Struga

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Struga
Струга
Struga / Strugë
Struga coat of arms
Struga (North Macedonia)
Paris plan pointer b jms.svg
Basic data
Region : southwest
Municipality : Struga
Coordinates : 41 ° 11 ′  N , 20 ° 40 ′  E Coordinates: 41 ° 10 ′ 34 "  N , 20 ° 40 ′ 27"  E
Height : 698  m. i. J.
Area (Opština) : 483  km²
Residents : 16,559 (2002)
Inhabitants (Opština) : 63,376 (2002)
Population density : 131 inhabitants per km²
Telephone code : (+389) 046
Postal code : 6330
License plate : SU
Structure and administration
Community type: Opština
Structure : 51 localities
Mayor : Ramiz Merko ( BDI )
Website :

Struga  [ ˈstruɡa ] ( Macedonian Струга ; Albanian  also  Strugë ) is a small town on Lake Ohrid with around 16,500 inhabitants in the southwest of North Macedonia . It is the official seat of the Opština named after it and is divided into a western and an eastern part of the city by the Black Drin . The border with Albania at Qafë Thana is eight kilometers away. Please click to listen!Play

geography

Aerial view of Struga, Lake Ohrid and Schwarzes Drin
Schwarzer Drin in the southern city center with promenades on both sides

Struga is located north of Lake Ohrid not far from the Albanian border and is traversed by the Black Drin, which drains the lake. The city lies in a fertile, agricultural plain, which is named after her - Struga plain ( Macedonian Ниво на Струга Nivo na Struga ; Albanian  Fusha e Strugës ). Such basin landscapes or plateaus are typical for Macedonia.

There are virtually no forests near the urban area, as is the case in the whole plain. The fields are used exclusively for agriculture, less for livestock. Reeds grow on the entire lake shore of the city , only in the west there are larger free pebble beaches.

The Jablanica mountain range rises to the west of the city .

The neighboring villages of Struga are (turning clockwise from the southwest): Kališta / Kalisht, Radolišta / Ladorisht, Šum / Shum, Zagračani / Zagraçan, Dolna Belica / Belica e Poshtme, Vraništa , Moroišta and Misleševo .

climate

The climate is Mediterranean - continental so that it often gets very hot in summer and hardly any precipitation and in winter it often becomes very cold and there is a lot of precipitation. Forest and bush fires are common in summer due to drought.


Average monthly temperatures for Struga
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Max. Temperature ( ° C ) 6th 8th 11 16 21st 26th 28 29 23 19th 12 6th O 17.1
Min. Temperature (° C) -2 -1 1 4th 9 11 13 14th 11 8th 3 -1 O 5.9
Rainy days ( d ) 11 9 11 14th 13 6th 7th 4th 10 8th 14th 11 Σ 118
Humidity ( % ) 86 81 77 76 77 68 65 64 73 80 86 87 O 76.6
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16
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26th
11
28
13
29
14th
23
11
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12
3
6th
-1
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
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  Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

population

Data

Pedestrian zone in the city center

Struga had 16,559 inhabitants according to the last census from 2002 and is therefore one of the smaller cities in Macedonia.

In terms of ethnicity, 8901 identified themselves as Macedonians , 5293 as Albanians , 907 as Turks , 550 as Wallachians , 97 as Roma , 72 as Serbs and 16 as Bosniaks . 723 people reported a different ethnic group.

Struga is shaped by two religions. On the one hand, Orthodox Christianity is decisive, to which the majority of the population belong (9197 inhabitants) and on the other hand, Sunni Islam is represented, to which the minority belongs (7075 inhabitants). In addition, 23 people identified themselves as Roman Catholics in 2002 ; 264 had a different belief.

The Albanians, Torbeschen and Turks belong to Islam . The Macedonians are mainly part of the Orthodox Christianity.

Rural exodus

In recent years, many villages in the municipality have become desolate or have experienced a rapid population decline ( rural exodus ), among other things the ethnic Macedonian inhabitants have immigrated from these villages to the city. But Macedonians have also immigrated from the eastern part of Macedonia. Most of them live in flats and apartments. These movements have created major demographic changes.

history

First fishing settlement

The place of Struga has been around since 3000 BC. Inhabited. Back in the Neolithic , the first settlers founded a pile dwelling settlement near the outflow of Lake Ohrid. Archaeologists found that the settlers were mainly fishing; the researchers found many stone tools, bones, and weapons from the early Stone Age.

