Bitola is situated in the southwest end of the Pelagonia plain, between the Baba and Nidzhe mountains, at a height between 580 and 660 meters above the sea level.
Being located on well-known Roman road Via Egnatia, which was connecting the towns from the Adriatic coast with those on the Aegean coast, Bitola was the center of numerous historical events which were milestones in the life and development of the peoples of this region.
Very often destroyed and set on fire, the town persistently recovered and grew into a bigger, and more beautiful and dignified one.

The town itself was founded by the Slavs in the very vicinity of Heraclea, in the middle of the 7th century, AD. Its founders were the Brsyaks - one of the Macedonian/Slav tribes. The name of the mediaeval town of Bitola as an inhabited place was being mentioned in very few Slav mediaeval sources and, in Greek, in a narrative as well as in a legal act. The narrative source was written by the Byzantine historian of the 11th century, Jovan Skulica. In his "Short History", among the other events, he mentioned that the Byzantine czar Vasilie II set on fire Gavrilo's castles in Bitola, when passing through and demolishing in Pelagonia. The second source written in Greek is the well-known "GRAMOTA" of Vasilie II from 1019. This document was a legal act which determined the rights of Ohrid Archibishopric and also stated the bishops which were to be in the service of the Ohrid Church, among which Bitola Bishop, too.

In many mediaeval sources, most of the coming from the west, the name Pelagonia stood for a land mark of Bitola Bishopric, and in some of them Bitola was known under the name of Heraclea due to the church tradition i.e. the turning of Heraclea Bishopric into Pelagonian Metropolitan's Diocese.
 

In the Middle Ages, Bitola was the church center of the Pelagonian narrower and wider region. In the middle of the 13th century, the Arabian travels writer Idrizi said in his "Geography" that Bitola was a significant and beautiful town of an attractive location.
 

However, the old location of the town cannot be determined with all these data given by the mediaeval history and chroniclers.

As a center of the military, political and cultural life, the mediaeval towns played a very important role in the life of the mediaeval Slavs. In the first place, they had the importance of fortified sites which were to defend the region they were situated in. People from the surrounding area used to look for shelter there in case of a danger. Therefore, the choice of the location for their founding was of an extreme importance. In most cases, the mediaeval towns were built on the top of the hills and on the crossroads of the main communication lines - both ground and river - going. Their fortification depended on what they had to defend: a mining or a trading place, a capital, palaces, monasteries or similar.

In the 14th century, i.e. on the eve of its coming under Turkish rule, Bitola experienced a powerful booming, and had already had developed trading links all over the Balkans Peninsula, especially with the big economic centers: Constantinopole, Salonika, Dubrovnik... Caravans of most variable goods moved to Bitola from all sides and reverse, from Bitola to all other centers.
 

Bitola was conquered by the Turkish in 1382-1383. In his "Delightful Events", the Turkish Chronicle writer of the 17th century , Khoja Husein put: "...While Prilep fortification was conquered without any confrontation, forces had to be used to conquer the one of Bitola..." With a special written order by the Sultan Murat I, the town was determined to be governed by Evronos bey.

Having been conquered, Bitola was immediately turned into an important military headquarter because of its strategic significance in this part of Macedonia.
 

Turkish people started to inhabit the town choosing the closer center along the river Dragor, i.e. the center of the present city nucleus. The first official and public institutions such as mosques, Turkish monasteries, religious schools, inns, and baths were started being built.
 

The Jews, who had been exiled from Spain and Portugal, started to inhabit the town in the middle of the 16th century. Their moving here made its development booming.

The flowering of Bitola erected many significant constructions which stand as ornaments of Bitola even today: Buyuk Bezisten (Covered Market), Churuk Bezisten (White Fountain), Isak Fekiy Bey Mosque (1505-1506), Isak Mosque (1508), Hadji Bey Mosque (1521-1522), Kodzha Ahmed Efendi Mosque (1529), Yeni Mosque (1558-1559), Khazi Haydar Mosque (1561-1562) and others.

In the 17th century, aside from the evident weakening of the Turkish Empire, Bitola continued to develop and gain the look of a beautiful town. The Turkish travelers writer Evliya Chelebiya wrote :

"... at this time, the town has 3000 houses, 900 stores, 40 pubs, a few smaller churches, mosques..."
 

In the course of the 18th century Bitola was being inhabited by Vlachs, after the demolition of Moskopole in 1778, and by Abanians and Macedonians peasants. The growth of the town made Bitola the most significant economic and cultural center of Macedonia after Salonika.

