Bitola's time
SOMETHING ABOUT OUR CITY
_ Bitola is the second largest city in Macedonia and is located in the southern part of the Pelagonia Valley. The city is dispersed along the banks of the Dragor river at an altitude of 2,019 ft (615 m) above sea level under Baba Mountain (Pelister). Spreading on an area of 1,798 sq. km. and with a population of 122,173 (1991), Bitola is an important industrial, agricultural, commercial, educational, and cultural center.
_ Bitola is an important junction that connects the South of the Adriatic Sea with the Aegean Sea and Central Europe, and is located only few miles from the Greek frontier border.
_ Baba Mountain (Pelister) overlooks Bitola from the west. Its magnificent Mount Pelister (2601 m) is a national park with exquisite flora and fauna, and a well-known ski resort.
_ The second Macedonian university is located here. Bitola has one of the oldest and most prestigious theaters in the country.
_ Traditionally a strong trading center, Bitola is also known as the city of the consuls. At one time during the Ottoman rule, Bitola had consulates from twelve countries. During the same period,there were a number of prestigious schools in the city including a military academy that, among others, was attended by the famous Turkish reformer Kemal Ataturk. During the Ottoman rule there were 60 mosques in the city, of which 12 remain today. Bitola was also the headquarters of many cultural organizations that were established at that time.
_ Bitola also had great buildings representative of the Ottoman period. These include the Bezisten (covered Turkish mall), the Isac Mosque, built over 1508-1509; the Yeni Mosque, built in 1559; and the Mosque of Yahdar-Kadi, built in 1562 by Kodja Sinan, the most prominent Ottoman architect of the time.
_ Another cultural and historical monument in Bitola is the Orthodox church "St. Dimitria". The church was built in 1830 with voluntary contributions of the local merchants and craftsmen. Since in the Ottoman Empire the churches were supposed look plain on the outside, the church is lavishly decorated on the inside, in order to make up for the lack of splendor on the outside. The opening scenes of the film "The Peacemaker" were shot in the "St. Dimitria" church in Bitola.
_ Together with Salonika, Bitola was the center of the Macedonian revolutionary activities. In 1893 a group of Macedonian intellectuals, led by Dame Gruev, formed the Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (MRO). The Bitola Revolutionary Group was the bastion of the Macedonian National Liberation Movement, and ten years later, it became a torch of the famous Ilinden Uprising.
_ However, the consequences of the Ilinden Uprising, the Balkan Wars, the World War I, and especially the newly established borders, (when they divided Macedonia on 3 parts in 1913) staunched the natural connections with the Balkan centers. World War II brought a further decline in economic activity and in population; furthermore, its thriving Jewish community and traces of Jewish life were wiped out by the Nazis. Bitola has had it's revival after the World War II liberation from the Nazi occupation forces on November 4, 1944.