Veles

(Macedonian: Велес)

Veles is a city in the center of the Republic of Macedonia on the Vardar river. The city of Veles is a seat of the Veles municipality.

The city is named after a Slavic god Veles. After World War II the city was known as Titov Veles because of Yugoslavian president Josip Broz Tito, but the 'Titov' was dropped after Macedonia became an independent state. The name of the city in other languages is: Turkish: Kopruly; Greek:Velesa.

• Number of inhabitants: 55.200
• Area: 464 sq. km
• Geographic position: 41.42° N 21.46° E
• Climate: Continental with some little Sub-Mediterranean influence
• Average temperature:
• Time zone: Central European Time (GMT +1)
• Postal Code: 1400
• Local area code: 034

Well, if you stay a bit here you will find the beauties of Macedonian traditional cuisine, paste called “pastrmajlija” will often be on your table, they are artists in preparing it. You may also taste wonderful wine, produced from the vine-yards nearby, but they may also offer other specialities that will make you feel fine.

Some fossils show that Veles was habited even in Palaeolithic age. In ancient times Veles was margin of the old Macedonian state. It was a town called Vila Zora on this site, but the continuity of Vila Zora to Veles cannot be proven, Veles is mentioned for the first time in 1018 EC. The ancient Stobi, which is placed in the area of Veles also shows activities that took place in this region. Slavs “arrived” in this territory in the 6th century, quickly mixing with the local Macedonians who were on a higher civilisation level than the new-comers and who thought their new neighbours to many craft-works, construction works etc.

Veles became a part of Byzant empire in 1004, after the fall of Skopje, and though Samuel was fighting against, trying to keep his Macedonian Kingdom, he was defeated in 1014, so Veles again came on the margins of another kingdom, the Byzant now. Finally, it became a Turkish Veles Vilajet in 1395. The history of Veles under the Ottoman Empire is not any different than the other cities. More than 5 centuries marking time that was moving forward slower than the will of Turks to make reforms, or farer give some rights to the raya. Resistance was a normal consequence, but that only made the life of ordinary people worse.

In 1913 finally, the Turks were expelled from the Balkans, but Veles was not free, just like some other cities of Macedonia, it became part of Southern Serbia (it was easy for the Serbs to give another name to their southern neighbours – Southern Serbs). And it remained like that up to the end of the WW-2 when the people of Veles, like many others dieing under other flags and serving other armies before, find their freedom in the new Yugoslav state.

Veles experienced it’s bloom after the WW-2, but again, thanks to it’s famous comrades who wanted to make Veles a “big industrial centre”, keeping their own interests in parallel, changed the face of the nice city into a polluted and dangerous place to live.

It’s changing now fortunately.

The “weakness” of Veles is that it lies on the main cross-road, surrounded with the highway on the north and south, no big capacities for sports. But you may follow the auxiliary road, going in parallel with the highway on your bike, visit Stobi or continue to Prilep and Bitola to the west and Stip to the east. If you like fishing, you may test your skills on the rivers of Pcinja and Vardar to the north or in the lake Mladost (the Youth) nearby.

• By car: 55 km from Skopje, on the highway Skopje - Thessaloniki
• By plane: www.airports.com.mk (Skopje)
• By bus: www.sas.com.mk (Skopje)
• By train: On Skopje - Athens railroad