Secret Dig Rekindles Macedonian Legend of Buried Gold

Delcevo authorities also want to know what is going on

Locals in Delcevo have long believed that beneath the hills in the area called Bigla a truckload of gold hidden by the retreating German army during WW2 lies buried.

Today, as reports swirl of a mysterious dig in the area, Macedonia's Ministry of Culture has admitted it is running the operation but remains secretive about what it is searching for.

The fact that the site is being guarded by police and is off-limits to the public has only fuelled speculation.

“The Directorate for the Protection of Cultural Heritage, which is under our jurisdiction, is directly in charge of this [dig] so I advise you to ask them for details,” Aneta Petrova, the ministry’s spokesperson, told Balkan Insight.
 
But the head of the directorate, Pasko Kuzman, was also opaque.

“The only thing I can say at this time is that it is not an archeological excavation,” he told Balkan Insight.

Macedonia's daily Dnevnik newspaper on Monday said police stopped its reporters from reaching the site. The daily says it spotted heavy mechanized excavators at one spot believed to hide an old buried WW2 tunnel.

Locals in Delcevo remain deeply curious. “Legend says that the tunnel might hide WW2 gold or a weapon stash,” the curator at the museum of Delcevo, Slavco Despodov, said.
 
He says his institution is not involved in the dig.

“Some people say that somewhere beneath the hills there lies an entire truck full of gold that the German soldiers allegedly buried in 1944, during their retreat from Greece,” Despodov mused.

Less interestingly, he says explosives may be hidden in the area, which could be one reason why the authorities are keeping the place off-limits.

On Tuesday, Delcevo municipal council requested information from the central authorities what was going on, insisting they have the right to know.

Stojce Georgievski, a 60-year-old resident from the nearby village of Gabrovo, told Balkan Insight that he had heard stories of hidden gold in the tunnels ever since he was a child.

“I would not be surprised if they find something in there,” he says.

Georgievski says the nearby hills hide “at least ten tunnels dug in the WW2” as part of a Bulgarian effort to build a railroad there. Bulgaria occupied Macedonia in the war.

However, after Bulgarian forces retreated, the tunnels entrances were buried.

Georgievski recalls that the same area was already once a target of a mysterious search. He says that during the former Yugoslav era, the military were dispatched there to guard an alleged excavation whose results were never made public.
 
The vicinity of Delcevo has over 30 registered archeological dig sites. Just a couple of kilometres from Bigla a valuable find in 2006-2007 particularly excited archeologists.

They found a richly ornamented 3rd Century burial chariot and other artifacts that were later displayed in the town’s museum.

Locals in Delcevo clearly hope the chariot was not the last piece of buried treasure in their area awaiting discovery.