Ohrid

# Ohrid

## Abstract

41°07′01″N 20°48′06″E / 41.11694°N 20.80167°E

Ohrid (Macedonian: Охрид) is a city in North Macedonia and is the seat of the Ohrid Municipality. It is the largest city on Lake Ohrid and the eighth-largest city in the country, with the municipality recording a population of over 42,000 inhabitants as of 2002. Ohrid is known for once having 365 churches, one for each day of the year, and has been referred to as the "Jerusalem of the Balkans". The city is rich in picturesque houses and monuments, and tourism is predominant. It is located southwest of Skopje, west of Resen and Bitola. In 1979 and in 1980, respectively, Ohrid and Lake Ohrid were accepted as Cultural and Natural World Heritage Sites by UNESCO. Ohrid is one of only 28 sites that are part of UNESCO's World Heritage that are Cultural as well as Natural sites.

## Name

In antiquity the city was known under the ancient Greek name of Λυχνίς (Lychnis) and Λυχνιδός (Lychnidos) and the Latin Lychnidus, probably meaning "city of light", literally "a precious stone that emits light", from λύχνος (lychnos), "lamp, portable light". Polybius, writing in the second century BC, refers to the town as Λυχνίδιον - Lichnidion.

The evolution of the ancient toponym Lychnidus into Oh(ë)r(id) required a long-standing period of Tosk Albanian – Eastern South Slavic bilingualism, or at least contact, resulting from the Tosk Albanian rhotacism -n- into -r- and Eastern South Slavic l-vocalization ly- into o-.

It became capital of the First Bulgarian Empire in the early medieval period, and was often referred to by Byzantine writers as Achrida (Ἄχριδα, Ὄχριδα, or Ἄχρις). By 879 AD, the town was no longer called Lychnidos but was referred to as Ohrid.

In Macedonian and the other South Slavic languages, the name of the city is Ohrid (Охрид). In Albanian, the city is known as Ohër or Ohri and in modern Greek Ochrida (Οχρίδα, Ωχρίδα) and Achrida (Αχρίδα). The name of the city in Aromanian is Ohãrda.

## History

Illyrians (Enchele, Dassaretii) –3rd century BC Kingdom of Macedonia 210 BC-208 BC Kingdom of Dardania 208 BC-170 BC Kingdom of Macedonia 170 BC-148 BC Roman Republic 148 BC - 27 BC Roman Empire 27 BC – 395 Byzantine Empire 395–842 First Bulgarian Empire 842–1018 Byzantine Empire 1018–1083 Bohemond I 1083–1085 Byzantine Empire 1085–1203 Second Bulgarian Empire 1203–1208 Strez 1208–1214 Epirus and Thessalonica 1214–1230 Second Bulgarian Empire 1230–1263 Byzantine Empire ~1250–1334 Serbian Empire 1334 - ~1336 Gropa family ~1336 – ??? Lordship of Prilep ??? – ~1373 Gropa family ~1373–1395 Ottoman Empire 1395–1464 League of Lezhë 1464-1466 Ottoman Empire 1466–1912 Kingdom of Serbia 1912–1915 Kingdom of Bulgaria 1915–1918 Kingdom of Yugoslavia 1918–1941 Kingdom of Bulgaria 1941–1944 SFR Yugoslavia 1944–1991 Macedonia / North Macedonia 1991–present

### Antiquity

The earliest inhabitants of the widest Lake Ohrid region were the Illyrian tribes of Enchele and Dassaretii. According to a tradition the town was founded by Cadmus, the Phoenician king of Thebes, who fled to Enchele after being banished from Boeotia. In addition to Ohrid, called Lychnidos (Ancient Greek: Λυχνιδός) in classical antiquity, he is said to have founded Budva in Montenegro. Lychnidos was the capital city of the Illyrian Dassaretii.

According to recent excavations, this was a town as early as of the era of king Philip II of Macedon. They conclude that Samuil's Fortress was built on the site of an earlier fortification, dated to the 4th century BC. In 210 BCE, Philip V of Macedon raided a number of southern Illyrian communities. He maintained a garrison at Lychnidos but lost control of the settlement in 208 BCE, when its commander joined local leader Aeropus and invited the Dardani in the region.

