Tourism in Kumanovo - Macedonia Travel & Leisure
Welcome to Kumanovo Travel & Leisure! Kumanovo is one of the most popular travel destinations in Macedonia, attracting tourists not only in summer and winter - which in the mountain regions is almost as busy a season as summer - but also in the in-between seasons. Visitors are drawn particularly from neighboring Serbia and Bulgaria, as for them there is no language problem, but also from Greece and Turkey. It is the scenic beauties to be found in all the places which are the main reason for inducing large numbers of tourists to spend their holidays in Kumanovo year after year. But, in addition, Kumanovo has many historical sites. One of the most important sites is the 4,000-year-old megalithic astronomical observatory of Kokino, located 30 km (19 mi) northeast of Kumanovo and discovered in 2001. It is ranked fourth on the list of old observatories by NASA. Kumanovo town's metal-processing, tobacco, agriculture, footwear and textile industries have made it an economic, trading and cultural center of approximately 135,529 people. Agriculture and trade developed mainly in the 19th century, but the city's modern look was established after the Second World War. Matejče Monastery (Матеички манастир; Želigovo Monastery), village of Matejče. West of Kumanovo within the Skopska Crna Gora mountain range is this 14th-century monastery. Built atop the foundations of an older church, Serbian King Stefan Dušan began reconstructing the monastery and it was completed by his son Stefan Uroš V in 1357. The monastery's church, dedicated to the Ascension of the Virgin Mary, is in the Byzantine style and has one larger dome and four smaller domes. Its roof was removed by the Ottomans in the 18th century and put atop the Eski Mosque, though it was renovated in the 1920s and 1930s. The village is now primarily Albanian with a small Serb minority. The monastery was occupied by Albanian insurgents during the 2001 conflict who damaged some of the interior frescoes and stole various objects. A railway connection exists between Skopje with Serbia via Kumanovo. In 2013, rehabilitation of the railway section between Kumanovo and the village of Beljakovce will commence, which is part of the Railway Corridor VIII that will connect Macedonia with Sofia, Bulgaria and the Black Sea to the East and Tirana, Albania and the Adriatic Sea to the West.
