the Saxons

Saxons in the Republic of Macedonia

Saxons (in Macedonian Sasi) have settled in the north-east parts of Macedonia in 13 Cent., in the area around present towns of Kriva Palanka, Kratovo, Kočani and Štip. They came as a profesional miners and have founded many settlements. The Saxons in Macedonia were incorporated into the Macedonian nation, during the last 600 years and still many people from north east of Macedonia posses nordic german anthropological characteristics. Macedonians from north easter Macedonia speak the Macedonian Language, but remained very few specific german words in their dialect like tas (german e. Tasse), tute (german e. Tüte), lamba (german e. Lampe), german-ec (instead of slavic word nemec) and some german words that might be adopted latter on like šnajder, štof, šuster etc. with same pronouncing and meaning like in the German language. The Saxons left behind them toponims in this part of Macedonia with german etymology like:

1. Village German (Rankovce and Kriva Palanka Municipality);
2. Village and Mine Complex Sasa (Saxons);
3. Village Luke originates from German word Luke (Kriva Palanka Municipality);
4. Village Šlegovo (Schlegovo) originates from German word Schlagen (Kratovo Municipality);
5. Village Stalkovica (Stahlkovica) originates from German word Stahl (Municipality Kratovo) ;
6. Mountain Osogovo (which belongs to Municipalities of Kriva Palanka and Kočani, as well as Bulgaria);according to the most famous legend, the name of Mountain Osogovo originates from the old Ferman words "osso" (god) and "gov" (place) which means "a divine place" etc. There is a simmilar toponym Osogna, a village in Switzerland.

The historical documents testify that Macedonian town of Kratovo was found by Saxon (Sasi) miners in year 1282. In that time, Kratovo became one of the biggest towns and a major mining centre in Macedonia for a gold and silver. Saxons shortly after their arrival in Macedonia adopted slavic macedonian language as all the schools in Kratovo in 14 cent. were in this language, including the famous Medieval Transcription Kratovo School.
The Code of Serbian Czar Stefan Dušan from 14 Cent. mentions Sasi (Saxons) as an ethnic group in his empire.