Macedonia: Bitola Marks Day of Culture with Archaeological Excavations
BalkanTravellers.com
Systematic archaeological research of the mosque has been carried out over the last several years with the support of the Ministry of Culture, the Dnevnik newspaper reported today.
This year, we will broaden the excavations beyond the Jeni Mosque, since we expect to find significant data. We will also complete the excavations on the site’s interior. As soon as the remains of the Christian temples are conserved, a thick glass floor will be put in and, in this way, visitors will be able to move through the art gallery, Irena Ruzhin, director of the Bitola Institute and Museum, told the publication.
As BalkanTravellers.com reported last year, since excavations began in 2003, artefacts from three churches and two mosques were discovered by archaeologists at the Jeni Mosque, also known as the New Mosque, which was built in 1558. Currently, it houses the city art gallery.
In June of 2008, altar pieces from an Early Christian church were found at the site, followed by the September discovery of the eleventh-century iron spear, believed by archaeologists to date to the attack and conquest of one of the three churches located in the centre of former Bitola.
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