Northern Macedonia

The Republic of Northern Macedonia is located in the Balkans. It is a former Yugoslav Republic of. Previously the country was called Macedonia, but since February 12, 2019 the country is officially called Northern Macedonia. The country borders Albania, Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece and is completely land-locked. The Republic originated on 8 September 1991 from the former Yugoslavia. Skopje is the capital. The city has been around for 2500 years and was then part of the Byzantine, Roman, Ottoman and Yugoslavian empire. Places of interest in Skopje are: the stone bridge over the river Vardar, the old town (Stara Carsia) from the Ottoman period, the bazaar and hamam, the Kale Fort (with a beautiful view of the city), the old train station where the clock stands still 5.17 by the 1963 earthquake and the National Art Gallery museum. Near Skopje is the 12th century Panteleimon monastery in Nerezi from 1164 and it is decorated with frescoes. Sights outside the capital are: the monastery of St. Andreas on the edge of Lake Matka, the city of Ohrid, a large number of Byzantine monuments on the World Heritage List of UNESCO, the monastery of St. Naum, Struga, Bitola and Prilep (with the monastery of the Archangel Michael). In addition to many mountains, the landscape of Macedonia also has many forests with beech, oak and pine. In the southwest there are two large lakes that are connected to each other underground: Lake Prespa and Lake Ohrid. The brown bear is one of the eight protected species that live in Macedonia.