Kruševo

Kruševo sits at around 1,350 metres, the highest town in North Macedonia, built on a slope so steep that streets run as stairs and the houses step down in tiers of stone bases and timber upper floors with wide eaves. The nineteenth-century architecture is well preserved and there are craft workshops still working in it. Above the town stands the Makedonium, a memorial of the 1970s in the form of a white concrete dome pierced by round windows in coloured glass, one of the most striking pieces of Yugoslav-era architecture in the country. The ridges around Kruševo have become a well-known paragliding site, with launch points above the town and long flights over the Pelagonia plain.

History

The name means "place of pear trees". By the middle of the 18th century Mijaks from Lazaropole and Aromanians had settled here, and in the 19th century Kruševo grew into a commercial centre with connections across the Balkans, its merchants active as far as Vienna (Wikipedia, Kruševo).

Highlights

• The stepped old town - stone and timber houses on the steep slope.
• The Makedonium - the white domed memorial with coloured glass portholes.
• Paragliding launches - the ridges above town, with tandem flights available.
• Craft workshops - surviving trades in the old streets.

When to go

May to October for walking and flying; the town has a small ski area in winter and is genuinely cold at this altitude. Paragliding depends entirely on conditions, so allow spare days if that is the reason for coming.

Before you go

The town is small and steep, and the gradients are hard work; parking near the centre is awkward. The Makedonium is a divisive building, read by some as a masterpiece and by others as concrete brutality. Outside summer weekends there is little open, and restaurant choice is limited.

Nearby

Prilep and its tobacco plain lie east; Bitola is south.

Key facts