Vratnica

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Entrance in Vratnica from Tetovo. In the back of the photo is mountain peak Ljuboten (2498m) at Šar Planina

Vratnica (Macedonian: Вратница) is a small village located in the northwestern part of the Republic of Macedonia, 22 km away from the city of Tetovo and 5 km away from Jazince, the border crossing point with Serbia (for Kosovo).

It is situated in the upper part of the Polog plain, at the foothills of northern part of Šar mountain, under the Ljuboten peak. The village is about 720-750 meters above the sea level.

1 History
2 Origin of the name
3 Vratnica community
4 External links

[edit] History

Vratnica was mentioned for the first time in Turkish books or documents dating back to the 15th century. It is registered that there were about 59 families living in Vratnica. Until the 18th century there were different sorts of migration movements and it's not clear enough how they happened and what Vratnica's position was at that time.

The village of Moravce is also important for Vratnica history, as it was located on the northwest, 800 meters above present day Vratnica. Due to the oppression of the Ottoman Turks, Moravce inhabitants were forced to search for better living conditions. They directed their steps to the north, towards Kosovo and middle Serbia, but Vratnicans were forced to leave those regions as well. They eventually came back and formed modern Vratnica with the ones that stayed at the native land.

Vratnica was incorporated into the Kingdom of Serbia in 1912, but was conquered by the Central Powers during the First World War. It suffered greatly during the war. After the war, it became a part of the Vardar Banate of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (previously known as the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes). It was conquered by Axis forces during World War II, and the Axis forces executed 41 Vratnicans in the village. After the war there were no men between the age of 15 and 66. The Chief of the village was a collaborator, Andrija Ristić from Tetovo, who changed his name to Andra Hristov to correspond the Bulgarian-Macedonian ideology.

[edit] Origin of the name

It is probable that it is because of those movements that Vratnica got its name (to return/to come back = se vraća/се враќа, in English/Macedonian), but there are two other theories. The first is about Vratnica being some kind of gateway (vrata - in Macedonian) between Kacanik and Polog valley. The other one tells that the western side of Ljuboten, a mountain pick above Vratnica, looks like a neck (vrat, shija - Shija Ljubotenska, in Macedonian), which gave it its name.

[edit] Vratnica community

The Vratnica community consists of seven populated places: Belovište, Vratnica, the center of the community, Staro Selo, Rogacevo, Orašje (Gorno And Dolno) and Jazince. There are over 3,500 citizens living in this community.