Illyrians, Macedonians, Romans and Christianization

The Illyrian Brygers and Encheleans were probably the first peoples who historically settled the place. Later the Illyrian Dassaretes were added. Over the course of the centuries, the fishing settlement developed into a town-like place, which Enhallon (possible meaning: "eel") was called. However, this predecessor has not yet been localized by Struga.

The ancient historian Polybius mentions Enhallon in his works and says that the place was from 359 BC onwards. Was conquered by Philip II , together with the neighboring Lychnidos and other cities on Lake Ohrid . The city was part of ancient Macedonia until 148 BC. BC, where it was then incorporated into their empire by the Romans . The important Roman trade route Via Egnatia ran through Enhallon at this time.

With the spread of Christianity from the 3rd century AD, the ancient temples were destroyed and basilicas were built on their grounds , which belonged to early Christianity. Many remains of these basilicas have been discovered in the Struga area. The Church of Saint Erasmus ( Macedonian Св. Еразмо Sv. Erazmo ; Albanian  Shën Erazëm ) - located around nine kilometers east of the city center on the road to Ohrid - is the first Christian missionary in the area (around 6th century).

In the 6th century, Enhallon, Lychnidos and other settlements around the lake become part of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire . During this time the Slavic tribe of the Wersites settled in the region (see also: Land grabbing of the Slavs in the Balkans ).

middle Ages

The city with its current name was first mentioned in the 11th century. In a document of the Bulgarian Tsar Kaliman I. Assen from the 13th century it is mentioned that part of the income from fishing in the city was intended for the Athos monastery Zografou on the Aegean Sea .

Around the year 1394 the Ottomans came to the region and conquered u. a. the cities of Ohrid, Pogradec and also Struga. With them, Islam is gaining a foothold in the region for the first time . He was and is still influenced by Sunni , but Sufists also immigrated again and again and founded Tekken .

Ottoman era

The Venetian ambassador Lorenzo Bernardo spent the night between May 21 and 22, 1591 during his trip from Venice to Constantinople in Struga. In his travel diary he describes that the city is actually not a city, but rather a village. He rested in a caravanserai . The Struga plain is described as very fertile. The local wine is tasty and the Ohrid trout is also well known. The majority of Orthodox Bulgarians are said to have lived in the city.

In 1668 the Ottoman traveler Evliya Çelebi reported about the city: The landowner Emin Agha is said to have built a wooden bridge with twelve pillars at the outflow of the Drin. On this he is said to have built his seraglio , which was protected by guards. The small town of Struga is said to have been under the jurisdiction of the Qādī of Ohrid. He also reports that the city is said to have had 301 two-story houses with tiled roofs surrounded by orchards and vines and 40 shops. In this era, the Halveti -Hayati- Tekke of a Sufi order, the Sunni Great Mosque of Struga and other Ottoman buildings were built in the old town.

Balkan and World Wars and entry into Yugoslavia

During the First Balkan War , Struga was conquered by the Kingdom of Serbia in 1913 . Since the Bulgarian leadership did not agree to the peace treaty of the first Balkan war ; Among other things, they were not satisfied with the cession of Macedonia to Serbia, so the Second Balkan War began . In September 1913 the Ohrid Debar uprising broke out in the region . It was organized by the Bulgarian Macedonia-Adrianople Revolutionary Committee (BMARK) and by Albanian clan leaders and was directed against the new Serbian rule. The uprising was bloodily crushed by the Serbian army two weeks later. More than 25,000 Albanians and around 30,000 Bulgarians fled what is now western Macedonia to Albania and Bulgaria. These events led to the stationing of large numbers of Serb soldiers and police officers in the region well into the 1920s. From then on, Muslim clothing was forbidden - women were no longer allowed to wear Çarşaf - and many mosques were converted into churches. Several hundred Muslims fled to Turkey . The centuries-long rule of the Ottomans ended within a few months.

