Ohrid Fortress, one of Ohrid's benchmarks, is one of the largest medieval towns on the territory of the Republic of Macedonia. With its walls, it covers the whole Ohrid Hill. The town was surrounded with walls 3 km long and with high towers, except the south side which is surrounded by the Ohrid lake itself. The town covers the area to Ohrid Port. Town used to have 3 entrance gates and Gorna Porta is the only one preserved.
Besides defense use, the fortress was used as a residence. It is also known as Samoil Fortress. During king Samoil's ruling from 976 to 1014 and his successors until 1018, Ohrid was the capital city of the first state of Macedonian Slavs. Later, fortress was restored and kept its monumental urban construction.
Fortress has kept the original form of Samoil fortress, although there are some claims that some parts were destroyed and later restored by Byzantines and Turks. Some layers reveal Byzantine format of bricks in horizontal layers and inside of the walls of Gorna Porta, many stones with Greek inscriptions can be seen.
Today, fortress is open for visitors and a must see place if you ever visit Ohrid.
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| Aerial view |
