Resen ( ) is a town in southwestern

North Macedonia North Macedonia, officially the Republic of North Macedonia, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe. It shares land borders with Greece to the south, Albania to the west, Bulgaria to the east, Kosovo to the northwest and Serbia to the n ...

, with just under 9,000 inhabitants. Resen is approximately equidistant between

Bitola Bitola (; ) is a city in the southwestern part of North Macedonia. It is located in the southern part of the Pelagonia valley, surrounded by the Baba, Nidže, and Kajmakčalan mountain ranges, north of the Medžitlija-Níki border crossing ...

and

Ohrid Ohrid ( ) is a city in North Macedonia and is the seat of the Ohrid Municipality. It is the largest city on Lake Ohrid and the eighth-largest city in the country, with the municipality recording a population of over 42,000 inhabitants as of ...

. The town rises

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level ...

and is situated near

Lake Prespa The Lake Prespa is located on the tripoint of North Macedonia, Albania and Greece. It is a system of two lakes separated by an isthmus: the Great Prespa Lake, divided between the three countries, and the Little Prespa Lake, mostly within Greec ...

. Resen is the only town in the Prespa Lake area and is the seat of

Resen Municipality Resen ( ) is a municipality in southwestern Republic of North Macedonia. ''Resen, North Macedonia, Resen'' is also the name of the town where the municipal seat is found. Resen Municipality is located in the Pelagonia Statistical Region. Geograp ...

Name

The name of the city in Macedonian is ''Resen'' (Ресен) and in Turkish ''Resne'', while in

Albanian Albanian may refer to: *Pertaining to Albania in Southeast Europe; in particular: **Albanians, an ethnic group native to the Balkans **Albanian language **Albanian culture **Demographics of Albania, includes other ethnic groups within the country ...

it is known as ''Resnjë'' (definite form: ''Resnja''). In Aromanian, it is ''Areshanj''The War of Numbers and its First Victim: The Aromanians in Macedonia (End of 19th – Beginning of 20th century)
/ref> and in

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

''Resinion'', Ρησίνιον.

History

The ancient Illyrian city of Damastion (Δαμάστιον in

) may be near Resen. Resen's history dates to the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

when the famous road ''

Via Egnatia The Via Egnatia was a road constructed by the Romans in the 2nd century BC. It crossed Illyricum, Macedonia, and Thracia, running through territory that is now part of modern Albania, North Macedonia, Greece, and European Turkey as a contin ...

'' was built, passing through the city. During the Middle Ages, the Prespa area was part of the

Bulgarian empire Bulgarian Empire may refer to: * First Bulgarian Empire The First Bulgarian Empire (; was a medieval state that existed in Southeastern Europe between the 7th and 11th centuries AD. It was founded in 680–681 after part of the Bulgars, led b ...

under Samuil. After the Battle of Klyuch, some of Samuil's soldiers, who were each blinded in one eye, settled in a village on the shore of

. The Byzantines called the village ''Asamati''. The Byzantine meaning of this word is "settlement of one-eyed people". From then on, Resen was under Byzantine rule. Later, Resen became part of the

Second Bulgarian Empire The Second Bulgarian Empire (; ) was a medieval Bulgarians, Bulgarian state that existed between 1185 and 1422. A successor to the First Bulgarian Empire, it reached the peak of its power under Tsars Kaloyan of Bulgaria, Kaloyan and Ivan Asen II ...

Serbian Empire The Serbian Empire ( sr-Cyrl-Latn, Српско царство, Srpsko carstvo, separator=" / ", ) was a medieval Serbian state that emerged from the Kingdom of Serbia. It was established in 1346 by Dušan the Mighty, who significantly expande ...

and

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

, and it was the birthplace of Ahmed Niyazi Bey, an

officer from a noble family of the town, who was one of the initiators and leaders of the

Young Turk Revolution The Young Turk Revolution (July 1908; ) was a constitutionalist revolution in the Ottoman Empire. Revolutionaries belonging to the Internal Committee of Union and Progress, an organization of the Young Turks movement, forced Sultan Abdul Hamid II ...

in the region in 1908. Ahmed Niyazi Bey's most famous monument in Resen is the Saraj, a French-style estate he built. In the late 19th and early 20th century, Resen was part of the

Manastir Vilayet The Vilayet of Manastir () was a first-level administrative division (vilayet) of the Ottoman Empire, created in 1874, dissolved in 1877 and re-established in 1879. The vilayet was occupied during the First Balkan War in 1912 and divided between t ...

of the Ottoman Empire. During this time, Aromanians were the second most numerous group in Resen after Macedonians. From 1929 to 1941, Resen was part of the

Vardar Banovina The Vardar Banovina, or Vardar Banate ( Macedonian and ; ), was a province ( banate) of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia between 1929 and 1941. History It was located in the southernmost part of the country, encompassing the whole of today's North Mace ...

of the

Kingdom of Yugoslavia The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a country in Southeast Europe, Southeast and Central Europe that existed from 1918 until 1941. From 1918 to 1929, it was officially called the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, but the term "Yugoslavia" () h ...

