“If you ever come across anything suspicious like this item, please do not pick it up, contact your local law and/or enforcement agency for assistance”
These days, Bitola is a tourist magnet. People flock from all parts to enjoy its historic centre, stroll and drink coffee in the Shirok Sokak [Wide Alley], regarded as the most beautiful street in the whole of North Macedonia, and soak up its laid-back, bohemian vibe. But underneath that bohemian charm, unknown to most visitors, lies a buried demon from the past, in the form of thousands of pieces of unexploded ordinance from World War I. The city and its surroundings literally lie on a carpet of bombs and no one can tell their exact number,” Dane, owner of a restaurant in Shirok Sokak, told BIRN. This part [of the street] was cleaned some 15 years ago during its reconstruction, but otherwise, even during minor construction work, wherever you dig you can expect to find something [of an explosive nature],” he added. Because no one has been injured by them recently, Bitola residents seem to have developed a casual approach towards such discoveries. “Unless you get 100 or 1,000 bombs [discovered], it’s not even news,” joked Dane.
Most heavily bombarded city in the Balkans
Traditionally a centre of trade and education and a hotbed of intellectuals, Bitola is still nicknamed ‘the city of the consuls’ because, during the last decades of the Ottoman Empire in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it hosted the consulates of 12 countries, lending it an unusually multicultural and ‘European’ atmosphere. The facts that the first motion picture in the Balkans was filmed there in 1903 by the famed Manaki brothers, and that the founder of the modern Turkish state, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, attended military academy there, are still recalled with pride. That all came to an abrupt halt during the 1914-18 “Great War”, when Bitola, then known by its Ottoman-era name, Monastir, became a focal point on the then Macedonian or “Salonica” Front. Bulgaria, one of the so-called Central Powers, allied to Germany, captured the city in 1915, and Entente forces, comprising French, British, Russian, Italian and Serbian soldiers, recaptured it in 2016. For two years they resisted relentless Bulgarian and German attacks before launching the breakthrough that pushed the front further north. During that time, daily artillery and aviation bombardments from all sides reduced the city to rubble, decimating its population. It is regarded as the most heavily bombed city in the Balkans during World War I, matching the fate only of Verdun in France. Tons of explosive ordinance remained there, either scattered around or concentrated near former frontlines and artillery positions. Many large stashes were also buried by the retreating armies in order to hide them from their enemies.
Construction workers often uncover old bombs
Nowadays, the discovery of yet another World War I-era bomb in or near Bitola is just a footnote in the police news bulletin, barely picked up by the media. The last short police press release came in early October, saying that “a pyrotechnician from the Directorate for Protection and Rescue picked up an old unexploded artillery shell with a caliber of 75 mm” from central Bitola. The discovery in June of 2,800 World War I rifles along with five hand grenades and one artillery shell made a bit more of a media splash. They were unearthed at the site of the old Bitola army barracks, now a residential development zone, some half-a-kilometer from Shirok Sokak. The public often hears about the big discoveries of stashes of unexploded material, but here on the ground we face many smaller challenges throughout the year,” Bitola’s Directorate for Protection and Rescue told BIRN.
Photo-Source: balkaninsight.com
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Biography of a Bomb
Dear editors, Biography of a bomb is aimed at highlighting the danger caused by unexploded bombs. Moreover, the most important aspect is that we work completely non profit, raising awerness about this topic is what drives us. We apologize if we make use of pictures in yours articles, but we need them to put a context in how findings are done. We will (and we always do) cite source and author of the picture. We thank you for your comprehension.
