Stone Town Kuklica

The “stone town”, is situated by the Kuklica village in the Kratovo area. According to the sources, the stone figures that are called Dolls by the local population are 10 million years old. There are many legends and myths about their existence, but the most famous is the one according to which the stone figures are wedding guests that were cursed by a forsaken bride, and turned into rocks. There are 120 stone figures, one next to another, up to 10 meters high.

The legend has it that once upon a time, one boy from the village of Kuklica (that is above the stone town) who couldn’t decide which girl to marry, asked two girls to be his brides. The wedding with the both of them was planned in a single day. There used to be a tradition that there mustn’t be two weddings in one day, because the brides must not see each other during their wedding - that was considered bad luck. One of the brides, not knowing about this tradition saw that there is another wedding in the same day and ran out of her house to see who is getting married. When she saw her boyfriend with another girl, she cursed all of them: "Let God turns all of you into rocks, even me" and all people turned into rocks.


According to another legend, the existence of the stone figures is very different. There used to be a forest in this area, but due to wars it was burned down. Soon the area became a wasteland. The temperatures were very low and when the army passed through the wasteland, all of the soldiers turned into rocks.

But the scientists do not agree with the legends. According to them, the stone figures were formed 10 million years ago, by tectonic erosion, from minerals that dissolve in water. As the time passed, nature created masterpieces. The local population says that every 5-6 years new figures appear.