Editing Bitola (section)

===Middle Ages===
In the 6th and 7th centuries, the region around Bitola experienced a demographic shift as more and more Slavic tribes settled in the area. In place of the deserted theater, several houses were built during that time. The Slavs also built a fortress around their settlement. Bitola was a part of the [[First Bulgarian Empire]] from the middle of the 8th to the early 11th centuries, after which it again became part of the [[Byzantine Empire]], and in turn was briefly part of the [[Serbian Empire]] during the 14th century. Arguably, a number of monasteries and churches were built in and around the city during the Medieval period (hence its other name ''Manastir'').{{citation needed|date=April 2023}}

[[File:Bitola Inscription, Museum of Bitola.jpg|thumb|right|250px|The [[Bitola inscription]]. The [[Old Church Slavonic|Slavic]] name of the city of Bitola is mentioned in the inscription for the first time. The inscription reveals a fortress was built as a haven for the [[Bulgarians]].]]
In the 10th century, Bitola came under the rule of [[tsar]] [[Samuel of Bulgaria]]. He built a castle in the town, later used by his successor [[Gavril Radomir of Bulgaria]]. The town is mentioned in several medieval sources{{Citation needed|date=June 2020}}. [[John Skylitzes]]'s 11th-century chronicle mentions that Emperor [[Basil II]] burned Gavril's castle in Bitola, when passing through and ravaging [[Pelagonia]]. The second [[chrysobull]] (1019) of Basil II mentioned that the Bishop of Bitola depended on the [[Orthodox Archbishopric of Ohrid (ancient)|Archbishopric of Ohrid]]. During the reign of Samuil, the city was the seat of the Bitola Bishopric. In many medieval sources, especially Western, the name ''Pelagonia'' was synonymous with the Bitola Bishopric. According to some sources, Bitola was known as Heraclea since what once was the Heraclea Bishopric later became the Pelagonian Metropolitan's Diocese. In 1015, Tsar Gavril Radomir was killed by his cousin [[Ivan Vladislav of Bulgaria|Ivan Vladislav]], who then declared himself tsar and rebuilt the city's fortress. To commemorate the occasion, a [[Bitola inscription|stone inscription]] written in the [[Cyrillic]] alphabet was set in the fortress; in it the Slavic name of the city is mentioned: Bitol.{{citation needed|date=January 2022}}

During the [[Battle of Bitola (1015)|battle of Bitola in 1015]] between a Bulgarian army under the command of the voivode [[Ivats of Bulgaria|Ivats]] and a [[Byzantine]] army led by the ''strategos'' George Gonitsiates, the Bulgarians were victorious and the [[Byzantine Emperor]] [[Basil II]] had to retreat from the Bulgarian capital [[Ohrid]], whose outer walls were by that time already breached by the Bulgarians. Afterwards Ivan Vladislav moved the capital from Ohrid to Bitola, where he re-erected the fortress. However, the Bulgarian victory only postponed the fall of Bulgaria to Byzantine rule in 1018.{{citation needed|date=April 2023}}

As a military, political and religious center, Bitola played a very important role in the life of the medieval society in the region, prior to the Ottoman conquest in the mid-14th century. On the eve of the Ottoman conquest, Bitola (Monastir in Ottoman Turkish) experienced great growth with its well-established trading links all over the Balkan Peninsula, especially with big economic centers like [[Constantinople]], [[Thessalonica]], [[Dubrovnik|Ragusa]] and [[Veliko Tarnovo|Tarnovo]]. Caravans carrying various goods came and went from Bitola.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Urea |first=Tudor |date=2019 |title=The Ottomans in the Balkans |url=https://journals.indexcopernicus.com/api/file/viewByFileId/955128 |journal=Studium |publisher=University of Galați |volume=12 |issue= |pages=5–13 |via=Index Copernicus}}</ref>{{Unreliable source?|date=November 2024}}