MARIOVO

There is one legend about Mariovo’s name, which talks about how some Turkish bay wanted to marry the beautiful girl Marija that lived in this area. After the long negotiations Marija appears to have agreed to go and live in the seraglio of the Turkish bay but only under the condition that the Turk won’t do Islamization in that area, doesn’t settle any more Turks and doesn’t build mosques neither. The contract had been respected and all the area had been saved from the brutal Islamizations and damages. In a sign of appreciation to the beautiful Marija that saved all the area, the people gave the name Mariovo.

Today, this area of Mariovo has a little bit less than five hundred people, and appears on an area od more than 1300 square kilometers. The time here has stopped long time ago. I’m walking across Dunje (Дуње), a village with specific ancient Macedonian architecture. The noise of the population snuffed out long time ago along these stone walls, along the decade migration. How many people would come here if they had known about this kind of place, when a person can feel really alone, out of the civilization, at least for a moment to feel the smell of an adventure, but the escape from the chaos of our routine life?

Here, along this area, went true the Solun’s forward line, during the First World War. Then, Mariovo roared across it whole length. The remains of that time are everywhere, even the trenches and the bunkers where the soldiers were hiding.