Bitola

The city's roots lie in Heraclea Lyncestis, founded in the middle of the fourth century BC by Philip II of Macedon on the southern edge of today's town. The Romans conquered the area in 148 BC, but Heraclea remained important; in the early Byzantine period it was an important bishopric whose bishops attended the first church councils. In 1015 Ivan Vladislav moved the capital of the First Bulgarian Empire here from Ohrid and rebuilt its fortress, and Bitola remained the last Bulgarian capital until 1018.

Already a trading town linked to Constantinople, Thessaloniki and Ragusa, it was taken by the Ottomans in the 1380s, and from 1382 to 1912 Monastir, as they called it, was part of their empire. From 1836 to 1867 it was the capital of Ottoman Rumelia. In the last decades of Ottoman rule twelve countries kept consulates here, earning it the name "City of Consuls"; its schools included a military academy attended by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, and the Manaki brothers shot the first motion picture made in the Balkans here. The region was a stronghold of the Ilinden Uprising of 1903.

The Battle of Monastir in November 1912 ended Ottoman rule, and the city passed to Serbia. In the First World War Bitola stood on the Salonica front, and by 1918 near-daily bombardment had almost destroyed it. On 11 March 1943 the Bulgarian occupation authorities deported 3,276 of the city's Sephardic Jews to Treblinka. Bitola later grew into an administrative, industrial and educational centre.

Bitola is often thought of as the most European city in the country, and the neoclassical and romantic 19th-century buildings of Širok Sokak carry the memory of the consular years. About thirteen consulates are based in the city today, keeping the old nickname alive. The Ottoman layer is just as visible, in the clock tower, the covered bedesten, the Deboj hammam and the mosques along the Dragor River.

Cinema is a point of pride. Yanaki and Milton Manaki, Aromanian photography and cinema pioneers who worked in the city, made the first motion picture in the Balkans, and since 1979 the Manaki Brothers festival has brought cinematographers to Bitola from around the world. The summer BitFest, the Ilinden Days folklore festival, the Interfest classical music festival each October and a Shakespeare festival keep the cultural calendar busy.

Sport centres on FK Pelister, the football club that plays at the Petar Miloševski Stadium, and on the handball club RK Eurofarm Pelister. The city's university, named after Clement of Ohrid, adds a student population.

About 69,300 people lived in the city of Bitola at the 2021 census, most of them Macedonians. The mix was far greater around 1900, when one count found Turks, Christian Bulgarians, Aromanians and Jews each numbering in the thousands in a city of some 37,000; by the 1948 census, after war and the loss of the Jewish community, the population had fallen to about 30,800. It is the administrative, commercial and educational centre of the south-west, and it is also an industrial city.

Energy dominates the local economy: the three thermal power stations of REK Bitola produce nearly 80 per cent of the country's electricity. The Pelagonia agricultural combine is the country's largest food producer, and the city also has textile and food industries.

Everyday life gathers along Širok Sokak, the lively, café-lined street between the clock tower and the City Park. The old bazaar remains a place to shop for everyday goods, and local buses link the city with the villages at the foot of Pelister.

Bitola eats the food of the Macedonian south-west, built around beans, peppers, grilled meat and dairy. Macedonian cooking is noted for the quality of its dairy products. Tavče gravče, the national dish, is made with beans and baked and served in an unglazed earthenware pot; ajvar is a spread of roasted red peppers that can be sweet, piquant or very hot, and šopska salad is often eaten as a starter with rakija.

Grill restaurants serve kebapi and other grilled meats, and the pastries include burek and zelnik, layers of thin dough filled with white cheese, eggs, leeks or meat. Selsko meso, beef, pork and lamb with mushrooms, white wine and yellow cheese, usually cooked in a clay pot, is another Macedonian dish.

Café culture is the city's real speciality, and Širok Sokak is lined with cafés. To drink there is rakija, mastika, considered the national drink, and wine, especially from the Vranec grape.