In the beginning of the 19th century, according to Jovan Hadji Vasilevitch, who called on in Bitola at the end of the 19th century, the town had 17 quarters (Upper and Lower Bair, Yeni Quarter, the Bela Cheshma, Arnaut Quarter, Shirok Sokak Quarter, Jewish Quarter,and others) with great many markets for certain kinds of cattle and specified goods (At Pazar - Horse Market, Ovchi Pazar - Sheep Market, Yhitni Pazar - Cereals Market, Mas Pazar - Cream Market, Pekmez Pazar - Jam Market, and others). According to him, there were 30 different locations which were places for certain goods sale or for craftmen's gatherings.
 

The fast development of Bitola was particularly being experienced with its turning into a center of European Turkey in 1831 (Rumelian Vilayet). This initiated stationing of 30.000 soldiers, a large military administrative apparatus and consequently a more intense trade traffic.

As a military administrative center of the European Turkey, in 1851 it became the site of foreign diplomatic branches, consulates, vice-consulates, trade-agencies, etc. The presence of the foreign diplomatic branches undoubtedly meant the presents of Europe in Bitola. Those fast changes in the economic, political, and cultural life were followed by changes in the way of life and the local inhabitants' opinion. The rich Christian families, who emulated the European countries, started developing the live trade and making colossal constructions, educational and similar, by which they made a great contribution in changing Bitola' s looks from oriental into one of the European cities.

From the second half of the 19th century through the first decade of the 20th century, Bitola cherished strong economic connections with London, Vienna, Belgrade, Drach, Salonika, Constantinopole, Alexandria, and other cities. Those connections were being maintained by most of the famous Bitola families> the Ikonomot, the Robevi, the Geras, the Danabash, the Rizovi and many others werre introducing the European influences into the styles of life, the fashion and the conduct in Bitola.
 

The traditional oriental clothes, the household utensils and ornaments were changed with the European ones.
 

All those changes reflected themselves in the architecture of the houses, which were built in European styles.

The social and the economic flourishing of Bitola did not last long: the deep changes in the economic structure of the Ottoman Empire, and particularly the military-political and economic pressure from the Great Powers over Turkey, reflected with catastrophic consequences in the regions of Macedonia which was rather an advanced province at that time.

In the beginning of the 20th century, the inner friction in the Turkish Empire took harder which soon found expression in the Ilinden Uprising in 1903, the Young-Turkish Revolution in 1908, and the Balkan Wars in 1912 and 1913.

As a center of the revolutionary district, Bitola had a distinctively decisive role in the Ilinden events. At the same time, it was the site of foreign diplomatic branches, that informed Europe and the world of the situation and the revolutionary events as well as of the intolerability of the Turkish authoritarian regime. Discontent overcome the Turkish progressive high-brows which was reflected in The Young/Turkish Revolution and thus made Bitola a center of the events once again.

The Balkan Wars (1912-1913) and the division of Macedonia among Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece, were the most tragic moments in the history of the Macedonian people and the town of Bitola.
 

In the period between 1915 and 1918, after the World War I, Bitola became a foothold of the military actions on the Macedonian front. The town of Bitola, once a beauty and "a town of the consulates", suffered enormous damages and demolitions.
 

Between the two world wars, Bitola as a frontier town of the Vardar Macedonia, belonging to the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes faced its own economic, political and cultural decline.
 

Bitola' s contribution to the antifascist fight and the People's War for Freedom from the Fascist conqueror was estimated as: damage and victims of the bombardment on 3 Nov. 1940, the genocide over 3000 Jews in March 1943, 606 arrests, 251 people sentenced for the involvement n the fight against the Bulgarian fascist, 120 internees, 600 deaths n the fronts and 500 wounded.

Bitola has been cherishing a great respect for the victims and the martyrs of the World War II.
And , prides itself not upon their contribution to their national war for freedom and against the fascists that the Macedonians fought to free both Bitola with the surrounding area and Macedonia in general, but particularly on their contribution to the creation of the Macedonian state - Republic of Macedonia.
The victims and the damage were the very taxes that Bitola paid to gain freedom.

The taste of the history experienced makes Bitola a dignified town of today. Persistently following the inclinations conceived centuries ago, in high fighting spirits, its strong people managed to revive and renew their own state as well as to retain their presence realized as their today's life in an independent sovereign state - Republic of Macedonia.

 By Goran Popcanovski