The name Struga was first mentioned in the 11th century.[1] It is of Slavic origin.[2][3] and means a "river bed".[4][5]
Old boulevard of Struga.
The ancient name of the city is Enchalon (Εγχαλών), the ancient Greek word for eel, which may be related to the IllyrianEnchele tribe that was known to live in the region. According to E. Hamp, a connection with Albanian ’ngjalë’ makes it possible that the name Enchele was derived from the Illyrian term for eels, which may have been anciently related to Greek and simply adjusted to the Greek pronunciation. In Polybius the word 'Enchele' is written with a voiceless aspirate kh, Enchelanes, while in Mnaseas it was replaced with a voiced ng, Engelanes, the latter being a typical feature of the Ancient Macedonian and northern Paleo-Balkan languages.[6]
History
In ancient times, the Lake Ohrid region, including Enchalon (ancient name of modern Struga) was inhabited by the IllyrianEnchele and Dassareti tribes.[7][8][9][10] The Via Egnatia ran through the Lake Ohrid region, and is believed to have passed west of Enchalon.[11]
Etymologist Qemal Murati believes that the name Strugë-a was first used as the name of a village; this name was used in a document of Tsar Dusan in the 14th century in the form of Struga. Later, in the 16th-17th centuries, the Codex of Slepçan, the name 'Strugi' was used.[12]
In the 16th century the city was visited by the Venetian Ambassador Lorenzo Bernardo who described it as a city in Bulgaria which was more akin to a small village. He describes the town as an important destination for wheat shipments and a town with fertile plains and valleys, and he speaks highly of the local eel and trout.[13]
Struga was visited by Henry Fanshawe Tozer in his travels in the Ottoman Empire, who spoke highly of the region and the Ohrid Lake which he compared to Italian lakes and to Biblical sites such as the Sea of Galilee, he considered Struga to be a head-quarters of fishery in European Turkey and that the fishery in Struga was property of the Ottoman Sultan who sublet it to locals for a large sum, he spoke highly of the endemic Ohrid trout. According to him the marshes in the region were turned into a habitable region by the Samuel of Bulgaria at the time when he made the city of Ohrid Bulgarian capital. He visited a large local Bulgarian school and mentioned the admiration that the Byzantine princess Anna Comnena had for the hundred of channels, embankments and watercourses in the city.[14]
Struga is located in an open valley on Lake Ohrid. The Black Drin river (Crn Drim) starts at the lake and divides the city.
Demographics
During the 16th century, Struga was located in the Sanjak of Ohrid of the Ottoman Empire. It was registered as a Christian village in the Nahiya of Ohrid with 184 Christian families, 20 unmarried men and 36 widows, as well as 8 Muslim families.[17]
In statistics gathered by Vasil Kanchov in 1900, Struga was inhabited by 4570 people, of whom 3000 Christian Bulgarians, 1000 Turks, 350 Muslim Albanians and 220 Romanis'.[18] The Bulgarian researcher Vasil Kanchov wrote in 1900 that many Albanians declared themselves as Turks. In Struga, the population that declared itself Turkish "was of Albanian blood", but it "had been Turkified after the Ottoman invasion, including Skanderbeg", referring to Islamization. Jordan Ivanov, professor at the University of Sofia, wrote in 1915 that Albanians, since they did not have their own alphabet, due to a lack of consolidated national consciousness and influenced by foreign propaganda, declared themselves as Turks, Greeks and Bulgarians, depending on which religion they belonged to. Albanians were losing their mother tongue in Struga.[19]
As of the 2002 census, the city of Struga has 16,559 inhabitants and the ethnic composition was the following:[21]
Macedonians, 8,901 (53.7%)
Albanians, 5,293 (32.0%)
Turks, 907 (5.5%)
Vlachs, 550 (3.3%)
others, 908 (5.5%)
The mother tongues of the city's residents were the following:
Macedonian, 9,665 (58.4%)
Albanian, 5,615 (34.0%)
Turkish, 823 (5.0%)
Aromanian, 271 (1.6%)
others, 185 (1.1%)
The Gheg and Tosk dialects of Albanian are both spoken by the Albanians in Struga, and speakers are divided in the settlement by the Black Drin. The Albanian dialects in Struga are somewhere between Central Gheg and Northern Tosk, and they do not have many distinguishing features between them. The differences between them lie mainly in phonetics and morphology, with very few differences in terms of lexicology. Also, the Tosk spoken language and the town one - which is a transitive spoken language - do not have many differences from today's contemporary language.[22]
The religious composition of the city was the following:
Orthodox Christians, 9,197 (55.5%)
Muslims, 7,075 (42.7%)
others, 287 (1.7%)
City of Struga population according to ethnic group 1948–2021[23]
PWDTFAS-Persons for whom data are taken from administrative sources
Until the last few decades of the 20th century Albanian Tosk, in particular the geographically central variety of the dialect dominated among speakers of Albanian in Struga.[24] The local Romani population of Struga speaks and sings in the southern Tosk Albanian dialect, as does the local Turkish population.[24]
Culture
Frescoes from the rock church in the monastery of Kalishta.
Struga is also a place of important cultural significance in North Macedonia, as it is the birthplace of the poets Konstantin and Dimitar Miladinov.
