skopje

…. but the most interesting feature is the pulpit which is extra-ordinarily high and accessed by a steep spiral staircase twisted round a pillar.

Pulpit, Sveti Dimitrija, Skopje

Opposite are the domes of the Daud Paša Hammam, now the City Art Gallery, and a reminder that we were entering the Caršija, the old Ottoman quarter.

Daud Paša Hammam, Skopje

Climbing the hill, the narrow pedestrianised lanes are lined with cafés, many with wooden platforms built out into the road. We stopped for our morning espresso which cost 30 Denars (40p) each.

Cafés in the Caršija, Skopje

St Saviour's (Sveti Spas)

Detouring a little to the left off the main drag toward the castle, the Kale Fortress, of which only a forbidding curtain wall survives, we reached Sveti Spas (St Saviour’s) Church. The original was destroyed in a fire in 1689. The Ottoman rulers forbade the building of new churches, and it was not until the start of the 19th century that permission was granted to rebuild Sveti Spas. Height restrictions were imposed so that the pencil-thin minarets of the Ottoman mosques would dominate the sky line. They still do - until the 19th century Skopje was overwhelmingly a Muslim city and still has more mosques than churches.

In keeping with Ottoman regulations the outside is unadorned, and to keep down the height the church is dug a metre or so into the ground. In the courtyard are some interesting old gravestones and, standing alone and much larger, the tomb of the Macedonian nationalist Goce Delchev (see previous post).

The externally very plain Sveti Spas, Skopje

We bought our tickets and were escorted inside by the amiable guardian. By the door the ground level of the earlier church is obvious, and there are fragments of the original frescoes. The 19th century church is dominated by its icon screen. Deep carved from single wooden blocks, the massive 10m by 6m screen represents seven years work by Makarie Frckovski and the brothers Petre and Marko Filipovski, the pre-eminent wood carvers of their day. With so much detail and intricate deep carving, they must have been busy years. Biblical scenes predominate; particularly pleasing is the depiction of the death of John the Baptist. Salome is shown dancing in traditional Macedonian costume, while Herod wears Turkish costume – in 19th century Macedonian eyes, to be a baddie was to be a Turk. I have no photos of this magnificent piece of work, the guardian stayed too close to defy the ‘no photography’ sign. I have borrowed the photograph below from Alexei Trofimov's excellent Deeper History Blog. If you have time go and pay him a visit, he is a better photographer than me.

The iconostasis, Sveti Spas, Skopje

The Caršija, Skopje

Further along, the shops are grouped by type as in eastern bazaars. We passed through an area of wedding dress shops, and then one of gold sellers and jewellers.

The gold and jewellery area, Caršija, Skopje

Many men wore Muslim skull caps, and the women head scarves. Muslim Albanians make up a fifth of Skopje's population, and this was where they lived.

Caršija, Skopje

The Caršija ends at the Bit Pazar, largely a fruit and vegetable market which has developed a fringe selling household supplies and bric-a-brac.

Bit Pazar, Skopje

Turning back towards the river we followed signs to the Museum of Macedonia but could not find it and ended up at the rather splendid Mustafa Pasha mosque.

Mustafa Pasha mosque, Skopje

We had lunch in one of the Caršija's many restaurants; minced beef kebabs with stewed beans and a Shopska salad (tomatoes and cucumber covered with a snowstorm of finely-grated cheese). Half a litre of draught Skopsko beer was also very welcome.

There were a couple of spits of rain while we ate, but we were dry beneath the restaurant’s awning. Watching people passing we noticed several groups of young women where some wore headscarves and others did not. Mixed Macedonian/Albanian friendship groups are rare, so presumably they were all Albanian. Whether the wearing of more obvious Muslim dress is on the increase (as we have observed in Cairo) or decrease we could not tell.

Skopje also has some 25,000 Roma citizens, possibly the largest Roma population anywhere. Darker skinned and thinner faced than the Albanians, their clothes are of a more old-fashioned Muslim style and distinctly shabbier. Here, as always, they are at the bottom of the social heap and a couple of Roma women were begging around the restaurants. I have always believed that the best way out of poverty – both cultural and financial – is education, so it was worrying to watch Roma children of 9 or 10 hawking paper handkerchiefs in the streets when they should have been in school,

The Museum of Macedonia and Kuršumli An Caravanserai

Refreshed, we decided to have another go at finding the Museum of Macedonia. After studying the map we approached it from a different direction, came across some different signs but again found only the Mustafa Pasha mosque. Approaching a man looking after a scruffy carpark with the question 'museum?' elicited a finger pointing through his yard to the back of a building we had passed earlier. Hearing childish voices we had assumed the unmarked 1960s kit building was a school, but apparently we had been listening to a school party visiting the museum.

The Museum of Macedonia, Skopje
I have just noticed that a corner of this building can be seen in my photo of the Mustafa Pasha mosque!