The First World War had no significant consequences for Struga , it remained under Serbian rule. During the Second World War , the region came under the occupation of the Axis powers . 1943, the entire western Macedonia which was Nazi under Italian stationary control Albania slammed, which is then greater Albania formed. During their retreat, Nazi troops killed around 80 unarmed people in the neighboring village of Radolišta / Ladorishti as “retaliation” for previous partisan attacks (see also: Ladorisht massacre ). Many Roma were deported during this time .

After the World War, the region became part of socialist Yugoslavia under the Republic of Macedonia . During this time Struga was slightly industrialized: among other things, several factories were built in the north of the city. Many roads were also built, some of which still exist today.

Since independence in 1991

When the republic declared its independence on September 8, 1991, a break in the economic life of the city followed; the majority of the companies were closed and the standard of living fell sharply.

On April 6, 1992 Albanian activists from Struga proclaimed the Republika Ilirida.

A slight economic recovery has only been seen since the 2000s, when many businesses were founded and the number of tourists soared.

After the reform of the opštini (municipalities) in 2004, thousands of ethnic Macedonians demonstrated in Struga as well as in Kičevo , as the Albanians will now be the largest percentage of the community population and the Macedonians will form a (large) minority. In the following years, however, the situation stabilized again.

Cityscape

House architecture found in Struga, which is widespread in the Balkans .

The Ottoman old town is characterized by two-story houses that are typical of the region. But in the last few decades new houses and restaurants have been built on their grounds without consideration. The authorities have done little to counter this uncontrolled construction activity.

To the west of the city is the large market ( bazaar ), which is one of the largest in the region. Mainly fresh products from the neighboring villages are offered for sale.

Today Struga is one of the centers of the Macedonian tourism industry. Many hotels, restaurants, bars, cafes, boutiques, shops and apartments have sprung up in recent years. This construction activity has significantly changed the image of the city.

Furthermore, the five bridges - which is why Struga is also called the “city of bridges” in Macedonia - and the many villas in the outskirts of the city, which were built by diaspora Albanians, are part of the cityscape.

During the summer season and at the turn of the year, the nightlife is very present on the promenade in the city center and on the riverside. The sandy beaches attract many tourists from all over the country and also from neighboring countries to swim in the cool Lake Ohrid in summer. The city is often unable to cope with the rush of tourists and the main consequences are traffic and environmental problems.

Ezerski Lozja

After about three kilometers from the city center, a junction of the old main road leads to Ohrid in the "villa district" of Struga. The quarter is called Ezerski Lozja ( Albanian  Vreshtat , to German roughly "The vines on the lake"). The quarter was only created in the last few years, when tourism in the region gained greater impetus. There are many private villas and apartments for summer tourists in the quarter. The villas were built mainly by Diaspora Albanians who were able to purchase land from the neighboring villages. To the west of the district is one of the largest hotel complexes on Lake Ohrid: the four-star Eurohotel was built in the Yugoslav era. Today the hotel is very outdated and has few overnight stays.

Sights and monuments

The Great Mosque on Mother Teresa Square
  • Great Mosque of Struga
  • Wooden weir at the outflow of Lake Ohrid
  • The Hamam of Struga downtown forfeited in part and is not available
  • Mother Teresa statue on the central square of the same name

Sacred buildings

Struga is the seat of the Islamic community of the same name ( Albanian  Bashkia fetare islame e Strugës ). Her mufti is Ferat Polisi.

Islamic
  • The 16th century Great Mosque of Struga in the city center
  • The Halveti -Hayati-Hasan-Baba- Tekke from the early 18th century with the associated mosque, located southeast of the city center
  • The Sulejman Arap Mosque in the south of the city, on Lake Ohrid
Christian-Orthodox
  • Church of Saint Nicholas Drimeni
  • Church of St. George with a fresco from 1267 depicting the patron saint of the church; the church was built on the ground of an older one

There are other important churches in the region in Kališta (located around 5 kilometers southwest on Lake Ohrid) and in Vraništa (around 4.5 kilometers north).

The basilicas in the neighboring villages of Zagračani and Oktisi as well as south of the village Podmolje probably date from the 3rd and 6th centuries. Today some of them have decayed.

