The archeological site Stibera or Styberra comprises the ruins of the ancient city of Stibera and is located near the village Chepigovo, about 20 km south-west of Prilep. The city of Stibera dates back to the 4th-3rd century BC.
The city was an important urban center and the last Macedonian king, Perseus, had his military headquarters here from where he conducted campaigns against the Romans in 169 BC.
Stibera reached its peak in the 2nd century AD and most of the marble statues that were found date from that time.
Some of the findings from Stibera are on display in the Museum of Prilep. We visited the museum in summer 2023 before we went to see the site itself and were warned that it would be very overgrown. Indeed, the site was pretty overgrown but there was still something to see. A visit to Stibera would take about an hour.
It has been estimated that the city of Styberra had a population of around 20,000 people at its peak. Based on the excavations of the city of Styberra so far, a very small percentage of the city has actually been discovered.
The city life came to an abrupt and possibly violent halt in the second half of the 3rd century AD. One of the theories for the demise of Styberra is the invasion of the Goths and Heruli in the second half of the 3rd century AD.
Note that there are two main sites, the lower site close to the road and a second site a bit more uphill.
The second site (upper part) is easy to miss and difficult to reach from the first site. But once you know how to get to the upper part it’s not so difficult.
See the map below and here for the GSP track on Wikiloc which shows you how we got to the upper part in 2023. Retrospectively, it seems also to be possible to follow the dirt-road a bit more to the north when you come from the parking, instead of making a right turn toward the “lower part”. That will probably be easier than going via the “lower part” like we did, which still involved conquering a bit of steepness.
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