Things to see and do Bitola

This cemetery (Француски Гробишта/Francuski Grobišta) houses the bodies of 13,262 soldiers of the French Army of the East who died in the First World War. Established in 1923, it is the most important French military cemetery of this conflict abroad. It also houses the "Bitola Memorial", a museum inaugurated by the French Minister of Veterans Affairs in 2018. Covering an area of 3 hectares, the site is impressive, with the graves of 6,134 identified soldiers and those of a further 128 unidentified soldiers divided into four squares, as well as an ossuary containing the remains of 7,000 mostly identified men. On the graves or in the memorial registers, the families of the "poilus d'Orient" come to look for the name of an ancestor buried in Bitola. There are Émile, Joseph and Fernand, but also Abdalla, Rabah and Mohammed. The list is long. It recalls the heavy price paid by colonial troops during the "Verdun of the Balkans": the siege of Monastir/Bitola by the German and Bulgarian armies from November 1916 to September 1918.

Memorial. Housed in a building next to the janitor's house, the memorial is small but well designed. In the first room, photographs by the Manaki brothers document the daily lives of civilians and soldiers in the bombed-out city. The second room details the lives of twelve French, Senegalese and Madagascan soldiers. The words are harsh. Like those written by soldier Joseph Toutain (1895-1980) to his family in Orne, on March 19, 1917: "I [received] a bullet in the neck, it came out behind the ear." Although the cemetery is open to the public, the memorial is often closed. To prepare your visit and make sure the janitor is present, it's best to make an appointment with the French consulate in Bitola. In the rest of the Balkans, there are five other large cemeteries or French military squares from the First World War: Seddülbahir (Turkey) with 12,235 bodies, Thessalonica (Greece) with 8,310 bodies, Skopje with 2,930 bodies, Sofia (Bulgaria) with 789 bodies and Korça (Albania) with 640 bodies. Lastly, other small isolated squares or foreign military cemeteries also house the remains of soldiers who died for France. Such is the case of the British military cemetery at Doïrani, near Lake Dojran on the border between Greece and Northern Macedonia, where an unknown French soldier lies buried.

This mosque (Јени Џамија/Jeni Džamija) is easy to spot thanks to its 39-m-high minaret. It owes its name of "new mosque"(Yeni Cami in Turkish) to the cadi (Muslim judge) Mahmud Efendi, who had it built in 1558 on the site of several churches, the foundations of which can be seen all around. It's a fine example of provincial Ottoman architecture: a square with a single dome, extended by a porch. The interior is decorated with arabesques in bas-relief on the marble furnishings, stalactite sculptures, painted earthenware and calligraphy.

This site (Археолошки Локалитет Хераклеа Линкестис/Arheološki Lokalitet Heraklea Linkestis) houses some of the remains of the city of Iraklia Lykistis ("Lynx Heraclea" in Greek), founded by Philip II of Macedonia in the ^mid-4th century BC. Most of the visible features date from the late Roman era, including a theater and a large early Christian basilica. Unfortunately, the site is poorly promoted (no explanatory panels) and its most beautiful mosaic was damaged in 2022.

The old Ottoman quarter of the charchia or "Old Bazaar" (Стара Чаршија/Stara Čaršija) retains many shops, a market and a few cafés and restaurants. It's pleasant to stroll through this 12-hectare labyrinth of alleyways. Here you'll find the Hadji-Mahmut-Bey mosque, former Ottoman baths and the La Havra synagogue. Founded in the ^16th century, Bitola's charchia reached its apogee in the ^18th century. It was then much larger than it is today, attracting merchants from all over the Empire, as well as from Vienna, Venice and Marseille.

This 1 km-long pedestrian street (Широк Сокак) is Bitola's main thoroughfare. It links Dragor to the north and City Park to the south. Renamed in honor of Serbian King Peter ^I, then Marshal Tito during the Yugoslav period, it has taken on its Ottoman-era name, which blends Slavic širok ("wide") and Turkish sokak ("street"). It is bordered by around a hundred listed ^19th-century houses, numerous shops, cafés and restaurants, as well as several monuments. It is also home to six of the ten consulates still present in Bitola.

This Catholic church (Црква Пресвето Срце Исусово/Crkva Presveto Srce Isusovo) was founded by French Lazarists in 1870. For twenty-six years, the parish was led by the priest Jean-Claude Faveyrial (1817-1893). He was a French teacher at the Romanian school in Bitola and author of L'Histoire de l'Albanie, a reference work in the neighboring country. Burnt down in 1900 and rebuilt in neo-Gothic style in 1909, the church was given its bell tower in 1940.

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 large cultural center (Центар за Култура/Centar za Kultura) is home to the Manaki Brothers International Film Festival every year in late September or early October. The rest of the year, exhibitions, plays and film screenings take place here. The building was designed by two influential Yugoslav architects, the Slovenian Marko Mušič (b. 1941) and the Macedonian Aleksandar Smilevski (b. 1939), who are also responsible for important buildings in Skopje.

This open mosque (Ајдар Кади Џамија/Ajdar Kadi Džamija) was built around 1562 thanks to a donation from the cadi (Muslim judge) Gazi Haydar Kadi. With its 19 m-high dome and 1.4 m-thick walls, it was the only church with two minarets in today's North Macedonia. After the Turkish inhabitants left in 1912, the church fell into disrepair. Only one of its minarets (45 m high) was rebuilt during the major renovation financed by a Turkish Islamic fund in 2016.

