- Furka
Furka is a village in the south-eastern part of Macedonia. It is situated in the center of the imagined triangle between
Bogdanci ,Dojran andValandovo , 10 km far from Dojran. East of the riverVardar ,Pugana and Gabroska Reka, and west of Dojran basin, it is settled on height of 21 km², on altitude above sea-level of 350 m, but the highest peak is on 456 m. All around the village there are a few little heights, composed of sandy soil and rocks of granite. On the places where it's possible people use the soil for vine growing or fruit growing, and less for other. Today in Furka are living about 1000 people, all of them Macedonians andOrthodox Christians.Furka is part of the municipality of Dojran, which is one of the most popular touristic places in Macedonia.
The name
About the origin of the name there are a few theories. According to the legend Furka had ever had the shape of the Cyrillic letter Ф (F), although historians discount this idea. Stjepan Antoljak says that Furka was the place where Byzantine king Vassilius in Furka had blinded the soldiers of
Samuil of Bulgaria , and that the origin of the name is the Greek word "furka", which means "place of execution". This theory is considered as incorrect.Aleksandar Stojanovski thinks that origin of the name is from Turkish word "fursat" (bad people), because villagers had never allowed Turkish people to come to live in Furka.Today, the origin of the name of Furka is still unknown.History
According to historical sources Furka existed a long time ago, at least 1000 years. Through the history it always lived the same destiny with whole Macedonia. The first mention of Furka in literature is the theory of
Stjepan Antoljak . By him in Furka had been blinded the soldiers of Samuil, after were captured on the mountainBelasica . As we already said, this theory is considered as incorrect.A lot more facts are known for the period of
Turkish occupation of the country. Furka then had been settled 2.5 km north from the village of today. That was a village in condensed form, with a few hostelries and 50 families, on the roadSkopje - Solun (Thessaloniki ) and the road betweenIstanbul andAlbania . This locality means that a lot of people passed through the village and stopped to spent the night in well known Furka quarters for the night.In 1530 Furka for the first time is mentioned as a derven village. Except for agriculture, people were occupied with dervening: They had taken the responsibility to keep the road Valandovo - Dojran, on which Furka was settled, from Turkish rebels, characteristic from the period of anarchy in
Turkish Empi re. At the derven place, one male of every family stood guard every day. Therefore, some historians believe that on the name Furka, for a few decades was added the name "derven".In 1573 Furka was a big town with 125 families and 50 not married. It's still unknown how the number of inhabitants increased so greatly in only 43 years.
One of the most important moments of history of Furka occurred in the second half of the eighteenth century, when people started to move from old Furka and settled the new village, Furka of today, 2.5 km north of the old village. By the legend, three monks who passed through Furka stopped to spend the night in one of the hostelries, but they were brutally killed by Turkish rebels. Even the derven guard didn't do their job worse than before, people were scared of the frequently attacks and started to move on the height. Location of old Furka today is called Anishte (hostelries).
People didn't lose time and started to create conditions for normal life. They continued with agriculture, and in 1878 they built the new church Sveti Ilija (Saint Eliyah).
External links
* [http://www.maplandia.com/macedonia/gevgelija/bogdanci/furka/ Furka on Google Maps]
* [http://www.furka.wetpaint.com More on Furka]
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