Ptolemaeus (90-168 AD) in his work “Geographiae” has listed Andaristus and Stobi in the district of Pelaconarum, indicating that Deuriopus must have been renamed at that time. Euristum is also listed in the Tabula Peuntigeriana as one of the station on the way from Stobi to Heraclea Lyncestis. The map shows that Euristum was on a distance of 12 roman miles from Stobi, which corresponds with the location of the village Drenovo at the entrance of the gorge at the Rajec River. We assume that Deuriopus must have changed its name into Euristum at the time of the road construction by the Romans and the creation of the first itineraria with listing of cities, villages and other stops in the fourth or early fifth century.

In the village of Drenovo there is an old church that was built for Tsar Dushan and finished with the paintings shortly after his death in 1356. The church, which was badly damaged during the Turkish rule of Macedonia, was restored by Mile Sazdov and his villagers in the beginning of the XIX century. Then, the villagers from Drenovo also brought building materials from Gradište for the rebuilding of the church, the marble columns, capitals and fundaments quarried from a ruined episcopal basilica are now to be found in the church, outside of it and elsewhere scattered in the village of Drenovo.

A decorative capital in marble with a fundament on it, taken from Gradište and placed outside the church of Drenovo

Hierocles, a Byzantine geographer from the sixth century to the reign of Justinian I but prior to 535, lists eight episcopal cities in Provincia Macedoniae II as follow: Stoli, Argos, Eustraeum, Pelagonia, Bargala, Celenidin, Harmonia and Zapara. Our conclusion is that Eustraeum existed on Gradište on the site of Bryanium, Perseida, Deuriopus and Euristum as an episcopi from where the magnificent remains of the episcopal church were quarried for the rebuilding of the medieval church in Drenovo.

© Kiril Arsov, 2011