Kumanovo

Kumanovo lies in the northern Macedonian basin of Žegligovo, surrounded by mountains and watered by small rivers. The town grew under Ottoman rule, and by the seventeenth century it had become an administrative centre. The traveller Evliya Çelebi described six hundred tiled houses, a mosque, a bath, shops and watermills, with vineyards and gardens around them.

In 1689, as Habsburg armies advanced against the Ottomans, a local leader named Karposh raised a revolt in the region. His followers took several towns and built a fort at Kumanovo. The Austrian army's withdrawal left the rebels exposed, and Ottoman forces captured the town and their leader. Karposh was put to death at Skopje, and Kumanovo entered a period of stagnation after the upheaval.