Even knowing the right building we could not at first find the appropriate door but eventually found a friendly ticket seller who directed us first to the frescoes and icons. They have a magnificent collection, but some explanation in a language other than Macedonian would be helpful to foreign visitors.

The history sectioned covered the two world wars and the period in between. There are more English captions here, and a feeling that they were written not just in the time of Marshall Tito, but before Yugoslavia broke with the USSR. I discussed the anti-Greek rhetoric in the previous post.

We finished with the ethnographic section - which necessitated locating another door. The collection of costumes and mock-ups of old buildings were interesting but best were the photographs of people in their homes wearing the costumes. Looking at a photo of a child my initial reaction was that it was from the late 19th century, I was taken aback when I clocked the date and realised that the child was younger than I am – he is probably still out there somewhere, though not dressed like that. National costume, it seems, was everyday dress in rural parts of this country well into the 1960s.

Ruined mosque (I think) in an overgrown and forgotten corner by the museum, Skopje

According to the Lonely Planet the archaeology department is housed in Kuršumli An, a 16th century caravanserai and reputedly the largest and finest remaining in Skopje. Taking a short cut back to the road we found it by accident, behind a ruined mosque in an overgrown corner beyond the carpark.

Kuršumli An

There was, again, no sign, but the door was open so we walked, or rather stooped, in.

Open door, Kuršumli An, Skopje

It was indeed a magnificent two storey caravanserai, the ground floor for animals and goods, the upstairs for people. Except for a middle-aged woman apparently employed to sit at a desk in the courtyard and read a newspaper, we were alone. Our exploration revealed a remarkable building and a small and apparently forgotten cache of ancient gravestones but no other archaeology.

Kuršumli An and the newspaper reader, Skopje

Skopje’s Museum of the Macedonian Struggle and Archaeological Museum are housed in impressive new buildings. We only went to the Museum of Macedonia because we passed a sign for it in the street. Very much the poor relation, it has some fine exhibits, but the building was appalling; unsigned – no wonder we had it to ourselves – and rotting with stains on walls and carpets where the cheap flat roofs had leaked.

Lynne at Kuršumli An, Skopje

Back over the River

From the Caravanserai we walked back down through the Caršija, missing our way in the narrow alleys and reaching the river some way downstream of the Stone Bridge. We walked along the river past two modern footbridges, both lined with statues, as was the walkway itself. The Art Bridge bears the statues of 35 people who contributed to the arts in Macedonia, the other unnamed bridge the likenesses of 35 warriors.

Lynne on the Art Bridge, Skopje

Porta Macedonia

Crossing the Stone Bridge we walked to the Porta Macedonia, a triumphal arch built in 2010/11 and designed by Valentina Stefanovska, who was also responsible for Not-Alexander the Great. The Museum of Macedonia seems starved of funds and I wonder if this was best way to spend €4 million.

Porta Macedonia, Skopje

Mother Teresa

Nearby on the pedestrian Macedonia Street is the Memorial House of Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Opened in 2009, it is on the site of the Sacred Heart Church where Mother Teresa was baptised. She was born in Skopje in 1910 and lived in the city until she joined the Sisters of Loreto in 1928. A Catholic ethnic Albanian (most Albanians are Muslims) of Kosovan origin she was born a subject of the Ottoman Empire but by the age of 8 she had been Ottoman, Serbian, Bulgarian and then Yugoslav – such was the state of flux in the Balkans. The Albanians claim her as one of theirs as do the Macedonians, but she chose Indian citizenship in 1948 and she belonged to India and to the world.

Mother Teresa Memorial House, Skopje

Later we walked back to the restaurants around Macedonia Square. Plenty of tables were occupied by drinkers, but few people were eating. After wandering around for a while we chose the inappropriately named London Bistro. ‘Traditional’ Macedonian pork and mushroom stew with sour cream was very good – we seem unable to buy mushrooms which taste of mushroom at home - though not very large (nor was it very expensive which might be connected). Lynne had a pizza, but it was a ‘Macedonian pizza’, with sour cream and pickled chillies. A bottle of Vranac, a grape who’s dark, smoky, plumminess I especially like, was an excellent accompaniment.

Macedonian pork and mushroom stew and a bottle of Vranac, Skopje

The Balkans

Bosnia and Herzogivina (May 2012)

Part 1 Sarajevo (1): The Old Town, The New Town and That Assassination
Part 2 Sarajevo (2): The Seige
Part 3 Mostar

Croatia (May 2012)

Part 4 Dubrovnik (1): Around the City Walls
Part 5 Korčula
Part 6 Dubrovnik (2): Inside the Walls

North Macedonia (May/June 2015)

Part 7 Flying into FYRoM
Part 8 Skopje
Part 9 The Matka Canyon and Stobi
Part 10 Prilep and Bitola
Part 11 The Mariovo and Lake Prespa
Part 12 Ohrid, the Heart of Slavic Macedonia
Part 13 Ohrid to Albania The East Coast of the Lake
Part 14 Struga and Ohrid Trout
Part 15 Debar and back to Skopje