“Oficerski” (Officers’ house) or The House of Army is a cultural monument of the Republic of Macedonia. Its construction began in 1909, but soon after Bitola was engulfed in the Balkan Wars and World War I. The building was completed after the end of World War I.
The architectural expression of the building is characteristic of the period of historicism in European architecture in terms of plan, decorations and composition of tables, with the building largely emphasizing oriental, or “Moorish” elements.
The appearance of these elements in Bitola is normal when it comes to buildings built during the period of Turkish rule.
Conceptually, the building is conceived as a synthesis of a palace and a fortress. The elements of a palace are in the conception of the space and masses, and the elements of a fortress are visible in the monumental spatial emphasis of the masses of the transepts and the secondary decorative plastic in the form of cannon barrels.
The Officers’ Dormitory was used by the Turkish, Serbian, Bulgarian, Yugoslav and finally Macedonian armies. It can be said that the “golden period” of this building was the sixties to the eighties of the 20th century, when the doors were opened only to generals and officers. Marshal Tito, Suleyman Demirel, chess player Karpov, and others were guests here.
A luxurious chandelier was brought to the ballroom from the Skopje Officers’ House, which was destroyed in the 1963 earthquake.
In 2020, the Municipality of Bitola began a complete renovation of the building.
Today, the Ofitserski building houses the public municipal institution in the field of culture and art, the Cultural and Information Center Bitola, or KIC Bitola for short.
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