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Hidden gem3rd – 6th c. ADUnknown

Davina Kula

Devina Kula, Давина Кула

city · Municipality of Čučer-Sandevo, North Macedonia

What it is
Davina Kula is a late antique hilltop town above the Lepenec valley, 12 km north-west of Skopje, whose walls and lanes can still be traced on the surface of the hill — a site for walkers, with nothing laid out for visitors.
What you’ll see
At the southern, highest end of the hill stands the acropolis: an oval castle of about 185 × 110 m whose towered walls of stone and lime date from the late Roman 4th century and were rebuilt in the 6th, after the earthquake of 518.
Worth the trip?
Only if you like walking to a ruin for the view and the story. mk.wikipedia calls the walls and buildings extraordinarily well preserved, but what the photographs show is low walls in grass on a hilltop, with no path mapped to it and nothing to explain what you are seeing.
Getting there & cost
The site is 3 km south-west of Čučer and 12 km north-west of Skopje, beside the main road to Kosovo at the southern end of the Kačanik gorge.UnknownHours, tickets and parking
Low stone walls forming the corner of a building on a grassy hilltop, a lone tree behind and hills and a valley stretching away under a cloudy sky.
The hill looks out over the valley. · Photo: Македонец · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Low courses of flat stones outlining walls in the grass of a hilltop, with bushes around and a wide plain with a city and mountains in the distance.
Walls on the hilltop, with the plain of Skopje beyond. · Photo: Македонец · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
A long dressed stone block lying in tall grass between two stubs of wall built of flat stones.
A dressed block between wall stubs. · Photo: Македонец · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

What is there today

At the southern, highest end of the hill stands the acropolis: an oval castle of about 185 × 110 m whose towered walls of stone and lime date from the late Roman 4th century and were rebuilt in the 6th, after the earthquake of 518. Inside, rows of houses with several rooms along narrow parallel lanes can still be seen clearly on the surface, and a church stood at the highest point. North of it, on a narrow terrace, the core of the town was laid out to a plan in the 6th century: a double wall with towers and a large gate at the north end, a small square lined with shops, larger houses to the north and a basilica and other large buildings to the south. Town and refuge covered 8.4 hectares (mk.wikipedia). The photographs show low walls of flat stones in the grass, with wide views over the valley.

Is it worth the trip?

Only if you like walking to a ruin for the view and the story. mk.wikipedia calls the walls and buildings extraordinarily well preserved, but what the photographs show is low walls in grass on a hilltop, with no path mapped to it and nothing to explain what you are seeing. For a late antique town you can walk around with a plan in hand, Stobi or Bargala is the better trip.

Getting there

The site is 3 km south-west of Čučer and 12 km north-west of Skopje, beside the main road to Kosovo at the southern end of the Kačanik gorge. The hill is long and flat-topped, its southern end drops 230 m to the Lepenec valley, its slopes are steep, and it is easily reached only from the north-east (mk.wikipedia). OpenStreetMap maps no path, road or car park within 300 m of it, and no source records an operator, opening hours or a fee.

Visiting details

Tickets
Unknown

Before you go

  • OpenStreetMap maps no path, road or car park within 300 m of the site; the slopes are steep and the hill is easily reached only from the north-east (mk.wikipedia).
  • No source records an operator, opening hours or a fee; it is open hillside.

History

The hill overlooks the main road for several kilometres north into the gorge and south across the plain, and old iron mines lie a few kilometres to the north-east. The castle on the acropolis was built in the late Roman period, and in the 6th century it was renewed and the planned town was built next to it in a single campaign. Its wealth came mainly from iron and metalworking: many small iron objects made here in the 5th and 6th centuries have been found, and a lead seal carries the name of a bishop, Toma. Besides the two basilicas in the town, six more churches are recorded nearby. The walls stayed usable in the Middle Ages, when the acropolis served as a watch post at the entrance to the Kačanik gorge (mk.wikipedia).

The name comes from the spring below the acropolis, which the people of the area call Davina (mk.wikipedia).

More photographs

Low stone foundations and loose blocks in long grass with yellow flowers, bushes behind.
Foundations in the grass. · Photo: Македонец · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Nearby

  • A grassy hillside in the foreground looking down on a fenced excavation area with low walls and a few sheds, the tower blocks and houses of Skopje beyond and mountains on the horizon.

    Photo: Dimitar Georgievski · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Commons

    8 km · city · City of Skopje

    Scupi

    The city covered about 43 hectares — twice the size of Stobi, in the archaeologist Ivan Mikulčić's comparison (quoted by MARH).

Straight-line distances.

Sources

Every fact on this page comes from the records below, each used under the licence noted.

SourceLicence
Wikidata Q12905975CC0
OpenStreetMap node/1475331129ODbL
Wikipedia (mk) — Давина КулаCC BY-SA 4.0