Demir Hisar

 

Demir Hisar (Демир Хисар) (formerly: village of Murgashevo) - a town in southwestern Macedonia and the administrative center of the Municipality of Demir Hisar. The city is located in a hilly-mountainous region, and a small part along the Black River is lowland. A special sign of marking this area are the mountains Bigla, Ilinska and Plakenska Mountain, on which is the highest peak Stalev Kamen with a height of 2,000 m, which separate the Demir Hisar area from the Prespa-Ohrid area.
 
Demir Hisar, as an urban settlement, has continuously recorded an increase in population since its establishment. Thus according to the census in 1961 the settlement counted 1129 inhabitants, and in 1981 there were 2283. This proves that people from rural settlements suddenly left their homes and settled in Demir Hisar.

 

Geography

The city is located in a hilly-mountainous region, and a small part along the Crna Reka river is lowland. A special sign of commemoration of this area are the mountains Bigla, Ilinska and Plakenska Planina, on which the highest peak Stalev Kamen with a height of 2,000 m is located, which separate the Demirhisar area from the Prespa-Ohrid area.

 

Origin of the term

Because of the wealth of these mountains with iron ore, the area also gets the name Železnik or Železnec, which changed depending on the rulers in different periods. This area is also found as Sidero Castron, which means Iron Fortress from Greek, and Demir Hisar is a name the Turks gave to this area which would mean Iron Fortress. That is the name it still bears today.

 

History

At the beginning of the 17th century, there was a Christian village of Murgash in Bitola. The court register of the Bitola kadija from 1640 mentions that due to the excessive increase of the arach and other common non-Muslim taxes, the entire population of the village, except for one, the "unbelieving soul", fled. As the debts and taxes were demanded by Duj, he also escaped, and the authorities tried to repay him by simplifying some duties.

The settlement began to develop around the middle of December 1945, when a social-political administrative community was formed in Demir Hisar - District People's Board, first based in the village. Lopatica, and from the spring of 1946, after the territorial correction, the headquarters was transferred to the village of Murgashevo, based in the old Slepchanski an (on the site of today's bus station).

Today, Demir Hisar is an urbanized settlement of the city type that has all the conditions of a small town. Electricity network, water supply, sewerage, asphalt streets have been built and it is connected with a modern road with the neighboring cities Bitola (28 km), Krushevo (25 km), Kicevo (51 km) and Prilep (38 km).

 

Administration and politics

Polling station
In the city there are polling stations no. 623, 623/1 and 624 according to the State Election Commission, located in the premises of the primary school.

In the 2019 presidential elections, a total of 1,904 voters were registered at these polling stations.