Scupi is the largest Roman town in R. Macedonia and the only one with the status of colony. It is settled at the edge of modern Skopje and occupies an area of 44 hectares inside the fortification walls. The site was excavated in 1928 for the first time and there were many campaigns during the 20th century. The excavations revealed houses from different periods, one of the main streets, bath, theatre and other public buildings. The necropolis of the town was also a subject of the excavations in the past. In 2005 there were excavations on two points – the Cardo and part of the settlement of the 6th century, which is the last strata of existence at the site. The cardo connects a couple of public buildings and it has a surface paved with massive stone slabs. The trench was put at the crossroad between the cardo and the decumanus. There are four layers of leveling beneath the paved surface of the streets. The drainage channel was set at the eastern side of the cardo and it has different width from north to south (0.30 – 0.90 m). At several places thеrе are reinforcements having the function of buffers during an inflow of bigger quantity of water. Three rooms and a well were excavated from the 6th century settlement. One of the rooms is interpreted as a workshop. The seven square stones found inside are thought to be a foundation for a wooden floor. Iron tools and knives were found in the room.

The archaeological excavations between 2008 and 2010 in the area of the Southeast defensive wall were realized in order to confirm the location and to document the chronologically different phases of development of the city fortification of Scupi. The site is multilayered with large variety of deposits as part of different cultural strata, beginning with the Late Bronze Age, through the Roman Imperial Period and the Late Antiquity, all to the Middle Ages. Prehistoric period (Late Bronze Age, 12-10 century BC) – Small number of finds (pottery sherds and pieces of wattle and daub) from the Late Bronze Age were found during the excavation of the foundations of the Roman domus. These finds cannot be attributed to any dwellings or a settlement layer. Imperial period (late 1st – late 3rd century) - The excavations under the layers and buildings from the Late Antiquity in the south half of the investigated area revealed three different settlement layers from the Imperial period. The two older layers, which chronologically belong to the late 1st and the 2nd century, are full of remains from architectural structures with unknown purpose, mainly built with dominant usage of wood. Late antique period/older stage (late 3rd – late 4th/middle of 5th century) – Three basic strata of construction with additional intervention, pìreadaptation and repurpose were documented as part of this period. All of the buildings are positioned in the northeast/southwest direction, identical with the urban structure of Scupi in that period. The previously-ruined _domus_was repaired and the lane of the street to the west of the house was filled in the late 3rd and early 4th century. The so-called “Building with an apse” was built sometime later and its purpose is unknown. It is located to the west along the street, and to the opposite of the domus. The street continued to function with a new fill at a higher level, adequate to the level of the newly constructed buildings. New edges were set and there was a new drainage channel dug. The so-called “Micro-housing building” was constructed on top of the leveled ruins of the violently destroyed domus. The building was abandoned during the 5th century as the result of a new violent destruction. Late Antique period/later stage (5th – late 6th century) – Three basic construction phases are confirmed as part of this period. The Late Antique defensive wall is the dominant structure that existed during the whole stage. The other contemporary and later buildings were positioned according to the defensive wall. The so-called “Building to the west of the defensive wall” was built on the interior of the defensive wall. The building had two later attachments and its purpose is unknown. At the same time, at the inner side of the building, the level of the terrain was raised by a fill of rubble which was used for foundation of the so-called “Building with a portico”. At a later stage, this building went through attachments and preadaptation. The destruction and abandonment of the Late Antique buildings was followed by a process of disintegration and ruralization. Parts of the destroyed buildings were integrated in the micro-housing structures from the so-called post-urban period which existed until the early 7th century. Medieval period (9th – 11th century) – Occupation was reestablished in the medieval period and the same area was first used for dwelling and later for burial.

