Travels in Southeastern Europe

The burden of the Balkans / by M. Edith Durham.

174 THE BURDEN OF THE BALKANS. and majestic, they are built of large irregular gray stones, with round towers, heavy square buttresses, and barrel-vaulted gateways. And nowhere is there any inscription to fix the date. I took a daily tramp, to blow away the hospital iodoform with which I reeked, and climbed, scrambled, nosed, and prodded all over the ruins, except the eastern part, which was occupied by the garrison, and forbidden ground. The height of the hill, its position at the lakeside, and its very steep slopes make it a place which the first man who came along would choose as a stronghold; and it has been fortified since Roman days. Bou6, indeed, in the forties found two Roman statues and a Latin inscription in the eastern castle. The mass of the present buildings are probably mediaeval, and founded at the beginning of the eleventh century, when Ochrida was for some years the capital of Western Bulgaria. But such an important site would have been strengthened by each conqueror in turn, and the present remains are doubtless partly Servian, Turkish, and Albanian. Much of the rough, irregular masonry is like that of the castle at Uzhitza, in Servia, and Tsar Lazar's tower at Krushevatz. The Bulgarian yarn that it, as well as St. Klima, is Bulgarian work of the seventh century, can be put forward only by a people who have still very much to learn about architecture and other things. I called on the Bulgarian Bishop once, when his table was adorned with a large white sugar church,
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Title
The burden of the Balkans / by M. Edith Durham.
Author
Durham, Mary Edith, 1863-1944.
Canvas
Page 174
Publication
London :: Nelson,
[1905]
Subject terms
Eastern question (Balkan)
Balkan Peninsula -- Description and travel.

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"The burden of the Balkans / by M. Edith Durham." In the digital collection Travels in Southeastern Europe. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/ans3900.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed April 30, 2025.
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