Main square · monument and fountain
The city's main square, with the 8.5 m 'Founder of Heraclea' equestrian statue and a musical fountain that performs in the evening.
These are the stories you can open in the 3D view, each at its own numbered point on the model.
Magnolia Square is the main square of Bitola, an open space of about 54 by 89 metres paved in stone. It lies between the Clock Tower park, the Yeni Mosque and the start of Širok Sokak, the promenade. Café tables spill out onto the paving, and the city's main New Year's Eve concert is held here.
The bronze rider on the rearing horse is officially called "The Founder of Heraclea". The name was chosen to avoid a dispute with neighbouring Greece. The monument, by the sculptor Angel Korunovski, is about 8.5 metres tall and stands on a stepped plinth of dark granite with relief panels. Sources date its completion to between 2009 and 2011.
By tradition, Philip II of Macedon, the father of Alexander the Great, founded the city of Heraclea Lyncestis in the mid-4th century BC. Its ruins lie about two kilometres south of this square, with a Roman theatre and early Christian mosaics. The monument's official name points to that founding story.
Next to the monument is a round fountain shaped like an ancient shield, with a sunburst on its face. During the day it plays quietly. In the evening the disc rises, tilts and turns, and the jets spray in time with music and coloured lights. In this model the show starts by itself at night, and the water button starts it at any time.
On the north side stands the two-storey Magnolia building, cream-coloured with brown window frames and a stone ground floor. The square is said to take its name from it, although our sources do not document the origin of the name. Behind its roof you can see the minaret of the Yeni Mosque.
Turn around slowly and the centre of Bitola fits into one view. To the north-west, above the trees of the park, rises the Clock Tower, rebuilt in the 1830s. To the north stands the Yeni Mosque of 1558, which no longer serves as a mosque. To the south, the promenade of Širok Sokak begins.
From the south corner of the square, Širok Sokak, the pedestrian promenade, runs for about 900 metres to the City Park. In the evening people stroll here for the korzo, and the café terraces fill up. Lingering at a café table to see and be seen has its own local word, "kabadaenje".
Typical prices are our estimates for orientation, not menu prices. Check opening hours on the spot.
Walk around the model, switch between day and night, and hear each story read aloud in English, Macedonian or Turkish.
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