All students of archaeology, have their first encounter with the archaeological site “Gradiste v. The first time we looked at this site, at the same time we felt a moment of admiration but also, sorrow. There it stood, just before us, a monumental royal tomb from the V century BC. A wonderful building with massive stone blocks, but unfortunately the whole place was overgrown with wild vegetation
and covered with garbage. Then the idea to turn this place into a tourist attraction was born. Finally in 2012 Association “Archaeologica” in partnership with the Museum of Macedonia and supported by ELEM through its social responsibility program, started working on the field in order to change the appearance of this important cultural heritage . To this end, the team from Archaeologica took over several actions for arranging the site and its surroundings.
- The interior of the tomb and the hall (dromos) were completely cleaned from wild vegetation and debris, thus we increased the visibility of the site
- The plateau in front of the tomb was cleared and leveled,
- We provided an approach to the tomb an built an access path with two bridges,
- We built a small square on which we placed wooden benches,
- We organized a voluntary action to clear the riverbeds of garbage
- The landscape around the park was horticultural engrafted
- We placed an informational board and signposts,
- We printed and distributed informative flyers
- The opening of the Arheo Park was covered by media
- We developed a web site about the park
With the realization of this project, we influenced the archaeological and the wider cultural community as well as the local people about the importance and significance for the protection of cultural heritage and its exploitation for purposes of economic development and promotion of the local community. Archaeological Park Brazda has become a new tourist attraction in the vicinity of the capital, and at the same time will continuously contribute to the development of the cultural tourism in the rural areas. The whole concept (design) for the park is not completed yet. From 2016 the Institute for Archaeological Research – Skopje took the responsibility to maintain and to enrich the Archaeological park with additional content. With the full implementation of the project we will get a unique archaeological park by all standards. This is a team that has implemented this project:
Radomir Ivanovic – Project Manager, Institute for Archaeological Research – Skopje
Goran Sanev – expert associate, Archaeological Museum of Macedonia
Bojan Trpcevski, Elena Karanfilovska, Milica Koceva, Saso Djordjevic – project team, association Archaeologica
Aleksandar Nikolovski, Ognen Oncevski, Kiril Shentevski, Danilo Oncevski - Green Ark Association
Aleksandar Murgoski, Dejan Kebakoski – Association Society and Science, Prilep
Pero Sinadinovski, Sase Vasilevski, Jovica Ristov, Milan Gjorgjeski, Nenad Pivko, Blagoja Kitanovski, Ana Stevanovska, Sanja Djordjevic, Bojan Stojanovski, Darko Manasiev, Kristijan Dimitrovski, Vukasin Stevanovic – volunteers
Vladimir Trajanovski, Ratka Shoklevska, Donco Naumovski, Spiro Lazarov, Jane Kachanski – associates
Supporters: SAA Axios, Image Plus, Macedonian Forests, Horti Design and the locals
