Krusevo

Part of the Byzantine Empire. The area was temporarily annexed by the First Bulgarian Empire in the 9th century to be conquered again by the Byzantium. The region came shortly under the rule of the short-lived Principality of Prilep of Prince Marko (r. 1371 – 1395), a successor state of the Serbian Empire (1346–1371) where the father of Župan Vukašin Mrnjavčević (co-ruler of King Stefan Uroš V) held the region. The principality and region came under Ottoman Turkish rule in 1395.
Ottoman rule
In 19th century, Kruševo grew as a commercial center with connections throughout the Balkans and beyond. Local merchants such as the Nitsiotas brothers and five other companies were active in Vienna. In the 1860s a Bulgarian municipality and Bulgarian school were established the city. Subsequently, a Bulgarian girls school was opened and it operated simultaneously with the Greek schools in the town. A Romanian school started functioning in Kruševo in 1876. In the early 20th century, Kruševo was a small town with a mixed population of 4,950 Bulgarians, 4,000 Vlachs (Aromanians) and 400 Christian Albanians, according to Bulgarian geographer Vasil Kanchov’s statistics. During the Ilinden Uprising in 1903 the rebels proclaimed a short lived Kruševo Republic. Having suppressed the uprising the city was almost completely destroyed by the Ottoman army. One of the most important points in the Ilinden uprising was the declaration of the “Manifesto of Kruševo”. It called for all the people of Macedonia regardless of their nationality and religion to fight together against the Ottoman Empire. In the area there is a monument called Mečkin Kamen (Bear’s Stone). This was the place where Pitu Guli’s band (cheta) was trying to defend the town of Kruševo from the Turkish troops coming from Bitola. The band and their leader (voivode) are remembered as heroic defenders of Kruševo and the surrounding villages.