Culture

Struga has always been the economic center of the area north of Lake Ohrid. The contact between Albanians, Macedonians (Bulgarians), Turks, Serbs, Bosniaks, Aromanians and Roma resulted in a diverse culture . Traditional handicrafts are one of the city's most important cultural legacies. Gold processing, jewelry making, knitting, clay processing and wood carving are part of the Struga tradition.

Cultural event

Even if Struga is often overshadowed by its sister city Ohrid in terms of quantity and quality of cultural events, as a small town it also has a relatively popular and, above all, traditional offer. It becomes particularly active in spring and summer when tourism reaches its peak and tourists mainly from Albanian areas vacation in Struga.

Since 1962, poets, authors and poetry lovers have met annually in the city on the Drin for the Evenings of Poetry . The six-day literature festival is one of the oldest and largest of its kind in the world. In 2015, 44 poets from 29 countries took part in the festival, including internationally known names such as Yusef Komunyakaa , Bei Dao and Adonis .

In 1971 the multicultural costume festival Defileja e Veshjeve Popullore was launched. The festival takes place annually on the banks of the Drin and is accompanied by music and dance as well as culinary specialties. Various associations present the traditional costumes of their region of origin.

Albanian clubs, associations and folklore ensembles from all over the world meet at the “Këngë Jeho” music and folk dance festival. It has been held annually since 1992.

naturehistorical Museum

In 1940 the National Museum of Natural History Dr. Nikola Nezlobinski opened. Nezlobinski (1885–1942) was a Russian migrant who went to Struga in 1928 and initiated the first natural history exhibition. In 1938 he had the idea to build a building for the exhibitions and construction work began that same year. The museum was named in his honor and is divided into the natural history, zoological and botanical departments, the historical, archaeological and ethnological departments and the department of art and gold history - together with the art gallery Vangel Kodžoman .

Education and Research

At the secondary level, a middle school is attended after the eight-year primary level. The Niko Nestor Middle School offers lessons in Albanian only, while the Ibrahim Temo Middle School also teaches in Macedonian and Turkish.

At the tertiary level, the International University of Struga (founded in 2005) is decisive. It mainly offers courses in economics and political science and has two research departments. In Skopje -based FON University maintains a well-attended social science class in the city. Since 2002 the private school Yahya Kemal College has had a branch in Struga. Primary and secondary education is offered in Albanian, Macedonian, Turkish and English.

Sports

In the north of the city is the home stadium of FC Vllaznimi Strugë . Struga also had an indoor swimming pool named after the Miladinov brothers. It was built in 1972 and worked until 2002. A renovation has not yet been carried out - despite multiple election promises by the government.

politics

The official seat of the mayor and the municipal council on Mutter-Teresa-Platz

legislative branch

The functions of a legislative branch are taken over by the municipal council (Macedonian Sovet na Opština Совет на Општина; Albanian Këshilli i Komunës ). It consists of 27 members who are elected by the electorate for a term of four years. For example, the council can vote on the annual budget to be presented by the mayor.

For the 2013-2017 legislative period, the distribution of seats in the municipal council is as follows:

Political party Number of seats
Albanian Democratic Party 7th
Democratic Union for Integration 7th
National Democratic Rebirth 2
VMRO-DPMNE in coalition with the SDSM 11

executive

The mayor is elected for four years at the same time as the local council and has basic powers. He appoints a working group with which he carries out the church work. Ramiz Merko ( BDI ) was mayor between 2005 and 2013 . He was the city's first ethnic Albanian mayor and was re-elected for a second term in 2009.

Local elections were held again on March 24 and April 7, 2013, and Zijadin Sela ( PDSH ) won. He is the first mayor of Struga from the ranks of the PDSH.

Administrative division

economy

The majority of agriculture has fallen into disrepair today. Only a few families and businesses still cultivate the fertile valley of Struga. Many fields are now covered with trees and wild bushes. The entire Drin valley in Struga (Struga plain: 103,407 hectares) was once cultivated. At that time the crops were corn , potatoes , tomatoes , sunflowers , occasionally also wheat and above all paprika . Today these plants are mostly grown in gardens in many villages in the valley and on a few fields in the lowlands. Today large areas of the valley are overgrown.

