History of Bitola

History of Bitola – The oldest remains of human life in the Pelagonia Valley date back to the Neolithic period, with the oldest representative being the Velushko-Porodin culture, which dates back to the end of the Early Neolithic.

The numerous material discoveries from archaeological sites (Velushina, Porodin, Beranci) prove cultural layers of life from the Eneolithic, Bronze and Iron Ages, while the findings from the ancient site of Heraclea Lyncestis (built by Philip II in 349 BC) create continuity with the life of the city in the Macedonian-Hellenistic and Roman periods.

After a thousand years of existence, in the 6th century, life in the ancient Macedonian city of Heraclea ceased. This was the time of mass settlement of Slavic tribes in the Macedonian territories. In the immediate vicinity of Heraclea, the Macedonian-Slavic tribe Berzites, or Brsjaci, settled and began to create a new Slavic settlement, which foreigners called differently, such as: Butela, Butelion, while the local Slavic population called their settlement Bitolj, from which the modern name Bitola derives.

During the reign of Tsar Samuil, his son Gavril Radomir and his grandson John Vladislav, there was an imperial residence, or imperial palaces, in Bitola. During a military campaign, the Byzantine emperor Basil II ordered them to be burned, but the city was not captured.

Bitola, like other medieval cities, had its own fortress to protect the population from military attacks and robberies. The fortress was significantly damaged. In 1015, Tsar Gavril Radomir was killed by his cousin Tsar John Vladislav, who declared himself emperor and in 1015/16 ordered the city fortress to be rebuilt. On that occasion, in a prominent place, at the entrance to the fortress, a large marble slab with Slavic text was placed, where the city is mentioned for the first time with its Slavic name, i.e. it says that he built a city on this site under the name Obitel, which means a monastery dwelling or family. This slab was found in Solak – Singur Čaush Mosque, and is today in the Bitola Museum.

After the short reign of Emperor Jovan (John) Vladislav, Bitola and the entire empire fell under Byzantine rule. In 1019, Bitola is mentioned as the seat of a bishop who was under the ecclesiastical administration of the Ohrid bishopric mentioned in the work of Jovan Skylica “The Short History” and the famous “Letter” of Emperor Basil II, where Bitola is presented as an important Slavic city.

In the 12th century, William of Tyre, fighting in the First Crusade, mentions Bitola as a large and beautiful city. In the middle of the 13th century, the Arab travel writer Idrizi provided similar data in his work “Geography”, writing that Bitola was an important and beautiful city with a beautiful location, and Theophylact of Ohrid during Dushan’s kingdom in the first half of the 14th century, described Bitola as a developed settlement with a feudal system, developed trade with Dubrovnik, Venice, Thessaloniki and Constantinople, or in short, Bitola experienced a strong flourishing in the Middle Ages immediately before falling under Ottoman rule.

In the Middle Ages, Bitola also represented a church seat for the region of Pelagonia, and beyond.

With the penetration of the Ottoman Turks into the Balkan Peninsula, Bitola fell under Ottoman rule in 1382/3. The 17th century Turkish chronicler in his work “Events that Delight” noted:

“… while the Prilep fortress was conquered peacefully, the Bitola fortress was conquered by force…”

When conquering the city of Bitola, the Turks encountered great resistance from the people of Bitola, but after several days of resistance it was broken by the superior conqueror, led by Timurtashbeg.

After the capture of the city, the Bitola fortress was razed to the ground. With a special decree from Sultan Murat I, the city was handed over to the management of Euronos Bey. During this period, Bitola is mentioned in Turkish documents under the name Manastir, sometimes Toli Manastir or just Toli or just Manastir, but also Monastir.

Due to its important geographical position, Bitola became an important military-political and administrative-cultural center in this part of the Balkans.

In the period that followed, the city experienced major ethnic changes, the Turkish population became the dominant population for whose needs religious institutions were built – mosques, other more significant buildings – madrasas (religious schools), bezisten, tekkes, inns, hamams (baths), sarais (luxurious houses), etc.

In the 15th century, the Jewish ethnic group, who had been expelled from Spain and Portugal, moved to the city, and in the 18th century, Vlachs also moved there, who were forced to flee from the oppression of Ali Pasha Janinski, who burned down their large, prosperous city of Moskopole in 1778.

This growth of the city enabled Bitola, after Thessaloniki, to become the most important economic and cultural center of Macedonia. The Ottoman government, through its specific timarospahi system of administration, burdened the villagers with very bad taxes, who could not bear it and began to offer various resistance.
Numerous robber gangs also appeared, which mercilessly terrorized the inhabitants of the Bitola villages.

Because of this, they began to flee, leave the village and move to the city. With the resettlement of the villagers in Bitola, which began in the 17th century, the re-Slavization of the city began, i.e. Bitola became a mainly ethnic Macedonian city.

Albanians gradually settled in the places of the displaced. In addition to wealthy Turks, Vlachs and Jews, there are also wealthy Macedonians who have their own connections with Trieste, Vienna, Leipzig, Constantinople, as well as with the countries of Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria and others. These merchants have their own stores and warehouses in the Bitola bazaar and dominate it.

Special markets were formed in the bazaar, where one type of goods was sold, such as: Pekmez-pazar, Lenski-pazar, Ovchki-pazar, Drven-pazar, At-pazar, Mast-pazar and others. It was similar with the settlements in the city, called maala: Bair-maala, Bela-Česma, Cifte-furni, Arnaut-maale, Gjupska-maala, Evrejska-maala, Yeni-maale and others. On market days, in addition to Macedonian, Vlach, Ladino (the language of the Jews), Turkish and other languages ​​were heard in the bazaar. There was rarely anyone who didn’t know two, or even three foreign languages.

