Kocani

(Macedonian: Кочани)

Kocani, the Town of Rice and geothermal water is a town only 120 km away from Skopje, situated in the Eastern part of the Republic of Macedonia. The town of Kocani is a seat of the Kocani municipality. The town spreads across the Northern side of the Kocani valley, along the banks of the Kocani river, right where it leaves the mountain slopes and flows through the valley. North of the town there is the Osogovo mountain (2252 m) and 8 km away to the south the valley is closed by the mountain Plackovica (1754 m). The town is 350 - 450 m above sea level.

Kocani spreads over an area of 18,6 km² and has population of 26,364 inhabitants which makes it the third regional centre in the Eastern part of the country.

• Number of inhabitants: 38.092, Kocani itself – 26.364
• Area: 375,44 sq. km
• Geographic position: 41.54° N 22.24° E
• Climate: Mild continental
• Average temperature: 12,9oC
• Time zone: Central European Time (GMT +1)
• Postal Code: 2300
• Local area code: 033

You are in the Rice Area, but id doesn’t mean that you will have to eat only food based on rice. You’ll find it here, too, and you may get hundreds of recipes how to prepare rice specialities. But you may enjoy at the typical Macedonian kitchen and in other specialities from everywhere, adjusted to the regional food sources.

Kocani was first mentioned in a charter from 1337 in which Despot Jovan Oliver donated the church of St. Dimitrija to Kocani.

Archaeological finds in the town itself have revealed remains of a settlement here in the Roman and Byzantine periods. Early in the 15th century it fell under Turkish rule. The travel chronicler Evlija Celebija who visited it in 1662, recorded that it had 600 households, a mosque, a mezjid, an inn and 15 shops. During the 18th and in the early 19th century, the town growth rate stagnated. It was only around 1878 that the population began to rise, at which time it had about 450 - 500 households. The town has two feudal residences in the shape of towers believed to date from the 16th - 17th century. Numerous cultural and historical monuments, from ancient times to the middle ages, can be found in the vicinity of Kocani. Monastery complexes in the nearby villages Morodviz and Pantelej are world famous both for their architecture and unique frescoes.

Today Kocani is a modern town with planned infrastructure, avenues, many modern buildings and blocks of flats, a shopping centre, a park and a newly built industrial zone. All this is carefully planned and structured, according to modern standards of living and esthetics. New suburbs are mainly built to the east where the town almost reaches the first houses of Orizari and to the West spreading over the industrial zone.

Two city sport halls for “small sports”, several tennis courts, walking traces to the centre of Ponikva, there is no bike trace but you may ride your bike everywhere around because it’s a ravine among the villages, taking care of the agricultural mechanisation on the road only. This is one of the best area to offer you paragliding conditions because of favourable winds that blow here and the variety of the terrain forms surrounding Kocani.

Kocani is not better or worse than the other cities in this region, but it’s a centre in some way, so it may offer something more than Berovo, Delcevo or even Vinica i.e. People are hospitable and gentle to their guests, always trying to show them a lot of their city, so you may always find a good company and spend some nice time in one of several night bars here.

• By car: 110 km south-east from Skopje on the road to the Bulgarian border, 1,5 to 2 hours easy drive
• By plane: www.airports.com.mk (Skopje)
• By bus: www.sas.com.mk (Skopje)
• By train: Don’t count too much on that, the railway is only for transportation of goods.

State owned hunting site Polaki Kocani

Photo safari

At 150 km from Skopje, on a part of the southern slopes of the Osogovo mountains, on an area of 15.250 ha, the state- owned hunting site Polaki is situated.

The rich relief and the significant difference in altitude 500-2084 m above sea level offer ideal conditions for existence of various types of forests, and running water throughout the year, which enables zonal distribution and survival of many types of big game, such as red deer, fallow deer, roe, mouflon and wild boar. In the hunting site there is a fenced area of about 1000 Ha, where the game is bred and shot.The easy road access and the supply of hunting equipment make it possible for a fast and safe hunting in the fenced part of the hunting area throughout the year. In the hunting area, the hunting cottage “Pasadjikovo” is located, with 200 m2 area and capacity for 10 people. Apart from the hunting cottage, the hunters may be accommodated in the facilities of the winter resort complex, “Ponikva”, located in the vicinity of the hunting area.