The investigation of the newly discovered Large Thermal Building was part of the excavations of the central urban core of the Roman city Scupi between 2008 and 2011. The therma is located in a quarter which is limited by two parallel streets, on the north and south side, and by the cardo street on the west side. According to the disposition of the uncovered rooms and the analysis of the investigated part of the new bath, it seems that the building occupies the whole city quarter. The research to this moment has shown the typical, adjacent arrangement of the rooms in a Roman bath. The thermal rooms are located in the south part of the building in accordance with the Roman architectural propositions where the caldarium and tepidarium are oriented toward the sunny southwest side. The investigation shows that the building was constructed in the 2nd century. The building existed for a long period of time during which there were several changes in the plan. An Early Christian basilica with an atrium was built on top of the south part of the bath at the beginning of the 6th century, and the rest of the building was covered by dwellings of the so-called micro-housing complex of Scupi, documented at several locations in the city. The number of rooms, their disposition, the size of the whole thermal complex, the masonry, the rich decoration of the walls with frescoes, graffiti and mosaics with golden foil, the gorgeous statue of Venus Pudica, the two stone monuments with Latin inscriptions, one of which is a votive altar dedicated to the goddess Venus, and the other is a specific monument with a capital where the city aedile is mentioned in the inscription, and the numerous objects made of clay, metal, glass, bone and numerous numismatic material, suggest that this therma was an elaborate large building.

Colonia Flavia Scupinorum, or Scupi, is the biggest Roman city in Macedonia, the ruins of which are located in the NW part of modern-day Skopje. Thanks to the archaeological investigations since the period between the World Wars, remains have been documented since the Late Bronze Age until today, with intensive urban occupation during the Roman period and during Late Antiquity. A large number of buildings have been discovered, among which is a theater, several basilicas, baths, residential structures etc. In the focus of the 2018 investigations was the area delimited by the cardo maximus on the West and by the decumanus maximus one the South, where a basilica with a baptistery and an urban villa have been discovered previously. In this previously unexcavated part of the city, a new phase from the life of the settlement have been identified, and that is a Late Antiquity residential complex. A more detailed documentation of the complex was not possible due to the bad preservation of the layer, but four aligned structures were identified which communicated with the open space to the north and south. They were built using stones, bricks, and clay, often with the reuse of material from the older buildings. The overall appearance of the remains suggests a level of degradation of urban life and a society with decreased financial power. In few locations outside of the buildings, hearts and cobbled areas were discovered, probably associated with economic activities. According to the artefacts discovered and the relative stratigraphic position towards the basilica and the urban villa, this residential complex existed at the end of the 4th and the beginning of the 5th centuries. After the residences were abandoned, the area was used for burials. Two graves were found – one elaborated grave structure with bricks, where a newborn was buried, and a simple pit where three individuals were randomly interred. These investigations have demonstrated another phase of the inhabitation continuity in the central part of Scupi, where a residential complex was built right after a large urban villa was abandoned and just before the Christian Basilica was built.

Contained within the limits of modern-day Skopje, Scupi was once an important Roman administrative center. For many decades now systematic archaeological investigations have been carried out on different sections of the 43ha area of the Roman city. The 2018 campaign was focused on the Thermae-Atrium Basilica complex east of the cardo maximus. It represents a complex of two different buildings from different periods – monumental baths from the early imperial Roman period and a Christian Basilica from the early 6th century partially overlying them. The plan of the thermae was typical for the time, with the usual sequence of rooms following the Roman tradition. It was relatively large, lavishly and luxuriously decorated structure with marble sculptures, marble votive plaques, fresco paintings and gold-foil mosaic decoration. In 2018 the easternmost parts of the complex were excavated, starting with the upper layers with the remains of a Late Antiquity residential complex contemporary to the basilica. After their removal, new rooms of the thermal complex were discovered, which corresponded to the previously established construction techniques and architectonic concept of the complex, but whose function will be additionally analyzed and interpreted. The investigations also included the NE portion of the external peripheral wall of the thermae complex, separating it from the cardo maximus, thus confirming the previous assumption that the thermae were spread over an entire block (insula) of the city.