I mentioned in my last blog about Strumica that after visiting the waterfalls we planned to head up to Strumica Fortress, also known as Czar’s Tower. You can see it from town, perched proudly on the mountain above, but for a number of reasons, we never actually made it.

The reasons being:

1. Map reading is not this family’s strongest point!
2. We were hungry.
3. The day was heating up fast.
4. It looked like a very long walk!

And to be honest, it wasn’t even clear whether there was a restaurant up there. Some searches said yes, others were very vague, and with rumbling stomachs we played it safe—pizza in town. A wise choice, I might add.

Still, the Fortress stayed on our minds. So, after dipping into Greece for a few days, we decided to head back home via the quieter border crossing at Dojran instead of the busier Gevgelija. That way we could detour through Strumica and finally stop at the fortress. A small detour, but worth it.

Given the summer heat, a long hike was out of the question. Instead, we followed the road up the mountain—after a few wrong turns and a bit of “where on earth are we going?”—and eventually reached the fortress, about 9 km from the base. The drive itself was almost as always an adventure – fresh asphalt – why would there be a seemingly new road leading to in fact no-where? Overgrown shrubs scratching the car – (oops had to get out an check a few times)  empty roads, and hardly a soul in sight. No cars, no animals, just us and the occasional walker – who and why would you be walking in this deserted area?

Now, I’d love to give you a neat history lesson here, but if you’ve been following this blog for a while, you’ll know that won’t be happening! The truth is, even after reading about it, I’m still not entirely sure what the fortress “is, was, or represents.” Let’s just say interpretations vary wildly.

What is clear, however: there is no restaurant. There are plenty of ruins—some sections partly restored—and from the top, the views are spectacular. You stand about 420 meters above Strumica, and yet you can still hear music, chatter, and city sounds drifting up the hillside. It’s quite something, this mix of silence, history, and the faint hum of modern life below.

We had a walk round, got scratched from all the overgrown thistles, watched out for snakes and took some pretty amazing photo’s.

We have also found out how you can walk from the city up to the fortress but I think we will save that for a cooler day. Really worth a visit and the drive up is pretty spectacular as well.