STOBI. - An ancient city of Paeonia, on the site of the present-day village of Pusto-Gradsko. In A.D. 386 it became the capital of Macedonia II Salutaris; it was an episcopal see, and its bishop attended the Council of Nicaea in 325. The Basilica is its most notable monument.
The first structures of the Christian basilica of Stobi were identified by Krischen in 1918. In subsequent excavation campaigns, a whole complex of annexed buildings came to light, including certainly a baptistery. The Basilica is about 39 m long, with three naves, built of red stone and brick (some with Byzantine stamps), without a transept, with a crypt and a semi-circular apse; it was equipped with narthexes of the same width as a side aisle, though the latter proved shorter on the southern side due to a rocky outcrop that prevented its completion. Access is via three doors corresponding to each nave; on this side the naves themselves narrow by about 1.30 m compared to the maximum width (2.60 m). The columns of the naves are spolia from the destroyed theatre, as attested by the capitals and bases found. A lithoid platform discovered among the ruins of the theatre seems to belong to an ambo of the church; the existence of the iconostasis that closed off the presbytery is confirmed, as in all Balkan churches.
The few capitals show a decoration of acanthus leaves with spiny foliage, featuring human protomes and birds, in the Theodosian manner of the 5th century. The church must have been very ornate. Mosaic remains are found in the apse, especially in the side aisles. The general motif of the decoration is that common to Balkan churches: a series of panels with geometric designs or animal figures, framed by arabesque friezes. There are also traces of decorations imitating curtains, as in Santa Maria Antiqua in Rome, and still in situ in the narthexes are panels imitating marble inlay, as in the cathedral of Parentium. The few remains of human figures are variously interpreted: the most plausible hypothesis suggests there were life-size figures of saints and others smaller in various compositions. Some see in a group of fragments a scene of the Annunciation.
For dating, the structural, plastic, iconographic and stylistic elements suggest about the year 500, i.e. the pre-iconoclastic period. The basilica of Stobi thus joins the great churches of Constantinople and Thessalonica, and with its sculptures and paintings it ranks among the most significant examples of the golden age of Justinian.