Sveti Nikole

(Macedonian: Свети Николе)

Sveti Nikole (literally meaning Saint Nicholas) is a town in the Republic of Macedonia. It is a seat of the Sveti Nikole municipality and a center of a plain called Ovče Pole (Plain of sheep), famous for sheep farming, lamb meat, and dairy products of all kinds. According to legend, the town was named after the church of Sveti Nikola, built in the beginning of the 14th century who was at the time the biggest church of all 42-to churches in this area.ther are many archeological sites in the sveti nikole municipality fromall ages in the past.

The outlying villages of Sveti Nikole include Amzabegovo, with its barely excavated archaeological site, and Burilovci, famous for the magnificent frescoes that adorn its own church of St. Nicholas.

• Number of inhabitants: 18.528, Sveti Nikole itself - 13.292
• Area: 480 sq. km
• Geographic position: 41.51° N 21.56° E
• Climate: Continental
• Average temperature:
• Time zone: Central European Time (GMT +1)
• Postal Code: 2220
• Local area code: 032

The ravine of Ovce Pole (Sheep Field) was habited from the pre-history. The oldest findings of life date from Neolithic Age, and this was confirmed by archaeological proofs. Some clues exist showing that Ovce Pole was the centre of the Peyonic State and Peyonic rulers, Vila Zora was placed here, on the Gradiste (v. Knezije) locality. Till the seventies of the 19th century, Sveti Nikole was some kind of a regional centre as the road to Thessalonica leaded through here. As the railway Skopje – Athens was built and passed in the valley of Vardar river, in 1873, Sveti Nikole lost it’s importance, and that change increased the negative tendency when that railway was connected to the Moravian one in 1888, leading to Belgrade and further to the north. However, the data that are available are not reliable so some may say when this settlement was established, but it’s assumed as an old Peyon settlement dating from the 3rd centuru BC. The name was Probaton, and it was in use till the beginning of the 7th century when it was changed in Ovce Pole , and has the same meaning as Probaton. A church in honour of St. Nicolas was built in 1292, and according to the legend St. Nicolas revived the sense of sight to Stefan from Decane, who was blind before, and Stefan reconciled with his father Milutin in this church later on. The settlement began to grow around the church and got the name St. Nicolas (Sveti Nikole) according to the name of the church.

Ottoman times brought all the characteristics of oriental kind of living to Sveti Nikole in the same manner as to all the other centres in Macedonia. Some bloom the city had between 1845 and 1864, becoming a centre of cattle collecting and a big cattle market.

After the WW-2 it became a part of sovereign Macedonian state in former Yugoslavia, and the second development of the city started.