On the east slope of Mount Vodno near Skopje are the ruins of an ancient fortress. This relatively unknown site is called Markovi Kuli (Marko’s Towers) and also Marko’s Kruvce (Marko’s Pear). In addition, the fortress is named “City of Crnce (Tsrnche)”. The fortress is certainly not as well preserved as the Kale Fortress in the center of Skopje. In fact, there is little more to see than a few ruins .
The ruins of Marko’s Towers are located on a hill above a picnic area, about 6 km from the center of Skopje. It’s along the road from Skopje to the village Sopishte, and there is some place alongside the road to park the car below the picnic place. The picnic site is not very obvious from the road, you can navigate to these coordinates to get there: N41° 58′ 06″ E21° 25′ 55″
We visited the ruins after our hike from Nerezi to the Monastery of St Pantelejmon. Actually, due to roadworks the road was closed off and we had to park the car and walk about 1.5 km. In 2022 we did a hike on Vodno that also includes Marko’s Towers.
Remains of settlements from the Late Antiquity (4-6th century) and Middle Ages (10-14th century) have been found here. Allegedly, the ruins that you can see now are from the 10th century fortress that was built on the foundations of the 4th century fortifications.
The castle probably functioned as a shelter for the residents of what now is the city of Skopje. They have found water basins, baths, towers and living quarters. But nowadays there seems not more to see than what you can see on the pictures, in addition to the archeological trenches that run parallel to the foundations of the old wall.
If you look carefully, you can see the holes in the walls for the beams that supported the floors in the towers.
This map shows how the 10th century fortress probably looked.
It was a nice surprise to visit this ancient fortress that is not mentioned in the usual guidebooks. Also the view of Skopje in the valley below is very good, and we could for instance see the brutalist Transporation Center from above, which we passed a few days earlier at street level during our city walk along modernist and brutalist architecture.
If you want to read more about the Markovi Kuli Fortress on Mount Vodno, I found this a useful source: https://www.academia.edu/6536785/JUSTINIANA_PRIMA_and_CRN%C4%8CE_FORTRESS_Marko_s_towers_on_Mt_Vodno_Macedonia
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