ELEZ HAN VILLAGE (HANI I ELEZIT - ĐENERAL ĐENERAL)
It is this small village of 2,500 inhabitants (99% Albanians) that guards the border with the Republic of Macedonia. It is located 6 km south of the impressive Kačanik gorges. But with its cement plant, its quarry, its industrial zone and its centre cut in half by the Lepenca river, the motorway and the railway, Elez Han really doesn't make you want to stop when you go to Skopje. However, the municipality is home to two pretty little hamlets, Brava (Lagja e Bravëve) and Nika (Puset e Nikës). They are made up of stone houses from the 1780s... most often in ruins. Those in Brava, in the western part of Elez Han, were built by the family of the same name, with the "Brava clan" still playing an important political role at the local level. The story of Elez Han is also linked to two other characters. Long called Sharr/Šar, the village changed its name in the 19th century with the construction of a han (caravanserai) built by a rich Begracë/Belograce merchant (23 km to the north) named Elez Duhani, which gave Han i Elezit in Albanian. However, in 1914, it was renamed Đeneral-Janković in honour of General Božidar Janković (1849-1920) who seized the region during the first Balkan war (October 1912-May 1913). But the memory of this bloody conquest, which ended, among other things, with the departure of the Ottomans, left a bitter taste in the Albanians. In 2012, the government decided to no longer recognize the name Đeneral-Janković. The village is now officially called Elez Han or Han i Elezit.
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