Fragments from the history of Stip

Stip is a city in which the history left numerous marks. The name Astibo for the first time is mentioned by the ancient chronicler Polienvo (3^rd century BC). He wrote that in the river Astibo (today Bregalnica) was performed a ritual bathing of the peon kings. Astibo again is mentioned in Tabula Peuttingemiana (ancient map from the 4^th century) as a settlement on the way to Stobi – Pautalija.  The historians locate remains from Astibo on the area of today’s old part of the city, on the east slopes of the hill Isar and the locations Star Konak, Tuzalija and Gorno Maalo.   Today from the ancient architecture of the city partially are preserved the remains of the city’s aqueduct in the area of Kemer, through which the town was supplied with clean water. The settlement existed in the late antique and in the early byzantine period, probably under the name Stipeon, and in the middle century the settlement gets the name Stip. From the medieval period at the end of the IV century and during the VII century, in the Avaro – Slovenian conquests of the Balkan have suffered nearly all the late antique – early byzantine  cities between which was Stipeon. The medieval city of Stip arose on the ruins of the ancient city of Astibo and the early Byzantium Stipeon, and the medieval history starts with the arrival of the Slovenians.

From 976 to 1014 Stip is located within the boundaries of Samuil’s state. The time period and the fall of the state of Samuil is characterized with frequent alterations of the lords and those are Byzantium, Bulgaria, then Serbia until the arrival of the Turks towards the end of the second half of the XIV century when the medieval Stip in the year 1395 finally was conquered by the Ottomans.

Since then, until the XVII century there are few written documents about the darkness of the medieval domination of the Turks in Stip. The city is mentioned in 1620 as an Episcopal center. In 1661 the Turkish traveler Evlija Chelebija who passed through the city and described it in its travelogues. In the Austrian – Turkish war in 1689 Stip was conquered by the Austro - Hungarians.  Two years later was re-occupied by the Turks. Stip to the end of XVIII century has started to develop more dynamically.