Erected in 1830, this large Orthodox church (Црква Свети Димитриј Солунски/Sveti Dimitrij Solunski) houses a superb carved wooden iconostasis dating from 1842. Influenced by the style of Mount Athos, the engraver filled the entire wall with elements from the world of plants and animals. It's also worth noting that the opening scene of the American film The Peacemaker (1997, with George Clooney and Nicole Kidman), supposedly set in Bosnia-Herzegovina, was filmed in this church.

This 32 km-long river (Драгор) crosses Bitola from west to east. Between the Charchia district and the northern part of Širok-Sokak, it was canalized in 1896. Here, the river's paved banks are ideal for a stroll. The river rises on Mount Baba in the Pelister National Park and joins the Crna some 10 km to the east, near the village of Novaci. Its naturally variable water level has been controlled since 1983 by a canal that feeds Lake Streževsko (7.5 ^km2), 24 km northwest of Bitola.

This elegant white villa (Офицерски Дом/Ofitserski Dom) has housed the tourist office since 2022. It was built for the Ottoman governor from 1911 and completed in 1919, when the town had already passed into Serbian control. Used as a military officers' club until the 2000s, it was restored in 2021. The house is surrounded by the Macedonian Phalanx Park, which pays tribute to the troops of Alexander the Great. At the entrance stands the beautiful statue of partisan Stevan Naumov (1920-1942) in the socialist realist style.

This elegant little mosque (Хаџи Махмуд-Бег Џамија/Hadži Mahmud-Beg Džamija) was built in 1522 thanks to a donation from the fierce governor Hadji Mahmut Bey, nicknamed Tomruk Ağa ("prison guard" in Turkish). The mosque was renowned for its spirit of tolerance. It was home to a medersa (Koranic school) and Dervish poets. Damaged by German bombardment during the First World War and by an earthquake, which shattered its minaret, in 1996, it was renovated in 2023 thanks to funding from Turkey.

This vast 65 m-long building (Безистен/Bezisten) is one of the city's oldest Ottoman edifices, having probably been built in the late ^15th century. It is a bezistan (from the Persian bazzāzestān, "place of the drapers") where merchants' most precious goods were stored for the night: silks, gold, jewelry, etc. Renovated in Baroque style in the ^19th century, it is now a little dilapidated but houses a number of shops and services. On the south side is the pleasant terrace of Café Vezilka.

This mosque (Исхак Челеби Џамија/Ishak Čelebi Džamija) dominates the city center with its 48 m-high minaret. It was built around 1506 thanks to a donation from the cadi (Muslim judge) Ishak Çelebi, and for a long time was the nerve center of Monastrir/Bitola, along with the Yeni mosque. Altered several times over the centuries, it features an interior mezzanine built by French workers in 1912. Recently restored thanks to Turkish funding, the mosque now serves as a tekké for a small Sufi community.

This 600^m2 square (Плоштад Магнолија/Ploštad Magnolija) features an 8.5 m-high equestrian statue of Philip II of Macedonia dating from 2011 and a fountain representing the "Vergina sun" found in the king's tomb in Greek Macedonia. The square owes its name to the Magnolija building constructed in the 1860s to house the Austro-Hungarian consulate. Located at no. 37 Širok-Sokak Street, it now houses the Russian Consulate and the Bure bar. Opposite, at no. 28, note the beautiful corbelled building from the same period.

Located in a park, this 32 m-high tower (Саат-Кула/Saat-Kula) was erected around 1830 to replace a ^16th-century tower. Originally used to indicate prayer times to Muslim inhabitants, it was fitted with a classical clock in 1912, then a Christian cross at its top in 1991. Next to it is a plaque in honor of Swiss Gustave Moynier (1826-1910), president of the International Red Cross and founder of the Bitola Red Cross Committee.

This cemetery (Еврејски Гробишта/Evrejski Grobišta) is marked by a large white Moorish-style portico built in the 1920s. It is the oldest Sephardic burial site in the Balkans. It houses around a thousand tombs, the oldest of which date back to 1497, five years after the expulsion of the Jews from Spain. Monastir/Bitola had up to 5,000 Sephardic inhabitants in the ^19th century. Almost the entire community (3,351 people) was massacred by the Germans in March 1943 at the Treblinka camp in Poland.

This former ^19th-century warehouse (Битолска Магаза/Bitolska Magaza) is superb with its small courtyard, two-storey ashlar and slate roof. It can be visited occasionally, as it houses an art gallery where the municipality organizes temporary exhibitions. This building is one of the few survivors of a whole series of magazas (warehouses) built "en dur" after a wave of fires in the town in the ^mid-19th century destroyed valuable goods previously stored in wooden structures.

This park (Градски Парк/Gradski Park) extends over 10 ha and 740 m in length to the south of Širok-Sokak. Bordered by the former railway station to the east and FK Pelister soccer club's Petar-Miloševski stadium to the west, it is planted with pine, acacia and lime trees. It was created in 1901 by Governor Abdülkerim Paşa. It was here that the officers of the Young Turk movement celebrated their victory on July 24, 1908, when Sultan Abdülhamid restored the Constitution of 1876.