Today tourism is probably the most important economic factor during the summer season and at the turn of the year (New Year). Many hotels and restaurants have emerged on the beaches of Struga in recent years - as in Ohrid and Pogradec (Albania). In particular, tourists from Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia come to the city on the Drin. For some years now, you have also seen more and more Dutch and Japanese people.

In the northern industrial area on the main road to Skopje and Albania there are some commercial establishments and the bus station.

Today there is hardly any fishing; However, there are still a few companies that mainly breed the famous Ohrid trout . The largest of its kind is located in the neighboring village of Šum .

traffic

Only seven kilometers east of the city is Ohrid Airport , which records up to 800 flight movements every year and handles 30,000 passengers.

Four major roads lead out of Struga. One of them is the old main road to Ohrid. Three of them come together in an intersection in the north of Struga in the industrial area. The branches lead (starting from the west clockwise) to Tirana (European road E852 via Qafë Thana ), Debar , Skopje (branch also to Ohrid ) and the city center. About five kilometers east of the city there is a junction where the road to Ohrid (E852) and Skopje splits. The Ohrid airport is accessible from the main road to Skopje. The connection Skopje – Tetovo –Struga – Albanian border is part of the Pan-European Transport Corridor VIII , which connects the Bulgarian port city of Burgas with the Albanian port city of Durrës . It is planned to build a new railway on this corridor or to expand the existing one ( see next section ).

The nearest railway stations are in Pogradec , Albania, 43 km away, and Kičevo, 59 km away . There are also individual plans for a connection between these railway companies, the Albanian Hekurudha e Shqipërisë and the Macedonian Makedonski železnici . The two countries have no connection to each other to this day, the connection mentioned is pursued by both governments with high priority in the field of railway infrastructure.

Struga and Ohrid and their villages are connected by a good bus route network. There are also bus connections to many regional cities ( especially Skopje and Bitola ), to tourist cities abroad (Durrës, Vlora , Thessaloniki , Istanbul and Burgas ), to Western Europe ( Zurich , Vienna , Munich , Cologne , Berlin and Copenhagen ) and to other foreign cities Big cities ( Belgrade , Sofia , Sarajevo , Athens and Tirana ). The western European cities are the main destination of the large Albanian diaspora community.

Personalities

Town twinning

Web links

Commons : Struga  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. a b 2002 Census: Official Results (PDF; 2.3 MB), on p. 57
  2. 1591 Lorenzo Bernardo: Journey of the Venetian Ambassador. (No longer available online.) Robert Elsie, archived from the original on March 22, 2013 ; accessed on May 29, 2013 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.albanianhistory.net
  3. struga.org: Early history of Struga ( Memento of the original from January 11, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.struga.org
  4. Ahrens, Geert-Hinrich (2007). Diplomacy on the Edge: Containment of Ethnic Conflict and the Minorities Working Group of the Conferences on Yugoslavia . Woodrow Wilson Center Press, p. 399.
  5. Struga and Kicevo threaten to split off. Is the dispute over decentralization in Macedonia escalating? In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . August 14, 2004, accessed October 11, 2012 .
  6. Struga Poetry Festival. Lyrikzeitung.com, September 2, 2015, accessed September 6, 2015 .
  7. Official website of the National Natural History Museum “Dr. Nikola Nezlobinski ”. Retrieved July 2, 2014 .
  8. ^ Department in Struga. In: Fon.edu.mk. Retrieved April 28, 2015 .
  9. ^ Official website of Yahya Kemal College. Retrieved April 28, 2015 .
  10. Miki Trajkovski: Struganët kërkojnë riparimin e pishinës ekzistuese (Strugans want to renovate the existing indoor pool). (No longer available online.) In: Alsat-M . April 27, 2015, archived from the original on May 6, 2015 ; Retrieved April 28, 2015 (Albanian). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / alsat-m.tv
  11. (held by the Council of the municipality of Struga Constituent Assembly acres) NESER mbahet mbledhja themeluese e Këshillit të Komunës së Strugës. (No longer available online.) Portalb.mk, April 26, 2013, archived from the original on April 28, 2013 ; Retrieved May 20, 2013 (Albanian). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.portalb.mk
  12. Results of the local elections in Macedonia 2013. State Election Commission, accessed on April 7, 2013 (Albanian, the page is constantly updated.).