Early Christianity represents a significant period in the culture of Macedonia and the Macedonian
people. The spread of Christianity in this region is closely tied to the name of the Apostle Paul,
who is known to have been the first missionary to bring Christianity to the Balkan Peninsula.
Numerous remains of early Christian churches, particularly early Christian basilicas, characteristic
of this period, are found throughout the territory of Macedonia. By the end of the 20th and the
early decades of the 21st century, hundreds of archaeological sites had been explored across the
Republic of Macedonia.
This thesis focuses on the territory of Northeastern Macedonia, with a particular emphasis on early
Christian sacral architecture along the Bregalnica River. Thesis presents a large portion of the
ancient cities from the 4th to the 6th century in this region.
Due to the limited number of studies conducted in this area and the scarce published literature on
Early Christian basilicas in the territory of Northeastern Macedonia, the majority of the literature
used in this master's thesis consists of the works of academician Blaga Aleksova, who has carried
out the most research in this region.
The thesis was prepared under the mentorship of Associate Professor Dr. Andrej Gaspari. I would
like to take this opportunity to thank him for his unwavering support throughout the entire process
of the thesis’s preparation, as well as for his immense patience and understanding.
I would also like to express special thanks to my co-mentor, Mag. Mitko Šterjov, and Prof. Dr.
Zvonimir Nikolovski for their professional assistance, advice, and suggestions, which contributed
to achieving better results.
Furthermore, I am deeply grateful to my husband and colleague Stojanče Micev, archaeologist
Kire Spasov, my dear colleague archaeologist Marinela Serafimova, and my colleagues from the
"Teracotta Museum" in the city of Vinica, for some of the photographs included in this thesis and
for their invaluable help during its creation.
|
