This beautiful town in the Vardar valley has rich and interesting past.
The settlement existed and developed in the antique period, about the
third century BC, under the name of Antigonia or Antigonea. It was founded
by the Macedonian king Antigon Gonat, in the period between 278-242 BC.
After conquering Peonia, he conquered the setlments araound the middle part
of the river Vardar. In his name, the settlment that he founded was called
Antigonia (Antigonea).
The material data and the legends say that Antigonia, predecessor
of Negotino, was situated 12 Roman miles south from the antique town
Stobi, on the road to Thesaloniki, at the today's place of Gradiste,
by the railway station of Negotino. At this place coins with faces
of Roman smperors were found, as well as precious jewelry and other
archeological findings from the period of Roman and Byzantium reign.
The ancient town existed until the VI century when it was destroyed
by a disastrous earthquake which hit almost all of the territory of
Macedonia. It was then the other antique towns were also destroyed
by the catastrophe: Skupi, Stobi, Heraklea, Astibo, Idomena...
In X and XI century Negotino was part of the First Macedonian independent
country - country of Tsar Samuil.
The valley of the Vardar and the Negotinian area got under the Turkish
authority in 1385 in the time of the conquering trek of Timurtash
Pasha. During the Turkish empire Ali Pasha - Janinski reactivated
the fortress because very near, on the right side of the river Vardar,
was the road Skopje - Thesaloniki. At the Canyon passage his soldiers
collected payments from the tradesmen.
In the first years of XIX century Negotino was Bey's grange, made
of about 30 houses. At the area of today's Negotino Kazim-bey and
Kantur-bey had their granges where Macedonian people worked.
In 1821, the rich bey Hadji Tair built a clock tower, a mosque and
a covered market place with about 15 stores. So the settlment started
to grow. Merchants and craftsmen from the surrounding places began
to settle in it. Negotino was first mentioned as a town in 1837 when
a church and a school were built in it. The merchandise was trasported
to Thesaloniki on rafts using the river Vardar which was sailable
from Veles to the Aegean sea.
Such a black period for Negotino is the period from the Balkan wars
1913-1918 when the town of Negotino is burned to the ground on several
occasions, people are scattered away and meny of them gave their lives
defending their town. There were periods when brothers fought against each
other, one on the side of one force and the other on the side of the opposite
force. It is a period when the people in the town very ofthen changed the
inflections on their surnames, when the men coming back from one war, not
even seeng their close famaly, went to anotherwar others state interests.
Negotino is rich with historical events, events which alter the town's
destiny, and which complement each other.
