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Flag of Vinica - Image by Mello Luchtenberg, 21 February 2009
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The municipality of Vinica (19,938 inhabitants; 432.67 sq. km), located in eastern North Macedonia near the border with Bulgaria, is made of the town of Vinica and the settlements of Blatec, Vinička Kršlpa, Gradec, Grljani, Dragobrašte, Istibanja, Jakimovo, Kalimanci, Kruševo, Laki, Leski, Lipec, Pekljani, Trsino and Cri Kamen.
Ivan Sache, 21 November 2008
The flag of Vinica, adopted in December 2007, was designed by Blagoj Gavrilov.
The flag is horizontally divided blue-red with, in the center, the representation of a broken terracotta icon surmounted by the walls of Viničko Kale, the archeological site where the icons were found. Blue symbolizes water while red symbolizes life.
[Municipal bulletin, February 2008]
Valentin Poposki, 21 February 2008
The Vinica Fortress as an archeological site was recorded in 1954 by
Miodrag Grbić, an archeologist from Novi Sad, under the name of Gradište, and a little later, in 1958, by Milutin and Draga Garašani,
archeologists from Belgrade, who referred to it as Kale Bair. The interest in investigating the Vinica Fortress archeological site was
rekindled in 1978 when archeologist Cone Krstevski brought to the Museum
of Macedonia five fragments of terracotta reliefs with iconographic
depictions that had not been seen before and that were very interesting
to the study of the Early Christian period. In 1985 archeological
excavations began that have never stopped since.
[Macedonian Diplomatic Bulletin, 2014, 90:14-15]
The archeological site of Viničko Kale is situated southwest of the
city of Vinica, on a fairly high hill which dominates over the entire
surrounding area. It was recorded for the first time in 1953. The
fortification (castrum) is polygonal in form and covers a surface of ca.
2,500 m2, stretching in the direction North/South; the structure is
fortified with massive ramparts and semi-defensive towers.
The discovery of two intact and five fragmented terracotta icons in 1977
and the several following years initiated the beginning of systematic
archaeological excavations. On the southeast part of the site, thus far,
a number of discoveries have been made in the area covering ca. 5,000
m2; they include the following: parts of a rampart, two towers, a
square, one street, several chambers (storage houses) with pythoses dug
into the soil, a piscina, a prefurnium (furnace) for a small bath, a
porch, a small single-nave church and a larger one in the shape of an
inscribed cross, which is fairly damaged and around which more than a
hundred graves dating from the period between the 11th and 13th
centuries have been discovered, as well as a stone-built tomb vaulted
with bricks, but opened and looted long ago.
At this stage of its exploration, it can be said that Viničko Kale had
been continuously settled in the periods of the late Bronze age, the
iron age, and the classical Greek period (with imported pottery from the
5th and 4th centuries BC.). Cultural horizons from the
Macedonian-Hellenistic and early Roman periods have not been recorded.
the late antique and early Byzantine periods significantly marked this
site with monumental architectural structures and movable archaeological
material. The mediaeval period left its mark with the necropolis dating
from the 11th and 12th centuries. The fortification (castrum) has two
building phases, one from the late 4th and early 5th centuries, and the
second, which dates from the late 5th and 6th centuries.
This site is especially important due to the fact that in 1985, a
discovery was made of a hoard with terracotta icons that were discarded
as classical rubble at the entrance of the east tower, more
specifically, behind the fountain and the small porch. This discovery
opened a new page in the domain of early Christian art in Macedonia and
the wider region.
The basic characteristics of these terracotta icons are the following:
their dimensions are 32 x 28 x 4 cm (square icons) and 32 x 20 x 4 cm
(rectangular icons) made with a mould and in high relief. Thus far,
approximately 20 scenes have been identified, approximately 50 complete
ones and about 100 fragments, with a number of replicas. The icons were
made in a workshop that was part of the city complex that spread across
the nearby hills, more specfically, to the west, as far as the site of
Oreovo in the village of Leski. It should also be noted that they were
mounted on the walls of sacral structures (the original mortar can be
seen on their back side), in tombs, martyriums, etc.
On the basis of the iconographic analysis, they can be identified as
icons which depict scenes from the Old Testament, illustrations of
psalms, christological depictions and depictions of figures of Christian
saints, as well as depictions of famous wars. Their stylistic features,
and especially the high relief, convey the exceptional plasticity of the
style of the provincial artists and the local stylistic expression
formed under a strong oriental influence. All icons have texts in Latin
carved on their edges; these texts, which convey a concise theological
message, describe the respective scene or figure. In this sense, the
general characteristic of these terracotta icons is the message about
the victory over evil and death and the triumph over all the enemies of
the faith.
Hence, it can be concluded that the Roman iconography and the presence
of texts in Latin confirm the dominating influence of the Church of Rome
in the region of Bregalnica in the early Byzantine period.
In terms of comparison, we can mention the terracotta icons from France,
from the valley of the Loire, those from Italy, as well as the famous
terracotta icons in the Bardo Museum. in the past ten years, the
terracotta icons from Vinica have been exhibited and attracted special
attention in cities and museums worldwide.
[Cone Krstevski. Viničko Kale. Pp. 83-85 in Pasko Kuzman (Ed.) Macedonian Cultural Heritage (Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Macedonia - Cultural Heritage Protection Office, 2008)]
The terracotta icons were eventually repatriated from the National
Museum of Macedonia in Skopje to the new Terracotta Museum in Vinica.
There are efforts of turning Vinica into a tourist attraction this year.
Vinica Fortress excavation site that has provided famous terra-cotta
icons, part of them being kept in Museum of Macedonia, received this
year 10 million denars for archaeological researches and conservation of
the ramparts. Archaeologists commence their work in March under the
guidance of Cone Krstevski. Furthermore, Vinica is most probably going
to acquire Museum of terra-cotta icons. As manager of Institute for
Protection of Cultural Inheritance, Pasko Kuzman states, it would be
insisted on returning of the icons from the Museum of Macedonia and
bringing them home.
[Macedonian
Information Agency, 27 February 2008]
Ivan Sache, 2 December 2017
