Fortress Markovo Kale

There is no reliable data that would indicate the time of construction of the fortress. The fortification was most likely built even before the earliest mention of Vranje, but it is certain that it existed in the Middle Ages. The foundations on which it was built date from the period of Emperor Justinian, VI century, and it is assumed that the fortress reached its full splendor in the XIII century. In the Turkish official censuses, it is called kale-i Ivranija, which means the fortress of Vranje. According to folklore, the fortress was the city of Marko Kraljević, after which it was named Marko's city or Markovo Kale. Legend has it that the national hero Marko Kraljević stayed in that castle and bravely defended it from the Turks. When Marko had to retreat before the Turkish, he jumped with his horse Šarac to the eastern mount Pljačkovica (crying in Serbian). The imprint of his huge hoof remained in the rock from which he jumped, and the mount got its name because Marko cried there. From there, Marko moved to western mount Krstilovica (cross in Serbian), where he made a cross sign. Markovo Kale has an irregular, elongated triangular base dictated by the terrain configuration itself. The shape of the ridge and the topography of the terrain also influenced the defensive solutions. There is a steep cliff on the west side, so no additional protection was needed. Walls 2 m thick were erected on the other sides. The outer part of the ramparts is built of crushed stone, and the inside is filled with rubble and lime mortar. The ramparts had walking paths and parapets. In the southern rampart was the main entrance with an access ramp. There was a corner tower at the confrontation of the southern and eastern ramparts, and since the access to the plateau was from the eastern side, the length of the ramparts was about 50 meters. At the northern end there was a defender with a square tower. On the north side, in the rampart that closes the plateau, there is a gate which leads to the Devotinska river. The interior of the city is divided into upper and lower - residential plateau. On the upper plateau, remains of a tower on the inside of the ramparts, two cisterns with filter wells - one circular and the other rhomboid in base, and three rooms of smaller dimensions, probably used for housing, were discovered. In the lower residential plateau, a smaller room with a square base was discovered, and in the center, the remains of a church, with a base in the shape of a free cross with a three-sided apse. Archaeological excavations, more than two and a half decades ago, were carried out in cooperation with the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments from Nis and the National Museum in Vranje. The found archeological material from ceramics, metal and glass is dated to the period from the 12th to the 16th century, while today's remains of the fortress date from the end of the 14th or the beginning of the 15th century.