Golden tour
In the north-east part of Macedonia, Kratovo’s area, village Slegovo, there can be found large number of Antic mine tunnels and openings which give big number of information about the way and scope of performing various mining activities in the antic period, roman period and further more through out the middle age period, continuously.
Researching the historical founding of the Sophia, Belgrade and Zagreb scientifically circles, I have come to valuable data from the work of the immanent professor Stefan Simik, representative of the Serbian Academy of science and arts, which in 1910 has made systematical research of the region, in the place Kiselica, in the area of village Slegovo, there are many mining tunnels ( which reach to the number of 60) from distant period of time.
Most preserved and interesting is the tunnel which contains a statue of Herakles- the god of the miners, where in the imaginative way can be seen how miner awaits in a prayer the arriving of his shift begging to his protector for health and happiness.
The tunnel is very approachable up to 150 m, very easy for walking by foot, with dimensions: wide 1.2 m and height 2.3m. In it can all interested persons see the supporting wooden structure of the tunnel, well preserved, which gives a clear vision of the techniques and principles of internal security of the tunnel.
All interested persons here can find: marks from the tools used for digging, torches for lighting, they can sense the air movement of the tunnel, traces of the minerals which clearly show the presence of the gold, golden wire traces and etc.
From the tunnel each miner can take out 27 kilograms of our, by each turn which one can carry out in a special leather bags.
The tools taken from this tunnel: the hammers, nails, diggers, as well as the four tretradrahmas – golden coins from period of the Filip II (the father of Alexander the Great), are now situated in the ethnological Museum in Belgrade, in the so called “ Golden room”.
From the many tunnels that can be seen, biggest attention drives the mining opening which has be known as “ The golden neck”, which clearly represents many proves of cupper oxide which is indicator of the presence of gold.
In the area can be seen five openings near by, next to each other. This opening had played the role of the canal for exhausting gases from the melting operations which had been performed on the bottom of the opening, where the golden ore had been melted.
From here the manufactured golden sticks had been carried out to the locality “Zdravcin Kamen” , where it have been stored.
In the science literature and as well in the people sayings in area of Kratovo one can detect specific kind of golden triangle, consisting 3 major points:
“Zlatno grlo”- “Zlatar” (village Nezilovo)–Zlaten grad(village Konjuh)
In this golden triangle one can find this localities: ”Zlatno grlo” – “Vajanovac” ( in translation the name means coin-making workshop) – “Zlatna reka” ( place for washing the ore in leather bags) – “Zlatar” – “Kotli” (place for washing the ore in leather bags) – settlement “Zlatanovci” ( families with occupations gold production) – “ Mali rupi” village Gorno Kratovo ( place where golden ore have been extracted ) - Srebreno trkalo ( place for melting the golden ore) – “Sealiste” village Filipovci ( place where golden ore have been extracted )- “ Zlaten grad “ – “ B’cviste” , “Rupi” (village Sopsko Rudare)- “Cekaliste “ ( village Filipovci – place for washing the ore) – “ Zguri “ ( place where with your bear eyes you can see the remaining of the melted ore) – “Zlatno Grlo “.
This shows that there is a continuance of exploitation of the golden ore which is the main reason that the localities have the local name for gold ( “zlatno”, “zlatna”) in their description.
The explorations from 1978-79 clearly proved that the line from the place “Zguri”- “Bakarno gumno”- “ Prikovci”- “Slegovo”- “Kratovo”- “ Gorno Kratovo “- “Muzerovo” ( Muskovo), have enough quantities of golden ore even for today exploitation.
We strongly recommend “ golden tour “ to the persons in good physical condition (there is a lot for walking around 10 km.), which should be students, Mg’s and doctors of science in the areas of geology, mining, archeology.
For the elderly and not so good physically fit , we recommend that they come with jeeps and terrain vehicles.
Tourist guide for this “ Golden tour” is Igor Mladenov: tel.071/427-372
, by the price of 60 €.
The tour organizer is Stevce Donevski : tel.070/975-684, 031/481-572.
, by the price of 40 €.
This tour can be performed during weekend days.