About Struga

Brief history

...When God was creating the Earth and the Heaven, from His sack accidentally has fallen down a little piece of paradise seed.  For the sake of us and the others, from that seed grew up a city known as Enchalon, an ancient settlement of the Illyrians, but later as Struga.  Today as 5,000 years ago, Struga remains a true pearl of the oldest lake in Europe and the capital of world’s poetry...

Struga, known as the City of Two Waters, reflects an amazing view of the oldest lake of Europe.  The beauty and the blue colors of the Lake and the River Black Drim are surrounded by the high mountains, a lot of cool springs, mountain lakes and small rivers, endemic flora and fauna, picturesque villages and a considerable number of cultural and historic monuments of the rich past.

On the northeastern, northern and northwestern parts of the Lake Ohrid, since the Neolithic era there were ancient settlements through most of the regions of Struga.  The whole Struga-Ohrid valley, as a result of the strategic geo-politic position between West and East and the roads that have connected the other cities of the Balkans, Struga and its surroundings have been continuously populated and featured a cradle of ancient civilization. Since prehistoric era and antiquity the settlements around Struga have been populated by numerous Illyrian tribes under the capital city of Lychnidos (ancient Ohrid), which is supported by undisputable facts, the settlements are 5,000 years old (3^rd Millennium B.C.).

New phenomenon of the late Neolithic era, as well as of the Eneolithic era, are the findings at the mouth of the river Black Drim where were discovered archeological facts of an ancient palophyte settlement.  The archeological diggings discovered a fortune of ancient working tools made of stones and bones, as well as ceramics.

In the IV century B.C., all the Lychnidos and Enchalon (ancient Struga) territories became part of the Illyrian state.  Archeological findings witness that near the mouth of the river Black Drim (ancient Drilon) was established the ancient city of Enchalon, by the Illyrian tribe of Dasaret and their succesors, the Drilons and the Encheleians.  In the middle of the Bronze era (XIV-XIII century B.C.) here in the Struga region were established a considerable number of very old and ancient settlements like Drilon, Enchalon, Lychnidos, Kerox, Patra, Sation, Gertunium etc.

The scientists and the archeologists say that the noun “Struga” derives from the old Illyrian language.  The name of the river Black Drim, on the banks where Struga is built up, according to the albanologs, derives from the Albanian word of the Illyrian contraction “Drinus” and therefore today’s name of the river is Drin, Dri or Drim.  According to other scientists, the etymology of the noun “Struga” derives from the Illyrian language “strunga” that means narrow pathway in front of a stockyard, or as a gap or a trace for the water to flow in.  In both cases, the word “strunga” explains clearly all the natural and geographical characteristics of the area where the city of Struga and the river Black Drim are situated, i.e. a narrow pathway in the shores of the Lake Ohrid. 

            According to a third party scientist, the noun “Struga” derives from the Slavic language interpretation of the Illyrian noun “strunga”. The name Struga then was known as a name of a small village.  Struga is mentioned in the records of the Tzar Dusan the Serbian in the XIV century as a “Struga”, while a little later and to the records of the Code of Slepcan between XVI-XVII centuries as a “Strugi”.  In the old maps of the XVI and XVII century, Struga is known as “Straga” and “Stronga”.

Struga, a Heaven on Earth, the City of bridges, a true Pearl of the Lake Ohrid, a settlement of an ancient civilization, the brightest Star of the World’s Poetry…

Come to Struga to feel the calmness of the lake, the dancing of the seagulls, the rush and the frankness of the River Black Drim. Come and be spelled by the sunrise and sunset of a summer Sun. Come and visit the high mountains, cool springs and pictoresques villages and touch the magic of the tradition and culture of the citizens of Struga, taste the traditional cousine. Please, come and walk down the river and the old city promenade in the nights filled with freshness and young and beautifull people of Struga...