. File:Resen old.jpg, Resen in the early 20th century File:Sarajcrop.jpg, Old picture of the Saraj

Demographics

In the late Ottoman period, according to N. Th. Shinas (1886), Resen had a total population of 5,530 divided by 3,300 Muslims and 3,300 Christians. According to Spiridon Gopčević (1889), Resen (5,200) had 2,150 Muslims, 2,400 Christians, 500 Romani, 660

Aromanians The Aromanians () are an Ethnic groups in Europe, ethnic group native to the southern Balkans who speak Aromanian language, Aromanian, an Eastern Romance language. They traditionally live in central and southern Albania, south-western Bulgari ...

and 700 Muslim Serbs.

Vasil Kanchov Vasil Kanchov (26 July 1862 – 6 February 1902) was a geographer, ethnographer and teacher who served as Minister of Education of Bulgaria. Early life and education Vasil Kanchov was born in Vratsa. Upon graduating from High school i ...

(1900) in his statistics had listed Resen (4,450) as composed of 2,400 Bulgarian Christians, 800 Bulgarian Muslims, 350 Romani, 300 Muslim Albanians, 570 Aromanians and 30 Turks.Vasil Kanchov (1900).
Macedonia: Ethnography and Statistics
'. Sofia. p. 240. According to the statistics of Dimitri Mishev (D. M. Brancoff), the town had a total Christian population of 4,388 in 1905, consisting of 2,096 Exarchist Bulgarians, 1,296 Patriarchist

Bulgarians Bulgarians (, ) are a nation and South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to Bulgaria and its neighbouring region, who share a common Bulgarian ancestry, culture, history and language. They form the majority of the population in Bulgaria, ...

, 696 Christian Albanians and 300

Vlachs Vlach ( ), also Wallachian and many other variants, is a term and exonym used from the Middle Ages until the Modern Era to designate speakers of Eastern Romance languages living in Southeast Europe—south of the Danube (the Balkan peninsula ...

.Dimitri Mishev (D. M. Brancoff)
''La Macédoine et sa Population Chrétienne''
p. 168 The town also had 5 schools, of which 2 were Bulgarian, 2 Greek and 1 Vlach. According to A. Arvanitis, in Resen (7,500) there were 2,500 Turks, 2,000 Bulgarians and 3,000 Greeks. According to K. Andreadis (1910), the population of Resen was 5,000-6,000 consisting of 1,700-2,000 Muslims and 3,300-4,000 Christians with Bulgarians being the majority demographic element and some Greeks. According to Ath. Haliopoulos (1910), Resen (4,990) was composed of 2,200 Muslims, 1,700 Bulgarians, 1.000 Aromanians, 60 Romanians and 30 Serbs. According to Tr. Evangelidis (1913), Resen (7,500) had 3,750 Greeks. As of the 2002 census, the town of Resen has 8,748 inhabitants and the ethnic composition was the following: *Macedonians, 6,431 (73.5%) *Turks, 1,369 (15.7%) *Albanians, 325 (3.7%) *others, 623 (7.1%) The mother tongues of the city's residents include the following: *Macedonian, 6,574 (75.2%) *Turkish, 1,355 (15.5%) *Albanian, 629 (7.2%) *others, 190 (2.2%)

The religious composition of the city was the following: *Orthodox Christians, 6,382 (73.0%) *Muslims, 2,272 (26.0%) *others, 94 (1.0%) A sizable amount of the Macedonian population originates from the nearby villages of Podmočani, Bolno, Malovišta in addition to other villages from the Lake Ohrid area who settled in Resen during the middle of the 19th century. The Albanian population settled in Resen during first decades of the 19th century originating from the Yanya vilayet. "Македонски жители се дојдени во градот во средината на XIX в. од селата Подмочани, Болно, Маловишта и др. од Охридско. Албанците се дојдени во првите децении на XIX в. од Јанинскиот вилает." In contemporary times Muslim Albanians live in small numbers within Resen. In the latter decades of the 20th century, some Albanian-speaking Muslim Romani from the villages of

Krani Krani (; ) is a village in the Resen Municipality in North Macedonia, roughly south of the municipal centre of Resen. History Krani has four known archaeological sites, two of which are from the Middle Ages, one from Late Antiquity, and one fr ...

and Nakolec have migrated to Resen. Most of the Muslim population living in Resen speaks Turkish and are either descended from Turks settled in strategic areas or the descendants of local Turkified Slavs during Ottoman rule. A small population of Orthodox

also lives in Resen.

Climate

Resen has a mild continental climate with cold winters and warm summers, which makes it a tourist attraction, especially in summer. The climate and the quality of soil are key factors for Prespa's region to have a long tradition of agriculture. One of the most important landmarks of Resen's today are the apple orchards, well known for the quality and specific taste of apples.

Culture

Resen is home to Prespa's Ceramic Colony, established in the 1970s, which attracts renowned artists from all over the world. The organization is included in the UNESCO International Academy of Ceramics. It is housed in the Saraj, which also houses the Dragi Tozija House of Culture, the Keraca Visulčeva Gallery, and a library.

Sports

Local football club FK Prespa plays in the Macedonian Third League (Southwest Division) and FK Jildirimspor plays in the 4th tier OFL Resen.

References

External links

Resen Municipality Official Page
{{Authority control Towns in North Macedonia Resen Municipality