THE ABANDONED NEIGHBORHOOD IN BITOLA
02/02/2022
Bitola is located at the south west of North Macedonia. It is one of the main urban center of the country with Skopje and Kumanovo, although it is not on the classic touristic path of North Macedonia. I've actually noticed that only Turkish travelers considered visiting the city and that makes sense: from the end of the 19th century, Bitola was a major diplomatic, military, commercial and school hub in the Ottoman Empire and was nicknamed the "City of Consuls". It was also the main city of its administrative region (called a "vilayet") and was back then named Manastir. Today, the museum of the city contains a room dedicated to Atatürk, the first president of the republic of Turkey who kept strong ties with the city.
The Ottoman military buildings are called the "barracks". One of them hosts the museum of Bitola and is registered as a monument of culture. Another famous Ottoman barrack is abandoned and located on top of a southern valley in the city. According to locals, it is now a famous place for young Bitolians to party and smoke cannabis.
The city has started declining when the Ottoman Empire collapsed. It was bombed during the first and second world wars. The Jewish population which represented an important minority also ran away after suffering from persecutions during and after the Ottoman rule. After the war, the city's decline was definitely acted by Tito's decision to designates Skopje instead of Bitola as the capital city of the Yugoslav republic of Macedonia. Since the collapse of Yugoslavia in 1992, Bitola has also been suffering from the difficulty of the country to rebuilt itself and the centralization of the activities around Skopje.
The city of Bitola now counts many crumbling buildings including typical Balkan houses. The museum of Bitola actually states that it regrets the lack of consideration for these houses. At the feet of the southern valleys, an entire neighborhood itself is abandoned. The buildings seem are made of concrete and some of them still mention the names "restaurants" or "nightclub". This apocalyptic-looking area seems to be the sign of the more recent economic decline of the city...