For this period, the Venetian envoy Lorenzo Bernardo left wonderful information about the city. He writes:

…Monasterio is a very populated place… As they say, it has 1,500 houses, of which 200 are Jewish… There is no fortress… it has a cadillac (seat of a judge and judicial authorities), it is abundant in grain and trades in wool, wax, skins… It is abundant in water and fountains… It has a bezisten, beautiful mosques, a caravanserai…”.

During this period, the Bitola citizens, for their needs, for all occasions, copied Western European fashion, in clothing, in contacts, in manners, and at the same time copied the external splendor through architecture, introducing a new style of life into the city – pro-Western. At that time, the number of residents in Bitola increased significantly.

Thus, from a city with about 8,000 inhabitants in 1807, it reached 46,000 inhabitants in 1858, making it one of the developed cities, not only in Macedonia but also in the Balkans.

Since the 50s of the 19th century, Bitola as a center for European Turkey has aroused interest among many Balkan and European countries to open their own consular offices and agencies. This led Bitola to grow into a significant military-economic – political and cultural center, to develop trade relations with Europe and from an oriental city to take on the appearance of a European city, in architecture, way of life, behavior, clothing, etc. It was a period when Bitola received the epithets “consular city”, “city of pianos”, “the most sung city”.

In November 1851, Austria was the first to open its consulate, and then Russia, Greece, Serbia, Italy, Romania, Great Britain, and France sent their diplomats, so that during the nine decades of the consular period, about a hundred consuls passed through Bitola.

Simultaneously with the activity of the consuls in favor of their countries or neighboring states aggressive towards Macedonia, their very presence in the city, their individual connections with the people of Bitola, their clothing, manners, etiquette in contacts, knowledge of several foreign languages, balls, etc., had an imposing influence on the citizens, so that the wealthier ones often imitated their style of living, which spread to the rest of the citizens, especially the intelligentsia.

Bitola abounds in old architecture, dating back to the period of Romanticism, Neo-Renaissance, and Neo-Baroque. Some of the monumental buildings are protected by law, such as: the Bezisten, Isak Mosque, Haydar-kadi Mosque, Clock Tower, Officers’ House, Catholic Church, Rectorate, the Churches of St. Demetrius, St. Nedela and St. Bogorodica, the former Ottoman Bank, etc.

At the beginning of the 19th century (1835), Bitola became the center of the Rumelia Vilayet. It was a period when military and commercial facilities were built for the numerous military-administrative apparatus, such as the Red and White Barracks, the military school, which later grew into a military academy. In 1898, the famous Turkish statesman, the first Turkish president and father of modern Turkey, Kemal Ataturk, was educated here.

During the Ilinden Uprising, the Bitola Revolutionary District was the main staging ground for the turbulent events of the Ilinden epic. In 1908, Bitola was again the main stronghold of the revolutionary events of the Young Turk Revolution.

During the Balkan Wars (1912–1913), Bitola was the main Turkish stronghold. After the defeat of the Turks and their expulsion, Macedonia was divided between Serbia, Bulgaria, and Greece, which was the most tragic moment in the history of the Macedonian people and for the city of Bitola, which became part of the Serbian Kingdom.

For Bitola and the Bitola region and for their socio-economic development, the artificially set border between Serbia and Greece would have catastrophic significance. This caused Bitola to lose the significance of a central economic, cultural and political center that, in reality, it had during the Ottoman rule.

The deterioration of the international situation and the outbreak of the First World War contributed to Bulgaria, as a member of the Central Powers, attacking Serbia and entering Macedonia, and then on 21.11.1915. Bulgarian troops entered Bitola. Serbian forces were expelled, and the Bulgarian occupation remained until the autumn of 1916.

In the autumn of 1916. Allied forces (England, Italy, Russia in coordination with Serbian forces) entered Bitola, and the city was reoccupied. The Entente forces captured the city of Bitola, with its district, the Central Powers forces, after losing Bitola, were forced to retreat along the western and northern heights of Baba Mountain – Pelister. On these terrains, to this day, there are remains of made hiding places, trenches, accommodation for the officer cadre, etc. The Entente forces captured Bitola, Bitola found itself between two enemy armies.

Then Bitola experienced the most terrible devastation from the fierce bombings, which turned it into ruins with many human victims and suffering (documented in the films of the first cameraman in the Balkans, Milton Manaki). Because of the suffering it suffered, the city of Bitola was declared a Hero City. This recognition was granted to it by Marshal Franch d’Eperre on 15.09.1923.

Bitola in the period between the two world wars was part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The people again remained nationally disadvantaged, economically exploited and subjected to assimilation and discrimination. After the capitulation of the Yugoslav army in the April War (1941), Bitola found itself under fascist occupation.

The Serbian occupation was replaced by the German-Bulgarian occupation. Only three days after the fascist occupation of Bitola and the Bitola region, that is, at its session on 11.04.1941, the Local Committee of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia for Bitola, under the leadership of Stevan Naumov-Stiv, decided to begin preparations for national liberation.

In April 1942. the first victims fell in the armed struggle against the fascist occupiers. In March 1943, the fascist occupier deported over 3,000 Bitola Jews to the Treblinka death camp in Poland, from where not a single one returned.

On November 4, 1944, the city of Bitola was liberated, and the people of Bitola enthusiastically welcomed their liberators that morning – the Seventh Bitola Brigade and the Lerin-Kostur Brigade. After the war, the Macedonian state was established for the first time in history, within Yugoslavia.

In 1945, the “Josip Broz – Tito” high school was opened in Bitola, where pupils studied in Macedonian language for the first time.

Since 1991, after the independence of Macedonia as an independent and sovereign state, Bitola has marked the beginning of a new stage in its development. The city has regained its splendor, acquired the features of a modern European city, with numerous consular offices, and has become a regional center for the wider area in many aspects of social life.