The best museums Pelagonia

This gallery (Галерија Мартиноски/Galerija Martinovski) was founded in 1968 in a beautiful traditional ^19th-century house. It is dedicated to the Aromanian painter from Kruševo Nikola Martinovski (1903-1973). Trained at the Grande Chaumière academy in Paris between 1927 and 1828, he is considered the founder of contemporary art in what is now North Macedonia. The two floors feature 62 works by the painter (oils, tempera, drawings, etc.), some of his personal effects and an exhibition of traditional local costumes.

Founded in 1983, this national institute and museum (НУ Завод и Музеј Битола/NU Zavod i Muzej Bitola) is very disappointing. While the collections are rather rich, the exhibition spaces seem neglected, mired in outdated museography. Only one room benefits from a careful presentation: the one devoted to Mustafa Kemal, known as Atatürk. Indeed, the founder of modern Turkey studied here from 1896 to 1899, in what was once an Ottoman military academy founded in 1848. But this Turkish-funded space is all about propaganda, and lacks any original objects. There are also virtually no icons. Yet the institution houses the country's only laboratory working on the renovation of sacred images. And what about the masterpiece, the "Inscription of Bitola" (^11th century)? It's not even on display. It's easy to see why: this stone confirms that Emperor Samuel, who died in 1014, was indeed Bulgarian and not "Macedonian", as the country's official history would have us believe.

Navicelle earrings. Now for the good stuff. Among the oldest objects is the fossil of a mastodon tooth unearthed in the large Suvodol coal mine, 21 km east of Bitola. It belonged to an ancestor of the mammoth that lived here fifteen million years ago. As far as the Neolithic is concerned, we're surprised by this small house found at Porodin, 12 km to the south-east. Made of clay between 5800 and 5200 BC, it stands out for its human details, such as the head-shaped chimney. It served as a temple for the worship of an unknown divinity. In the Antiquity section, note this superb gold earring with navicelle (shaped like a small ship) from the ^4th century B.C. It was discovered in the tomb of a Hellenized princess near Beranci, 16 km to the north. Also of note is the marble mask of Heracles, dating from the ^2nd century A.D. It was used to decorate the theater at the Herakleia Lynkestis site. Contemporary history focuses on traditional costumes, revolutionary movements and World War II partisans. The First World War is quickly dispatched, and not without error: a German helmet presented as French. It is also regrettable that the rich and tragic history of Bitola's Jewish community is presented so succinctly. In the contemporary art section, a few paintings stand out, such as portraits by Peco Vidimče (1921-2010) from Bitola and Nikola Martinoski (1903-1973) from Kruševo.

This memorial-museum (Меморијален Музеј Смилево/Memorijalen Muzej Smilevo) was established in 2004 in a new, old-style building in Smilevo (population approx. 210), the village where Dame Gruev was born in 1871. Here, he was the founder of the Macedonian Internal Revolutionary Organization (VMRO) in 1893, took part in the Ilinden uprising in 1903 and was killed by the Ottomans in the Maleševo massif in eastern Macedonia in 1906. The museum houses a reconstruction of the hall where the founding congress was held in 1893, as well as traditional costumes from the region.

Opened in 1989, this national museum (Музеј на Народно Ослободителната Војна/Muzej na Narodno Osloboditelnata Vojna) is dedicated to the region during the Second World War. Here you'll find weapons used by the partisans, as well as period documents. But the main attraction is the superb fresco by Prilep-born artist Borko Lazeski (1917-1993). His local work includes the stained glass windows of the Makedonium and a vast mural in Prilep.

The National Museum of the Ilinden Uprising and the Republic of Kruševo (Музеј на Илинденското Востание и Крушевската Република/Muzej na Ilindenskoto Vostanie i Kruševskata Republik) is housed in an attractive ^19th-century house that belonged to the Tomalevski family. It was here that the Republic of Kruševo was declared on August 4, 1903, at the start of the Ilinden uprising against the Ottoman Empire (August 2-November 25, 1903). In the weeks leading up to the uprising, the place served as a clandestine arsenal: it was here that lead was smelted to make ammunition, that the famous little wooden cannons were cobbled together, but also that hundreds of bought or stolen weapons and thousands of cartridges stolen from Ottoman garrisons were stored. Established in 1953, the museum houses an eclectic collection of weapons used by the Kruševo insurgents until the fall of the Republic on August 13, 1913: handguns, sabres, knives, old petrels and Western-made rifles. These include Mauser rifles and Smith & Wesson pistols from the Ottoman army, a pistol from the Manufacture d'armes de Saint-Étienne, a Winchester M1897 pump-action shotgun and Lebel rifles from Châtellerault. The exhibition is accompanied by period photos, maps and documents. But the highlights are the Belgian Nagant revolver and the Austro-Hungarian Steyr-Mannlicher rifle that belonged to uprising leader Nikola Karev.

This museum (Музеј за Тутун/Muzej za Tutun) is located within the Prilep Tobacco Factory (Тутунски Комбинат ад Прилеп) and is part of the Prilep National Museum. It was founded in 1973 to mark the factory's centenary and the four centuries of tobacco cultivation in Pelagonia. The exhibition features over 2,500 objects: snuffboxes, pipes, water pipes, opium pipes, hookahs, lighters, narcotics, as well as tobacco production and handling objects, advertising objects, tobacco products, paintings, photo collections and sculptures.

Founded in 1952, this museum and national institute (НУ Музеј Прилеп/NU Muzej Prilep) is housed in a former World War II Bulgarian police station. It houses collections of history, ethnology and archaeology. The latter is rather rich, with objects and weapons from Neolithic sites in the region, as well as Greek tombs, Serbian and Roman coins and jewelry found in the Varoš district. The history section features some 200 Byzantine and post-Byzantine icons.

This amazing private museum (Авто & Eтно Музеј/Avto & Etno Muzej) features collections of vintage cars and motorcycles, musical instruments, World War I weapons and traditional costumes. The owner, Boris Tanevski, is very proud of his Simca Ariane and Peugeot 404, his old Opel, Plymouth and Ford, his Russian Moskvič and his Yugoslav Zastava and Volkswagen. After the visit, it's possible to eat and even sleep on site (€30/55 for two with breakfast) to try out the swimming pool and homemade rakija.