Debar

For the social concept, see debarment.

Debar Дебaр Dibra
Town
Country	North Macedonia
Municipality	Debar municipality
Government
• Mayor	Argëtim Fida
Population  (2002)
• Total	19,542
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (CEST)
Postal code	1250
Website	www.dibra.gov.mk/mk/index.html www.dibra.gov.mk/

Debar (Macedonian: Дебaр, Albanian: Dibra) is a city in the western part of the Republic of Macedonia, near the border with Albania, on the road from Struga to Gostivar. It is the seat of Debar municipality.

Geography

Debar is surrounded by the Deshat, Stogovo, Jablanica and Bistra mountains. It is located 625 meters above sea level, next to Lake Debar, the Black Drin River and its smaller break-off river, Radika.

Population

According to the last census data from 2002, Debar has 19,452 inhabitants, including 11,348 (58.52%) Albanians, 3,911 (20.11%) Macedonians, 2,684 (13.80%) Turks, 1,080 (5.55%) Roma, and 519 (2.67%) others.

Name

The name of the city in Macedonian is Debar (Дебар), in Albanian Dibër or Dibra, in Serbian Debar (Дебар), in Bulgarian Debur (Дебър), in Turkish Debre and in Greek, Dibrē (Δίβρη) or Dibra (Δίβρα).

History

Monastery of Saint Jovan Bigorski Monastery near Debar.

The first recorded document mentioning Debar is the map of Ptolemy, dating around the middle of the 2nd century, in which it is called Deborus. The Byzantine emperor Basil II knew of its existence, and Felix Petancic referred to it as Dibri in 1502.

The city was subsequently conquered by the First Bulgarian Empire, but lost to the Byzantines under Tsar Samuil by the early 11th century, as Bulgaria was subjugated.

Bohemond and his Norman army took the city in 1107. In the 13th and 14th century, the city changed hands between Despotate of Epirus, the Second Bulgarian Empire, Byzantine Empire and Serbia.

At the end of the 14th century it is conquered by the Ottomans.

During the time of the Albanian prince Gjergj Kastriot Skenderbeg, it played a major role in the rebellions of Albanian population against the Ottomans. Debar region was the borderline between the Ottomans and the rebels between 1443 and 1465 and became an area of continuous conflict. There were two major battles near Debar April 29, 1444 and September 27, 1446, both ending as Ottoman defeats.

In the early 19th century, when Debar rebelled against the Turkish Sultan, the French traveller, publicist, and scientist Ami Bue observed that Debar had 64 shops and 4,200 residents.

Debar was significantly involved in the national Albanian movement and on November 1, 1878 the Albanian leaders of the city participated in founding the League of Prizren.

During the First Balkan War of 1912-1913, the city was annexed by the Kingdom of Serbia.in September 1913 there was uprising from the Bulgarians from Debar against remaining in Kingdom of Yugoslavia. In September 1913 Albanian armed forces occupied the city, but the Serbian Army regained it later that month.

By the end of the century, the town had 15,500 residents, but after World War I, this number started to decline.

Culture

Statue of Skenderbeg in Debar

Some of the best craftsman, woodcarving masters and builders came from the Debar region and were recognized for their skills in creating detailed and impressive woodcarvings, painting beautiful icons and building unique architecture. In fact Debar was one of the then famous three woodcarving schools in the region, the other two being Samokov and Bansko. Their work can be seen in many churches and cultural buildings throughout the Balkan Peninsula. The Debar School of Macedonian woodcarving became noted for its artistic excellence, and an amazing example that can be seen today by tourists is the iconostasis in the nearby Monastery of Saint Jovan Bigorski, near the town of Debar. The monastery was rebuilt in th 19th century and is situated on the slopes of Mount Bistra, above the banks of the River Radika. The monastery was built on the remains of an older church dating from 1021.

Another important religious monument is the monastery of Saint Gjorgi in the village of Rajcica in the immediate vicinity of Debar. The monastery was recently built.

Grigor Prlichev was given the title Second Homer in 1860 in Athens for his poem The Serdar . Based on a folk poem, it deals with the exploits and heroic death of Kuzman Kapidan, a famous hero and protector of Christian people in the Debar region in their struggle with bandits.

Some of the oldest and richest Albanian epics still exist in the Debar regions and are part of the Albanian mythological heritage.

Famous people born in Debar

• Eqrem Basha - Albanian writer
• Haki Stermilli - Albanian Writer
• Moisi Golemi - General in Skenderbeg's army
• Zhivko Oshavkov - Bulgarian sociologist, considered to be one of the fathers of Bulgarian sociology

References

General references

• The History of Byzantine State by G. Ostrogorsky
• The Serdar by G. Prlicev

41°31′N 20°32′E