Things to do
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Bitola Clock Tower
Ottoman stone on Magnolia Square, rebuilt more than once and now the marker locals use for the top of the avenue. The clock face arrived as a gift and the tower is closed to visitors, so the interest is the square around it and the Yeni Mosque behind, which holds exhibitions in its prayer hall.
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Heraclea Lyncestis
Founded by Philip the Second of Macedon and later a Roman staging post on the Via Egnatia, the ruins south of the city are known for early Christian mosaic floors, where birds, trees and a hunting dog fill a broad narthex pavement. A theatre survives on the slope. The mosaics stay under gravel in winter and are uncovered for the season.
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Pelister National Park
Oldest of the national parks in the country, rising to a bare summit above the city, with two glacial lakes known as Pelister's Eyes and stands of the five needled Macedonian pine. A road climbs to a small ski centre, and trails run on from there to the ridge. Snow lies late, so the lake walk suits summer and early autumn.
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Širok Sokak
Pastel facades of consulates and merchant houses line the long pedestrian street that runs from the clock tower to the park, laid out when the city was an Ottoman administrative capital with a dozen foreign missions. Cafes take the pavement through the evening promenade. Little is open before mid morning, and the street is the event as much as anything on it.