Vinica (Виница) - a city in the eastern part of Macedonia, located in the southeastern part of the Kocani Valley and the center of the Municipality of Vinica.
According to the latest research, the name
of the city of Vinica has not yet been fully clarified. The records
of the terracotta icons, in which the name Vinica was associated
with the name Vinea, were misinterpreted by the public.
Radmilo Petrovi во in his paper Armonia Latina gave his
interpretations with the problem of localization of the cities of
Astibo, Kelendin, Armonia, Zapara and Tranupara. He pays special
attention to the location of the city of Armonia, which he considers
to be the city of Vinica, above which the Vinica Fortress rises as a
fortification. According to him, the name of the city is of Thracian
origin, which the Turks changed when they came to this area, because
they did not know the true meaning of the name of the city, they
associated it with the most similar Turkish word - Aramia (someone
who does bad deeds). Later it was directly translated into the local
language with the same meaning Vinica - Vina.
Marian Jovanov
in his presentation Cultural Heritage gives an interpretation of the
name of the city. According to the different interpretations of the
direction of the road Stobi - Pautalia, starting from the original
version of the map Tabula Putengeriana, which was corrected in 1916
and consistently replaced the locations of Astibo and Tranupara and
according to the latest archaeological discoveries in Delchevo, he
believes that Early Christian remains should be sought in Tranupara,
and at the Vinica fortress in the ancient city of Astibo.
His
explanation is argued; if we located Tranupara in Krupishte, the
next 20 miles along the Tabula lead us to the location of today's
Vinica. Here at the site of Kale are striking finds from a fortified
settlement from early antiquity, which covers an area of 3.5
hectares (today already 11 hectares). The stone crushers for ore
speak of mining-metallurgical activity, as a reason for the erection
of an early antique settlement at this site, and the silver
tetradrachms of Philip 2 indicate its dating. In the 4th century
this settlement received walls built of plaster, and in the 6th
century the early Middle Ages gained even more importance, growing
into a cultural center as evidenced by the numerous basilicas.
Following the distances of the Tabula and the archeological remains
on the ground, the Astibo station should be located at this site.
According to local legend, the name originated during a period
of several dry years when houses were built with wine instead of
water.
The town of Vinica is located at the foot of the mountain Plachkovica, between the mountains Golak and Obozna, in the southeastern part of the Kocanska Valley, on the north bank of the river Bregalnica, at 395 meters above sea level. The city is 11.5 km southeast of the nearest town Kocani, 38 km southwest of Delchevo, 40 km northeast of Stip and 43 km northwest of Berovo. Several smaller rivers flow through the city, including the Vinicka and Gradechka rivers. The city of Vinica is famous for the historical Roman fortressVinica Fortress, which is located on the hill above the city. Famous early Christian terracotta icons have been found in it.
The area of Vinica was
inhabited during the Neolithic period (from the 12th to the 6th
century BC), according to the found materials from the Vinica
Fortress and the surrounding archeological sites. In antiquity, the
area was inhabited by the Pejons. The present city originates from
the Byzantine fortress, which was a center of wine production. The
vineyards on the Vinica hill were abandoned after 1980 when
archeological excavations became more active.
In the Ottoman
tax registers of the non-Muslim population in the province of
Kratovo from 1618 to 1619, it is recorded as the village of Viniche
with 55 households. In the list of villages of non-Muslim households
in the same vilayet from 1637, 31 households are registered in
Viniche.
In the second half of the 17th century, Evliya
Çelebi remarked about this small place: “Traveling for four hours
through mountains and hills, I arrived in Vinica, a place known for
the large market of agricultural and livestock products. The place
is called Yeni-pazar (New-pazar). Due to this large and rich market
of goods, which was otherwise held every week, Vinica for a long
time was named exactly in the notes of Celebija.
It developed as a larger rural settlement in the XIX century when
the bazaar was formed and when it became a trade and market center
for the villages on the left side of Bregalnica. The rich cattle
market and the holding of two fairs a year enabled the settlement to
exist in addition to most of the trade and craft shops and 10 inns.
As a result of the economic boom in 1858 in Vinica was built a large
and beautiful church dedicated to St. Archangel Michael. In 1870,
Vinica had 200 houses with about a thousand inhabitants. In the
years from 1894 to 1897, Vinica, in the period of the activities of
the revolutionary organization of Macedonia, served as the main
point and channel of the Secret Macedonian-Odrina Revolutionary
Organization (TMORO), but also as a storehouse of weapons and
ammunition and archival materials. In Vinica in 1897, people who had
no common ideas with the revolutionary work of the organization,
entered Vinica, attacked the house of Qazim-aga. This bandit group
robbed Agatha's house and killed him. Immediately after this event,
the Turks broke into the Organization, while over a hundred
inhabitants from Vinica and the surrounding areas were captured,
tortured and sent into captivity. This event in the history of
Macedonia is known as the "Vinica affair".
The population of
Vinica stagnated until the end of the Second World War, and then
began to increase, and the largest increase was recorded in the
period after 1971 when the settlement was declared a city.