Travel Guide Resen

The only town in the Lake Prespa region, Resen is not very interesting. Heralded as the "Little Paris" of Northern Macedonia, it in fact boasts just one building that is somewhat reminiscent of France: the "saraj de Resen", an Ottoman governor's palace that today serves as a museum. As for the rest, there's not much to see. The main activity here is agriculture, in particular apples from the surrounding orchards, which account for half of the country's production. First mentioned under the name of Rosne in 1337, the town may have been founded near the ancient Damastion, once a major Illyrian city. However, its location is also mentioned in Kosovo, Serbia, Albania and Bulgaria. In any case, the Resen region has long been an important commercial center, with the settlement of Greek colonists in the 4th century BC, followed by the construction of the Via Egnatia by the Romans. Today, the municipality is mainly populated by Macedonian Slavs. To the south of the town, however, there are still Truccan and Albanian communities, notably in Kozjak/Козјак (85 inhabitants) and Gorna Bela Tsrkva/Горна Бела Црква (210 inhabitants).