There are several cultural monuments in Struga and in its vicinity such as
the Monastery of Kališta, a few kilometers away from the town center, lying on the shore of Lake Ohrid. It is believed that it dates from the 16th century, with frescoes from the 14th and the 15th centuries.
Another rock church is present in the neighbouring village of Radožda with frescoes from the 13th and 14th centuries.
The Church of Sveta Bogorodica (St Mary) in Vraništa, is believed to be where Tsar Samuel was crowned. [citation needed]
The church of St. George is also located in the town; built on top of Samuel's church, it has many icons from the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries.
Near the village of Radolishta, a basilica from the 4th century was discovered, [when?] with a mosaic.
Much of the town's income is through internal tourism. Struga's location on Lake Ohrid makes it a slightly quieter and more peaceful experience than the more bustling Ohrid.
When visiting this quiet town of North Macedonia, there are a few other places that show the beauty and culture, like the clay chamber pots at the house of the Miladinovci Brothers, [who?] the old bazaar, the century-old churches and mosques.
Before the evenings you can enjoy on 3 kinds of beaches called "Male beach" (maška plaža), "Female beach" (Ženska plaža) and Galeb ("Gull Beach"), located just before the estuary of the river Crn Drim (Black Drim) in its own flow, and between the two previous beaches.
Just in front of the "Male beach", at the estuary of the river Crn Drim it is located the biggest 5 star Hotel Drim in Struga.
Out of the town there is another tourist place near the lake called Biser (Pearl), also a hotel.
Every August the Struga Poetry Evenings (SPE) are held at the "Poetry Bridge" (Macedonian: Струшки Вечери на Поезијата) and are attended by poets, writers and artists from across the world. [citation needed]
^Димитър Атанасов (2009) Македонска тетрадка, Изд-во "СМ", стр. 82, ISBN9549229033.
^Ilin, Dušica (1982). The golden garland of the Struga nights of poetry. p. 326. СТРУГА се наоѓа на западниот дел на Охридското Езеро, на 14 - иот километар од ОХРИДА. Што значи што Старото име на Струга е Енхалон, јагула. По доаrањето на Словените градот го добива името Струга, значи: корито на река STRUGA is located on the western part of Lake Ohrid, 14km from OHRID. Which means struga's old name is Enhalon, an eel. After the Slavs came, the city was named Struga, meaning: riverbed.
^Wilkes 1992, pp. 98–99. sfn error: no target: CITEREFWilkes1992 (help)
^Hammond 1982, p. 265. sfn error: no target: CITEREFHammond1982 (help)
^Strabo, Geography (ed. H.C. Hamilton, Esq., W. Falconer, M.A.), book 7, chapter 7: "...had established their sway, and Enchelii, who are also called Sesarethii. Then come the Lyncestæ, the territory Deuriopus, Pelagonia-Tripolitis..."
^"1591 Lorenzo Bernardo: Journey of the Venetian Ambassador". www.albanianhistory.net/texts16-18/AH1591.html. Archived from the original on 2013-03-22. Retrieved 4 September 2022. We had excellent eel and trout from Lake Ohrid, which, we were told, also produced carp. In Struga we found good wine and a caravanserai for the horses. Although they call Struga a town, it is more like a village and is the first settlement in Bulgaria after leaving Albania. Through it flows a small river (13) which is said to arise in Lake Ohrid and to be the source of the river of Lezha. One crosses a bridge separating the border between Albania and Bulgaria shortly before one enters the plain of Struga, which is almost totally cultivated and which is very fertile. The Bulgarians speak Slavic and are of Greek rite. Storks make their nests on the roofs of their houses. All the people respect the birds and believe that they bring good luck to those on whose houses their nests are built.
^"STRUGA POETRY EVENINGS". svp.org.mk. Archived from the original on 2001-03-06. Retrieved 4 September 2022. In 1961, on the occasion of the centennial of the publication of the Collection of Folk Songs compiled by the Miladinov brothers, a literary reading was held in Struga on July 15th by a group of Macedonian authors. It was then that the idea was born: a poetry festival. At one of its meetings, the National Board of the Struga district appointed the first festival council consisting of seven members. Its first president was Aco Shopov.
^Temo, İbrahim (1987). İbrahim Temo'nun İttihad ve Terakki Anıları. İstanbul: Arba. p. 5.
^ abMurtishi, Kaim (2001). Ladorishti: Histori dhe Tradita. Asdreni. p. 21. "ndërsa për ruajtjen e identitetit të Strugës, flet fakti se në atë qytet, para disa dekadave, flitej vetëm dialekti toskë, sidomos toskërishtja qendrore, ndërmjet Jugut dhe Veriut të Shqiperisë... Këto fakte gjuhësore i vërteton edhe popullata rome, jevgjit e Strugës, flasin dhe këndojnë toskërisht, gjithashtu edhe popullata turke e këtij qyteti, flet dialektin toskë. Këtë dialekt e flasin vllehët e Strugës dhe të Belicës. Këtë dialekt e flet edhe popullata sllave që ka mësuar të flasë shqip."
^Jелена Павловска, Наташа Ниќифоровиќ и Огнен Коцевски (2011). Валентина Божиновска. уред (на македонски). "Карта на верски објекти во Македонија". Менора – Скопје: Комисија за односи во верските заедници и религиозните групи. ISBN978-608-65143-2-7
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