During the Roman conquests, towards the end of 3rd and the beginning of 2nd century BC, Lychnidus is mentioned as a town near or within Dassaretia. In Roman times, it was located along the Via Egnatia, which connected the Adriatic port Dyrrachion (present-day Durrës) with Byzantium. Archaeological excavations (e.g., the Polyconch Basilica from the 5th century) prove an early adoption of Christianity in the area. Bishops from Lychnidos participated in multiple ecumenical councils.

### Middle Ages

The South Slavs began to arrive in the area during the 6th century AD. By the early 7th century, it was colonized by a Slavic tribe known as the Berziti. Bulgaria conquered the city around 840.

The name Ohrid first appeared in 879. The Ohrid Literary School, established in 886 by Clement of Ohrid, became one of the two major cultural centres of the First Bulgarian Empire. Between 990 and 1015, Ohrid was the empire's capital and stronghold.

From 990 to 1018, Ohrid was also the seat of the Bulgarian Patriarchate. After the Byzantine reconquest of the city in 1018 by Basil II, the Bulgarian Patriarchate was downgraded to an Archbishopric of Ohrid, and placed under the authority of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.

The higher clergy after 1018 was almost invariably Greek, including during the period of Ottoman domination, until the abolition of the archbishopric in 1767. At the beginning of the 16th century, the archbishopric reached its peak, subordinating the Sofia, Vidin, Vlach and Moldavian eparchies, part of the former medieval Serbian Patriarchate of Peć, (including Patriarchal Monastery of Peć itself), and even the Orthodox districts of Italy (Apulia, Calabria and Sicily), Venice and Dalmatia.

As an episcopal city, Ohrid was a cultural center of great importance for the Balkans. Almost all surviving churches were built by the Byzantines and by the Bulgarians, with the rest dating back to the short time of Serbian rule during the late Middle Ages.

Bohemond, leading a Norman army from southern Italy, took the city in 1083. The Byzantines regained it in 1085. In the 13th and 14th century, the city changed hands between the Despotate of Epirus, the Bulgarian, Byzantine and Serbian Empires, and Albanian rulers. In the mid-13th century, Ohrid was one of the cities ruled by Pal Gropa, a member of the Albanian noble Gropa family. In a text by Emperor John VI Kantakouzenos, there is mention of nomadic Albanians present in the vicinity of Ohrid at around 1328. The presence of the Turkish community dates from their settlement in Ohrid during 1451–81.

In 1334, the city was captured by Stefan Uroš IV Dušan and incorporated in the Serbian Empire. After Dusan's death, the city came under the control of Andrea Gropa. After his death, Prince Marko incorporated it in the Kingdom of Prilep.

In the early 1370s, Marko lost Ohrid to Pal II Gropa, another member of the Gropa family, and unsuccessfully tried to recapture it in 1375 with Ottoman assistance.

In 1395, the Ottomans under Bayezid I captured the city, which became the seat of the newly established Sanjak of Ohrid. Some time after Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg had liberated Krujë to begin his rebellion, his troops—in coordination with Gjergj Arianiti and Zahari Gropa (of the local Albanian Gropa noble family)—liberated Ohrid and the castle of Svetigrad.

From 14–15 September 1464, 12,000 Albanian troops of the League of Lezhë and 1,000 of the Republic of Venice defeated a 14,000-man Ottoman force near the city in the Battle of Ohrid. When Mehmed II returned from Albania after his actions against Skanderbeg in 1466, he dethroned Dorotheos, the Archbishop of Ohrid, and expatriated him—together with his clerks and boyars and considerable number of citizens of Ohrid—to Istanbul, probably because of their anti-Ottoman activities during Skanderbeg's rebellion amid which many citizens of Ohrid, including Dorotheos and his clergy, supported Skanderbeg and his fight.

