"Archeological site Bargala" Stip Things to Do Tip by Pijlmans

Bargala was one of the more important fortified towns in Macedonia in the Late Antiquity and early Byzantium. It was constructed between the 4th and 6th century AD.

Its name is related to the river Bregalnica.

The site is very well kept, not overgrown and easily accessible. In 2010 it was still free to visit.

We wandered over the site for almost 2 hours, before we got to the early medieval Church of St George, located right next to Bargala. There we met some men who were restoring the church. One of them, called Dobre, was the security guard of Bargala and he was so kind to give us a tour of the site. Only at that moment we understood what kind of buildings the ruins we had been looking at for two hours actually had been! In my travelogues in the link below you can find the descriptions of the ruins and what their purpose was in the past.

A month after our visit, several antique vessels and parts of the baths were vandalized, see the link to the storage rooms.

Some of the stuctures are:
Gate and wall
Basilica and Baptistery
Baths
Storage rooms
Court, Prison Cell, Altar and Mortuarium
Glass factory and Iron factory
Winery and Basilica Extra Muros
Water management
Church of St George

Directions: About 20 km northeast from Stip, along the road to Vrteska.
Website: http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/tt/b473d/