As me and my friend Jasmina knocked on the door of the office of the Centre of Rock Art, Mrs Donevska opened the door for us. She was wearing a heavy coat and prepared a cup of coffee for us while the wood stove was warning up the cold room.
Stevce, tall and robust man in his fifties, showed up shortly with his quiet and diligent teenage son and shook my hand vigorously. ‘So whereabouts are you from in Italy?’ he asked me as we started talking. He smiled to me and told me I am not the first Italian who visited Kratovo.
In 1247 six Venetian aristocratic families visited Kratovo and left six coins with their symbol on it. One of the families, called Ribarci, still has descendants living in a nearby town called Stipce. The coins are kept in a museum in Skopje, a part from one which is kept in Kratovo.
However, as Stevce says, the origin of the town and the area around it are much older. The surrounding area is rich with numerous rock buildings, engraved with holes, dating back to the Bronze and Iron Age.
He started studying these cultural monuments and following the track of the ancient inhabitants of the area before I was born in 1982. During this time, he collaborated with researchers and passionate people from Europe and elsewhere to find out the meaning of these mysterious engravings.
In 2004 he decided to open a centre in Kratovo to promote and protect the cultural and natural heritage of the area, one of the oldest in the Balkans. He receives mainly German and English visitors, and helps promote alternative tourism to the area.
His passion for the cause makes him regularly lose the thread of a conversation and my friend Jasmina has to struggle to keep up with the conversation. “Do you want some of this liquor?” he asks me while pouring some. “This is good for a bad throat. The Romans used to drink it while building cities”. I gladly offered my glass.
After taking some pictures to remember my visit, we left the place to see his future business. As soon as we are out of the office, Stevce, who was walking fast as fast as talking, distanced us through the steep and slippery paths for the ice and the snow. “This was a house of a Jewish family. We had a Jewish community for centuries in Kratovo” shouted him.
The house is a beautiful sample of the unique and interesting architecture that developed in the town since the 19th century. The amazing view of the town, which is located in the crater of an extinct volcano, as well as the original interiors make this a characteristic place. No cement has been used as I can see from the brown walls where the white paint has chipped away.
Stevce is in the process of converting the house into a museum of crafts and hostel to accommodate small groups of tourists keen to immerse themselves in the local culture.
May 04 2009
FYROMon Amour | Tales of Modern Macedonia
