"A short glimpse at Bitola." Top 5 Page for this destination Bitola by JLBG

Bitola Travel Guide: 244 reviews and 1,038 photos

Bitola has for long been so famous for it’s monastery that it gave it her name in several languages : Monastiri in Greek, borrowed both by the Ottomans and the Albanians as Manastir. The name Bitola used in Macedonian comes from the ancient Slavic “obitel” with the same meaning. Other Slavic languages use closely related names such as Bitolj, Bitolya and others.

Magnolia square

Bitola is a large city (100,000) that might have been the capital of Macedonia but Tito chose Skopje instead though, at that time, much smaller.

Reflection

We arrived in Bitola at 6 PM, may 16th, coming from Korcë, Albania, and spent only one evening in that charming town. Sorry Valentina and Vters that will be in town the following week but I had to be back home on May 22nd and could not meet any of you !

I am not going to build a full page out of such a short visit but to give a few glimpses. I know I have missed a lot of places (the bazaar, etc) I will have to come back !

Last visit to Bitola: May 2011
Intro Updated Jun 27, 2011
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Reviews (16)

Good local food Restaurants (1)

We did not go to the Hotel but to the restaurant of the hotel. It looked a bit formal but finally nice. We had... more travel advice

Why an Hotel named Ḗpinal ? Off The Beaten Path (1)

I wondered why there was an Hotel Ḗpinal in Bitola and found that the city had been twined with Ḗpinal,... more travel advice

Hotel Premier Centar Hotels (1)

We found this small hotel by pure chance. The room was 45 € and very comfortable. We had planned to have dinner in the... more travel advice

The Manaki brothers Local Customs (1)

The Manaki brothers (Ianachia and Milton) were born in the little Aromanian village of Avdella, now in Greece but that... more travel advice

Things to Do (12)
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Comments (10)

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Nemorino Sep 24, 2011 at 11:16 AM

I was interested to learn that Bitola still has a very active twinning with Épinal, France. Here in Frankfurt we used to have active twinning programs with Lyon, Milan and Birmingham (which I why I took groups to Birmingham in the summers), but now there is supposedly no more money in the budget for that sort of thing. Recently I was in Lyon and visited the Lumière villa and museum (your suggestion), so I was interested to read that the Manaki brothers of Bitola learned photography and filmmaking from the Lumière brothers in Lyon.
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starship Jul 13, 2011 at 7:41 AM

Very interesting page with useful information and nice photos. A shame you weren't able to be there during the Euromeet.
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MacedonianUK Jul 1, 2011 at 12:51 PM

This is am monument of An angel in honor of the fallen policeman, which were brutally butchered by the Albanian terrorist n 2001 conflict. Two of the names are friends of mine....
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LoriPori Jun 27, 2011 at 4:01 AM

Bitola was just OK for me as I loved being in Ohrid much more. Bitola is a much different city of course.
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HORSCHECK Jun 21, 2011 at 2:35 PM

Jean-Louis, fabulous page about Bitola. A pity your couldn't make it to the meeting. It was great fun. I didn't know that Epinal is a town in France.
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Maurizioago Jun 3, 2011 at 12:44 PM

It's a pity I couldn't attend the meeting in Macedonia. Bitola seems a nice place. Ciao!
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Pijlmans May 30, 2011 at 9:59 PM

Wow, 11 page views and already in the Bitola top 5! Impressive! Hope you had a good time in Macedonia! Cheers, Dennis
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aussirose May 29, 2011 at 12:57 AM

Hi Jean-Louis. Good start to your Bitola page :o) Can you please let me know when you have some pix up of the vt crew :o) Cheers, Ann.
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Kuznetsov_Sergey May 28, 2011 at 11:14 PM

Interesting page about Bitola-Obitel'! Hope they will find a missing statue of Philip II of Macedonia till the time I ever visit this place, haha! Thank you Jean-Louis for sharing. All the best from sunny Moscow!
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hunterV May 28, 2011 at 12:51 AM

I see it's a great and picturesque place indeed! Have a good time! ><><><><><><