Bitola, North Macedonia (City Tour & History)

A tour and history of Bitola where you can also get ideas of the best things to do or see when traveling here. Mostly focusing on the downtown center and old town district of the city.

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[Music] Hey ladies and germs Steve you’re here for hum of the earth [Music] signing in from bitola in the southern part of northern Macedonia Bitola is in the southern part of the country less than a hundred meters north of Greek Macedonia or Macedonian Greek Greece rather it’s the second biggest city in the country after Skopje the capital in the north and it is the oldest city in the country immediately south or in the southern part of the city the first settlement of the area which is the ancient city of heraclea which was founded by philip ii of macedon [Music] which is alexander’s the alexander the great’s father this was back in the 4th century BC the city was named after a Greek hero in the city was an important center a political center for the area until it was conquered by the Romans who then removed the political power from the city but it continued to flourish because of its somewhat strategic location settled on a main road going through this part of the world [Music] later the area was settled by slaves who fortified the city and then the city later became part of the Bulgarian Empire this was in the between the 8th and 11th century and during this time a lot of Christian churches were built and then in the next few centuries the control of the area shifted from the Bulgarian Empire to the Byzantine Empire and then to the Serbian Empire until it was eventually conquered by the Ottoman Empire coming from the country that we now know as Turkey and the Ottoman Empire were controlling the city for a period of over 500 years and aside from the ancient city of heraclea these cities most ancient or oldest buildings rather come from the ottoman era [Music] also we’re currently on the city’s pedestrian street [Music] which goes all the way through a good part of the city from downtown all the way to City Park and even near the ancient city and some of the remaining ottoman structures that can be found in the city include Turkish bath houses and of course Muslim mosques this is one of them here there’s another over there the traditional mosque style with the dome in the minaret [Applause] even during the period that the city was under Ottoman rule the population was very diverse in ethnicity and religion there were people our Greek Albanian Serbian Bulgarian etc this is the st. Demetrios church which with the permission of the Ottoman authorities was constructed but it wasn’t allowed to be to look lavish at least on the outside so here in the center of town we have tolas iconic clock tower which doesn’t actually have an initial date of construction just kind of debate on the matter and in fact the legend has it that the Ottoman authorities gathered 60,000 eggs from nearby villages to be used as the mortar to make a solid structure another important leftover of the Ottoman times is the is the old Bazaar which was originally built in the 15th century [Music] [Music] which is situated in the kind of old bazaar part of town which is the old Turkish part of the city [Music] [Music] in 1912 Greece Serbia Bulgaria and Montenegro teamed up to sort of kick the Ottoman Empire out of the area and were eventually successful the result being that bitola was now part of Serbia but during World War one Bitola was on the front lines against Bulgaria which was with the Axis powers and they were temporarily conquered by Bulgaria until the Allied forces managed to recapture the area and then bitola was once again part of the kingdom of Serbia which soon became known as the kingdom of serbs croats and slovenes and then later the kingdom of Yugoslavia which disbanded in the 1990s and the results being that North Macedonia was its own nation and was one of the few nations to disband from Yugoslavia without any significant bloodshed and today Bitola is doing pretty well it is the economic and industrial center of southwestern North Macedonia and is home to some of the biggest companies in the country the major industries being agriculture and food production the production of power of clean water and textiles so I hope you enjoyed this city tour in history of bitola North Macedonia’s second-biggest city and its oldest speaking of the oldest aspect on this channel I also have a video of the ancient city of heraclea which is only 2 kilometres south of the centre of the city and I will and next up on the channel I will be putting out a video of a lake ohrid which is the favorite vacation destination of North macedonians and there’s all already a video of Skopje the city of statues which is north Macedonia’s capital city and that was pretty cool so recommend you check that out and finally a longer video called journey through North Macedonia where I bicycle through the country which was a pretty fun experience because it’s a very beautiful country some great scenery great people great price mass Tonia’s very cheap country to visit and great history so I definitely recommend you check that video out as well and this was all part of my larger journey bicycling through Central and Eastern Europe and before that I bicycle from Cape Town South Africa to Nairobi Kenya so bicycling through half the continent and before that I bicycles from Canada where I’m from all the way to southern Patagonia in Chile and Argentina and all those videos from those adventures are available on the same YouTube channel hum of the earth and if you’d like to see an interactive map of everywhere that I went and everything that I got to see and do I have that available over on my website follow the hum of the earth comm where you can click on the different locations and see the various blog posts and videos that I’ve made of these places and if you’d like to follow my continuing adventures bicycling once again through Central and Eastern Europe you can do so by clicking on the red subscribe button below the video and clicking on the bell to be notified when new videos come out all right so that’s gonna do it hope you guys in joyed have a good one