The City of Consuls – The Heart of Macedonia
Bitola is the second largest city in the Republic of Macedonia. It is located in its southwestern part, in the Pelagonia Valley at the foot of the Baba Mountain, 13 kilometers from the border with Greece. The city is located on both banks of the Dragor River, a right tributary of the Crna Reka River.
Bitola plays the role of a regional center within the Republic of Macedonia. The city’s traffic communication is oriented to the north towards Prilep, to the west towards Ohrid and to the south towards Greece. In these directions, major roads of international importance are directed.
Regional roads in the direction of Kichevo and the Mariovo area are also important here. The railway from Veles and Prilep also passes through Bitola, which continues to Lerin, Voden and Thessaloniki in Greece.
Today’s Bitola was founded towards the end of the 6th century. It has had the status of a city settlement since the 11th century. The city developed in the immediate vicinity of the former ancient city of Heraclea (two kilometers south of present-day Bitola. This settlement was an economic, cultural and transport center for Southern Pelagonija.
In the medieval period, Bitola was a fortified city with churches and monasteries, the seat of a bishop, and an ecclesiastical center. In the 18th century, Bitola functionally declined. In the 19th century, the city renewed its functions, expanded territorially, and became the “city of consuls”, because from the second half of the 19th century until 1912, several foreign consulates were located in Bitola.
With the divisions of Macedonia after the Balkan Wars and the First World War, Bitola lost a large part of its economic, administrative-political, and cultural functions. After the Second World War, the city experienced a complete population and economic renewal. From about 40,000 inhabitants in 1953, Bitola had about 80,000 inhabitants in 2020.
The name of the city Bitola
In the period 1864 – 1912, Bitola was the capital of the Bitola Vilayet, one of the three Vilayets in the Macedonia region. Even today, a large part of the consular offices in the Republic of Macedonia are located here. Bitola is the second largest city in Macedonia by population. During Yugoslavia, it was one of the cultural centers, both in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and in the SFRY. The father of the Turkish nation, Kemal Ataturk, graduated from an officer school in Bitola. Some of his works are today kept in the National Museum. According to Adrian Rum, Bitola comes from the word Obitelovoy – an expression that is still used in the Croatian language today, which during the Middle Ages was used for a community of monks, such as a family or monastery. The Greeks called the city Monastiri for the same reasons. The city of Bitola got its name from the landowner Toljo, who had his own fortress near the present-day Bitola village of Bukovo. At the time when the Turks came to conquer this part of Macedonia, to call the landowner Toljo to fight, they called him “Bi Toljo, do bi Toljo”.
