Dojran
Encyclopedia
Dojran was a city located on the western shore of Dojran Lake
Dojran Lake
Dojran Lake is a lake with an area of 43.1 km² shared between the Republic of Macedonia and West Macedonia within Greek Macedonia, Greece . To the west is the city of Nov Dojran , to the east the village of Mouries, to the north the mountain Belasica/Beles and to the south the Greek town of...

 in the south-eastern part of the Republic of Macedonia
Republic of Macedonia
Macedonia , officially the Republic of Macedonia , is a country located in the central Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. It is one of the successor states of the former Yugoslavia, from which it declared independence in 1991...

. Today, it is collective name for two villages that exist on the territory of the ruined city: Nov (New) Dojran (settled from the end of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 to World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

) and Star (Old) Dojran, which contains both old ruins and recent construction, especially hotels, resorts and restaurants. Dojran is located 170 km from Skopje
Skopje
Skopje is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Macedonia with about a third of the total population. It is the country's political, cultural, economic, and academic centre...

, 59 km from Strumica
Strumica
Strumica is the largest city in eastern Macedonia, near the Novo Selo-Petrich border crossing with Bulgaria. About 100,000 people live in the region surrounding the city. The city is named after the Strumica River which runs through it...

 and some 30km from Gevgelija
Gevgelija
Gevgelija is a town with a population of 15,685 located in the very southeast of the Republic of Macedonia along the banks of the Vardar River, situated at the country's main border with Greece , the point which links the motorway from Skopje and three other former Yugoslav capitals with...

. The nearest airports are Thessaloniki International Airport and Skopje Airport
Skopje Airport
Skopje Airport , or Skopje "Alexander the Great" Airport is the larger and busier of the two international airports in the Republic of Macedonia...

. Dojran's mayor is currently Risto Gušev. The old city of Dojran was totally ruined during the First world war and after the Second world war the modern villages were established.

History

Dojran, primarily Star Dojran, was first settled in pre-historic times, and the first written record of the city was in the 5th century in which the Greek
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

 historian Herodotus
Herodotus
Herodotus was an ancient Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus, Caria and lived in the 5th century BC . He has been called the "Father of History", and was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a...

, wrote about the Paeonians, ancient Thraco-Illyrian
Thraco-Illyrian
Thraco-Illyrian refers to a hypothesis that the Thraco-Dacian and Illyrian languages comprise a distinct branch of Indo-European. Thraco-Illyrian is also used as a term merely implying a Thracian-Illyrian interference, mixture or sprachbund, or as a shorthand way of saying that it is not...

 people, who started and expanded the city. Herodotus notes how the Paeonians, lived in settlements accessible only by boats, settlements which still exist today on the west and the north shores of Dojran Lake, in between the cane zones and the lake itself. The economy of Dojran has always been primarily dependent on fishing and success in the business is attributed to the traditional ancient fishing method used by the fishermen.

Ottoman rule

During the Ottoman
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

 rule, Dojran developed according to the Turkish model of an Islamic city. The upper part was profoundly impacted by Turkish influence, with narrow streets; whereas the lower part retained its Macedonian roots, crossed with wide streets and modern public buildings. Houses were usually two-storeyed, arranged amphitheatrically, with a view onto the lake. The style of architecture was so similar to that of Salonica that Dojran came to be known as "Small Salonica". The Bazaar, near Dojran Lake, had 300 shops and craft workshops. Many Turkish dignitaries settled there after being stunned by the beauty of the city.

Post-Ottoman time

Dojran is the Macedonian part of the former municipality of Doyuran, which was divided in 1913 by the new borders created between Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

 and what was then Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...

. The part at the other side of the border is called Doirani
Doirani
Doirani is a former municipality in the Kilkis regional unit, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Kilkis, of which it is a municipal unit. It is situated on the shores of Dojran Lake, which marks the border between Greece and the Republic of Macedonia. It...

.

World War I devastated the city physically and economically; destroying many cultural monuments and the fishing business. The population was forced to desert the city to escape bombardment. After the war the population returned and formed Nov Dojran. Today the two villages are seen as one town though most new buildings are located in Star Dojran, and are devoted to attracting tourism. The old city had 5000 inhabitants, while under city's control were the neighboring villages and with them the city had 30.000 people..

Architecture

The Amam (Hamam) is a Turkish bath located in the upper part of the city and in the past it was inhabited by the Turkish population. The year it was built is unknown and only parts of the tower remain. The Church of St. Ilija was built in 1874 in the northern part of the city. The current state of the church; fragments of paintings, suggests that the church walls were originally covered with frescos. Dojran is also significant archeologically due to numerous discoveries of accidental or systematic excavations including relief, marble
Marble
Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite.Geologists use the term "marble" to refer to metamorphosed limestone; however stonemasons use the term more broadly to encompass unmetamorphosed limestone.Marble is commonly used for...

 plates with Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

 inscriptions, remainders of walls, coins
COinS
ContextObjects in Spans, commonly abbreviated COinS, is a method to embed bibliographic metadata in the HTML code of web pages. This allows bibliographic software to publish machine-readable bibliographic items and client reference management software to retrieve bibliographic metadata. The...

 and tombs with epitaph
Epitaph
An epitaph is a short text honoring a deceased person, strictly speaking that is inscribed on their tombstone or plaque, but also used figuratively. Some are specified by the dead person beforehand, others chosen by those responsible for the burial...

s.

External links

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