The picturesque mountains and wonderful waters of the blue lake surrounded by the fertile plains ever since the ancient times have invited men to live on the miraculous coast. According to a legend the city was erected by Cadmo, the emperor of Thebes. Lychnidos and its wider area were inhabited by the Illyrian tribes lead by the tribe Desarets. Philip the Second, the father of Alexander the Great in the year 353 invaded this city and it is than that Lychnidos is mentioned, as a name of the Ohrid Lake. An inscription on a stone has been found dating from those days where the citizens are mentioned as Lychnideans.

The eldest historical information about the city Lychnidos dates from the year 217 BC and they are about certain roman military operations on these grounds. Before these events the city has been under the reign of the Macedonian emperors. The subsequent history of Lychnidos is full of interesting events. In the 208 a certain Erop occupied it and in 196 BC it was the Iliric king Pleurat, ally to the Roman conquerors.

Its name is mentioned in 170/169 BC as a Roman military base – period of many combats with the Macedonian king Persey. Ever since the time of the Macedonian kings Lychnidos was known by its coin making. On the one side of the coins there was the Macedonian shield with a star in the middle, and on the other side a kohlrabi and the inscription Lihnidion. Only two of these rare coins have been found, one is in the Institute for protection of the cultural monuments – Ohrid, and the other in Istanbul (Czarigrad).

After the definite seizure of Lychnidos by the Romans in 148 BC it develops as a Roman city and becomes an important transit station on the road Via Egnatia. In 479 the Goths attack it but they do not succeed in overtaking it, and in 518 just as the other towns it was ruined by a catastrophic earthquake.

In the 6th century the Slavic tribes take it from the hands of the Byzantine.

G. Angeličin - Žura 

© Vertikala - progressive ideas and technologies

 The hosting of this web-site is sponsored by

All rights reserved. Any reproduction of the content or any of its parts or any modification, in any form or by any method, known or yet to be invented,  for any use besides private, without prior written permission by the authors is prohibited.