These are the stories you can open in the 3D view, each at its own numbered point on the model.
1Heraclea Lyncestis
Welcome to Heraclea Lyncestis, the ancient city on the southern edge of Bitola, about 2 km from the Clock Tower. By tradition it was founded in the mid-4th century BC by Philip II of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great, and named after the hero Heracles.
From up here you can see the theatre, the Roman street, the basilicas and Pelister on the horizon. Tap "Then / Now" to see how some of these buildings may have looked.
The theatre was built in the 2nd century AD, in the early years of Emperor Hadrian. Its horseshoe of stone seats is set into the hillside, and about 20 rows survive.
Today it hosts performances again on summer evenings. Switch to night mode to see it lit up.
At the front, closest to the stage, are special box seats. Some carry Greek inscriptions, a reminder that important citizens had reserved places, much like VIP seats today.
In later Roman times the theatre was adapted for spectacles with wild animals. Researchers point to rooms near the orchestra that may have held the animals, though how often fights took place is still debated.
This curved row of round brick arches is a modern reconstruction in front of the theatre. It shows the typical Roman way of building with brick and stone, the same mix you see in the ruined walls around it.
After Rome conquered Macedonia in 168 BC, Heraclea grew as a station on the Via Egnatia. This great Roman road linked the Adriatic coast at Dyrrachium (Durrës) with Thessaloniki and later Constantinople. Soldiers, merchants and travellers stopped here.
A row of marble columns once carried a covered walkway, a portico, where people could shop and talk out of the sun and rain. A few columns still stand to full height; the rest are stumps.
Tap "Then / Now" to raise the missing columns and roof.
The narthex (entrance hall) of the Great Basilica holds Heraclea's most famous treasure: a 6th-century floor mosaic of about 21.5 × 4.7 m. It is made as one picture of the earthly paradise, with trees, deer, birds and other animals, framed by a wide border. It even appears on the 5,000-denar banknote.
The mosaic here is our cartoon tribute. The real one is protected under a roof, just like this.
In Late Antiquity Heraclea became an important early Christian centre and the seat of a bishop. The Great Basilica was a long church with a nave and side aisles ending in a rounded apse, and its floors were covered with mosaics.
A second, smaller church stood close by, also with mosaic floors. Having several basilicas in one town shows how large and wealthy the Christian community of Heraclea was.
Every Roman town needed its baths. The little brick pillars you see held up a raised floor. Hot air from a furnace flowed underneath to heat the rooms: the hypocaust, Roman underfloor heating.
Rows of rooms mark the residence of the bishop. In the late 5th and 6th centuries the city suffered invasions and hard times, and by the end of the 6th century it was largely abandoned. Its ruins slept under the fields until archaeologists uncovered them in the 20th century.
To the west rises Baba Mountain with Pelister (2,601 m). Pelister National Park, founded in 1948, is the oldest in North Macedonia and home to the rare Molika pine.
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