Kratovo - a city in northeastern Macedonia, located in the throat of an extinct volcano. It is one of the oldest cities in Macedonia and the Balkans.
There are several examples of the source of the name of the city Kratovo. The name Kratovo comes from the location of the city, which lies on a volcanic base, ie volcanic crater. According to the legend, the city was named after the words "kirat-ova", after the fortress on the banks of the Kratovska River, demolished by the Ottomans. In Byzantine times, the city was called "Koritos" or "Coriton".
Ancient and medieval
history
The area has been inhabited since Roman times. The city
was known as the mining town of Kratishkara, which belonged to the
Roman province of Dardania. In Byzantine times, Kratovo was known as
"Koritos" or "Coriton", which explains its location, "the riverbed
in which the city is located". As a testimony to the life and
importance of Kratovo in the ancient and medieval period as an
important mining center, are the remains of the mines and the large
number of underground tunnels and passages that connected them and
from which the ore was excavated and transported.
During the
reign of Stefan Nemanja, in 1189, Kratovo was annexed to Serbia,
under Serbian rule, the city was ruled by Despot Jovan Oliver.
The existence of Kratovo was narrated by Homer's epic "Iliad" in
VI BC. Coins from the time of Adolion Paeonian, a king who ruled
from 315 to 285 BC, also serve as evidence. At that time, the city
traded in gold, silver and copper.
Ottoman period
In the
second half of the 14th century, Kratovo fell under the Ottoman
Empire. In the 16th and 17th centuries, as part of the newly
conquered territories of the Ottomans, the city became a regional
center. In the 16th and 17th centuries, silver coins were minted
here. The Turkish Sultan Murat also visited the city. According to a
census from 1570, one can see the ratio of the ethnic composition of
the population to households. The document noted that there were 328
Christian families, 292 Muslim, 37 Jewish, and for the first time
ten Roma families. The famous Turkish travelers, Haxhi Kalfa and
Evliya Çelebi, in their notes describe Kratovo as a city where coins
were minted and that in that period the city had 800 houses, 350
shops, 20 small and large mosques, madrasas, tekkes, hammams,
fountains and more. Coins dating back to the Roman period, after
the arrival of the Turks, were reactivated at the latest during the
reign of Sultan Bayezid I (1481 - 1512) and in the next two
centuries coins with the mark "K" were made in them, which means
that they are made in Kratovo. From 1689 to 1805 the city was
deserted. After the Austro-Hungarian War of 1689-1690 and the
Karposh Uprising, the city was devastated and the mining shafts
closed. At the beginning of the XIX century Zletovo became a center
of mining and in Kratovo the mining activity completely stopped.