DEMIR KAPIJA
Yugoslavia.
The name,
meaning Iron Gates, is applied to the narrow pass through
which the Vardar (ancient Axius) flows, ca. 24 km S of
Stobi in Macedonia. High, sheer cliffs rise above the
Vardar at this point and there is a small town, also called
Demir Kapija, just NW of the cliffs near the modern
highway.
Stenai, mentioned by Strabo (
8.329.4) and other ancient writers, may have been located here. Fortifications
and house walls of the pre-Greek settlement have been
found near the narrows above the right bank of the river;
and walls, perhaps of a watch station, are known on the
cliffs above the left bank. Near the former area, but
lower along the river terrace, several graves containing
Greek vessels of the 5th and 4th c. B.C. have been excavated.
The Roman and Early Christian community was a few
km farther to the SW along the Boşava river where a
small Christian basilica (probably 6th c.) has been excavated. A number of graves of the 4th to 6th c., as well
as burials of the mediaeval period, were excavated in the
vicinity. Earlier Roman funeral monuments were also
found near the basilica.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
F. Papazoglu,
Makedonski gradovi u
rimsko doba (1957); B. Aleksova,
Demir Kapija (1966).
J. WISEMAN
