Scupi’s Archaeological Echoes: A Glimpse into Skopje’s Ancient Roots

The archaeological site of Scupi, with its well-preserved remnants of Roman architecture and the ongoing excavations that continue to uncover its past, serves as a testament to the city’s enduring legacy.

The city of Skopje boasts a rich and long history that dates back to the beginnings of the New Era. This is evidenced by the remnants of the ancient Roman city of Scupi, located near the villages of Zlokućani and Bardovci, about three kilometers northwest of today’s center of Skopje.
According to historical sources, the city was formed around a Roman army camp (castra), dating back to the 2nd century BCE, where the 5th Macedonian and 4th Scythian legions were stationed. Their goal was to conquer and control the territories of the Dardanians and Macedonians.
The first urban constructions were erected in 15th year a.d., during the reign of Emperor Tiberius (14-37), and a more intense colonization and urbanization of the city took place during the reign of Emperor Domitian (84-96 AD). At that time, Scupi became a colony, with the full name Colonia Flavia Scupiorum, and it became the main center of the province of Upper Moesia. Alongside Roman colonists and retired veterans from the 7th Claudian Legion, in the city lived and settled local inhabitants with Pannonian and Dardanian origins.

The city was carefully planned on a square foundation, with streets laid out at right angles, protected by high walls, and in the second century it acquired a representative amphitheater. Despite occasional attacks and conquests by the barbarian tribes such as Sarmatians, Goths, and Huns, in the following centuries, Scupi became an important administrative, economic, and religious center of the region.
In the 4th century, the most representative building in the city was built, Basilica 1, and by the end of the 4th or the beginning of the 5th century, another early Christian church was erected in the city. In the 4th century, it became the bishopic, and later, an archbishopic seat. Emperor Theodosius I issued two imperial decrees in Scupi in 379 and 388 AD, and historians have noted the bishops and archbishops of Scupi, some of whom participated in ecumenical councils in Nicaea, Constantinople, and Serdica (modern Sofia).
This ecclesiastical development of Scupi was interrupted in 518 AD, when the city was devastated by a catastrophic earthquake, described in the Chronicle of Marcellinus Comes. Wonderful architectonic buildings, numerous public baths and the ancient amphitheater built in Roman style, large basilica with mosaic floors of Scupi have completely disappeared.

After 518 AD, urban life in the Roman city of Scupi ceased, although there are indications that life continued nearby, but as a small Slavic rural settlement, on the site of today’s Skopje fortress. During the 10th and 11th centuries, Scupi, now under a modified name, Skopje, would return to the historical stage.
The archaeological site of Scupi has been known since the end of the 19th century. In 1883, British explorer Arthur Evans visited Skopje and registered the Roman walls on the Zajčev Rid, which he explained as remnants of the acropolis of Scupi. Archaeological excavations at the site began incidentally before the Second World War and were intensively continued in 1966 under the guidance of the Museum of the City of Skopje. These investigations, with some interruptions, have been continuously carried out to this day. So far, they have been fully or partially investigated: the walls, the theater, the civil basilica, the city villa, the city baths, the street – cardo, the Christian basilica, parts of the eastern and western necropolis.
Nowadays Skupi is one of the largest Roman cities in the Balkans with the status of a colony. Approximately 1,000 graves from the southeast and northwest necropolises have been explored, which date from the period between the 1st and the 4th centuries, as well as parts of the Antique bridge across the river Vardar, a private villa and a Christian basilica in the village of Bardovci.
The archaeological site of Scupi, with its well-preserved remnants of Roman architecture and the ongoing excavations that continue to uncover its past, serves as a testament to the city’s enduring legacy. As Skopje evolves, it remains a symbol of the region’s historical depth and its commitment to preserving its rich heritage for future generations.