Bitola, the City of Ottoman Consuls Where the Via Egnatia Once Passed

In the 4th century BC, Philip II of Macedon founded a city here called Heraclea Lyncestis. A few centuries later, the Romans ran the Via Egnatia through it — the great road linking the Adriatic to Constantinople — and the city became a hub of Mediterranean trade. In the 19th century it was the second-largest Ottoman metropolis in the Balkans after Thessaloniki, full of European consulates, cafés frequented by intellectuals and mosques that numbered in the dozens. Today Bitola is the second city of North Macedonia, with 95,000 inhabitants, and almost nobody in Europe knows where it is. That's one of the best pieces of news for anyone who travels.

The city of consuls and its European traces

From Monastir — Bitola's Ottoman name — between 1864 and 1912 the entire Balkan vilayet was governed. The consulates of Austria-Hungary, Great Britain, France, Serbia and other countries left palaces that still dot the main boulevard, Širok Sokak, the "wide street" where Bitolans have promenaded for generations. It was from these streets that Mustafa Kemal emerged in 1881 — the future Atatürk, who attended the local military school: a small exhibition commemorates him in the building where he studied.

The Old Bazaar and the surviving mosques

The old bazaar of Bitola dates to the 15th century and at its peak held more than two thousand shops divided into over thirty specialised sectors. Only a few dozen remain, but strolling through the covered streets retains an authentic atmosphere. Among the surviving mosques — twelve of the original sixty — the Ishak Čelebi Mosque of 1506 is the most elegant: its interiors with paintings and stained glass are accessible to visitors, admission is free and you are often alone.

Heraclea Lyncestis, ten minutes on foot

Less than two kilometres from the centre lie the ruins of Heraclea Lyncestis: 3rd-century Roman mosaics still in place, a theatre, baths, early Christian basilicas. Admission costs 100 denars (less than two euros). Bitola is reachable from Skopje in three hours by bus for about 500 denars; from Ohrid in an hour and a half. Best months: May, June, September.