History of Bitola - "Monastery"

The City of Bitola throughout the history

However, the biggest mark was given by the ancient Macedonian civilization. The tribe called Lyncaesti in 4.500 BC established its own town, located little bit southern of the nowadays Bitola. On the basis of this older town, the Macedonian Tzar Filip II Macedonian built the settlement Heraclea and had added the attribute Lyncaestis in honor of the ancient Macedonian tribe Lyncaesti. This settlement-town had existed ten centuries, more precisely from 4th century BC to the settlement of the Slaves in the VI century. In that period the settlement was one of the main crossroads of the very important Roman road Via Egnatia.

The present town has been established by the Slavic tribes Dragoviti and Berziti and the name Bitola - Obitel was mentioned for the first time in one of the treaties of the Macedonian Tzar Samuil in 1014, when the town was a seat of the Bitola's bishop.

Throughout the whole Middle Age until the arrival of the Turks, the town of Bitola was known as a trade center of Pelagonija and broader. By the end of the 14th century the town was occupied by Turks-in 1382, and during the Turkish rule Bitola was important strategic town where the goods carried from Greece, Albania and other areas were traded and exchanged. A Venetian tradesman in his traveling notes dated 1591, noted the following: the town was developed trade center in which there was a Bezisten (covered bazaar) and Karvan-saraj (Inn), town with 200 Jewish houses; developed trade of wool, whit and leather.

The traveling writer Hadzi-kalfa in 17th century came across the town as important market for cotton, and the Turkish traveling writer Evlija Celebija-also in the second half of the 17th century, stated that in this period Bitola had 3.000 houses, over 900 shops, 40 coffee-tea houses, bezisten with iron gates and many other public buildings.

In this period Bitola (in the Turkish period known as Monastir or Monastery) was one of the most important Muslim religious centers where there were several medreses (elementary Muslim religious school) and several religious law schools. The low houses were surmounted by minarets of about 70 mosques and the whole town from distance appeared as it was sunken in green. In the environment of the town, especially near the river Dragor, there were many meadows and tick trees, which were used for picnics and as recreation places for the people.

After the Austrian-Turkish wars-1683 and 1689 Bitola like the other Macedonian towns declines and counts only 12.000 inhabitants.

New intensive progress the town Bitola makes in the beginning of the 19th century and becomes again trade and crafts center, which counts in 1835 over 40.000 inhabitants. In this period Bitola grows into second biggest town after Thessaloniki in Macedonia of that time. The town's shops were overstocked with goods from Vienna, Paris, Leipzig and London and many trade families had their branches in Thessaloniki, Vienna and other towns of the Balkans peninsula. By the very end of the Turkish rule in 1912 Bitola had over 50.000 inhabitants. Considering the richness, beautiful houses, number of inhabitants and urbanized streets, Bitola stood far ahead Skopje. For the trade development and constructing the first industrial objects, from significant importance was the construction of the railway Bitola-Thessaloniki in 1894 when Bitola got the attribute "The town of consuls" which has been kept until the present.

Different civilizations and nations have left their marks and in this regard surely the most attractive one is the already mentioned Heraclea Lyncestis. Here there are fragments from the 4th century BC as well as numerous excavations of architectonic objects from many periods, amongst which the most attractive are: early Christian basilica in the northeast and southeast sector, Roman bath, early Byzantine three nave basilica and archbishop's court in the western sector, the large Roman theatre in the northern sector as well as number of very good preserved floor mosaics with various contents.

The historic cites that dominate in Bitola today are as follows: Ajdar-Kadina Mosque with its minaret more than 40 meters high, the Bezisten which still has the function of a covered market, the churches St.Dimitrija and Holy Mother of God-both from the 19th century with dominant iconostasis made in massive woodcarving, the memorial houses of the national hero Stiv Naumov and of the first Balkans' cameraman Milton Manaki.

From the natural tourism values the most beautiful one is the mountain Baba with its highest peak Pelister-2.061 meters high. Ever since 1948 one part of the mountain was protected and national park "Pelister" was founded. This park expands on territory of 12.500 hectares and the altitude is between 700m and 2.061m.

The biggest attractions of the park are: the endemic five-needle pin named Molika, the Large and Small glacier lake of Pelister, the rear specie of the European lynx, bearded eagle and others. It should be stressed that here exist more than 88 kinds of tree-plants as well as 62 kinds of animals, out of totally 135 kinds that exist in the whole territory of Republic of Macedonia.