Skopje
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Kale

Kale
People have been camping out on the strategically placed hill above what is now the bazaar area since before the Bronze Age. A town was first started here in the early Byzantine era (6th-7th century), the big blocks dragged from Scupi, the nearby town that was destroyed in the 518AD earthquake. This was the great town of Justinia Prima, founded by emperor Justinian, the second city in the Byzantine empire and location of the archbishopric, the first independent church in Europe (which was later transferred to Ohrid). From the 14th to the 20th centuries the Ottomans used the fortress as a military barracks, expanding the number of towers to 70, of which only three remain today. The 1963 earthquake flattened much of the fortress, including many of the walls, some of which are being rebuilt. Near the Mustafa Pasha mosque, the eastern gate (from 1446) to the fortress gives access to a high field surrounded by the ruins of the walls, of which the 120-metre-long cyclopic wall is the oldest. There’s not much to see except for the walls and the great views over central Skopje.

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