### Ottoman period

During the 16th century, Ohrid was located in the Sanjak of Ohrid. In the years 1529-1536, Sanjak of Ohrid had 33,271 households (32,648 Christians and 623 Muslims), with 1331 widows and 3392 unmarried singles. There were 859 settlements and 10 cities, with an average of 28.7 houses per settlement. Ohrid itself had 337 Christian families, 44 unmarried singles, 12 widows and 93 Muslim families. In 1583, the Sanjak of Ohrid was made up of several Kazas, including the Kaza of Ohrid, which were in turn made of Nahiyes; the Ottoman Defter recorded, within the Nahiya of Ohrid, 2,920 Christian homes, 627 unmarried singles and 465 Muslim families within a total of 107 settlements. In 1889, according to a French research, the city had 2.500-3.000 houses and approximately 12.000 individuals, of which 2/3 were Bulgarians and Vlachs and the rest 1/3 were Albanophone Muslims with 20-25 Slavophone Greek families. The Christian population declined during the first centuries of Ottoman rule. In 1664, there were only 142 Christian households. The situation changed in the 18th century when Ohrid emerged as an important trade center on a major trade route. At the end of this century it had around five thousand inhabitants.

Towards the end of the 18th century and in the early part of the 19th century, Ohrid region, like other parts of European Turkey, was a hotbed of unrest. In the 19th century the region of Ohrid became part of the Pashalik of Scutari, ruled by the Bushati family.

After the Christian population of the bishopric of Ohrid voted on a plebiscite in 1874 overwhelmingly in favour of joining the Bulgarian Exarchate (97%), the Exarchate became in control of the area. In 1889, Gustav Weigand discovered in Ohrid the important Codex Dimonie, a collection of Aromanian-language religious texts. In statistics gathered by Vasil Kanchov in 1900, the city of Ohrid was inhabited by 8000 Bulgarians, 5000 Turks, 500 Muslim Albanians, 300 Christian Albanians, 460 Vlachs and 600 Romani. The Bulgarian researcher Vasil Kanchov wrote in 1900 that many Albanians declared themselves as Turks. Ohrid, the population that declared itself Turkish "was of Albanian blood", but it "had been Turkified after the Ottoman invasion, including Skanderbeg", referring to Islamization.

The majority of the Christian inhabitants of the city were under the supremacy of the Bulgarian Exarchate. According to " La Macédoine et sa Population Chrétienne ", statistics of the secretary of the exarchate Dimitar Mishev on the Christian population in Macedonia, in 1905 the Christian population of Ohrid consisted of 7,768 Exarchist Bulgarians, 168 Greek Patriarchal Bulgarians, 56 Serboman Patriarchal Bulgarians, 660 Vlachs and 6 Albanians. In the city there is 1 secondary and 5 primary Bulgarian schools and 1 primary Greek, Serbian and Wallachian school each.

Modern Albanian study claims that in 1903 the Cartographic Society of Sofia registered incorrectly 8,893 households of Albanian or Vlach ethnicity in the Kaza of Ohrid. There were supposedly 2,610 households registered in Ohrid, but after further analysis of the documents by Dervishi et al., it was discovered that the city actually had 3,700 households; there were 2,100 Albanian Muslim households, 150 Albanian Christian households, 900 Bulgarian households, 300 Vlach households, 210 Serb households and 39 Greek households. The Cartographic Society of Sofia also incorrectly registered many villages - that were in fact inhabited entirely or mostly by Albanians (both Christians and Muslims) - as Bulgarian. 14 villages were registered as Albanian with 991 households, but further investigation by Dervishi et al. revealed that the number was actually 2,400. Therefore, with those corrections, the Kaza of Ohrid had 5,336 Albanian households, 4,347 Slavic households, 1,549 mixed household and 125 Vlach households that were mainly spread across two villages. By the end of Ottoman rule, the Kaza of Ohrid itself numbered to 38,000 Albanian inhabitants and 36,500 non-Albanian (Bulgarian, Serbs, Vlachs and Orthodox Albanians who recognised the exarch and were therefore classed as Bulgarians) inhabitants as indicated by statistics gathered from the Ottoman authorities.

### Modern

Before 1912, Ohrid was a township center bounded to Monastir sanjak in Manastir Vilayet (present-day Bitola). The city remained under Ottoman rule until 29 November 1912, when the Serbian army took control of the city during the Balkan Wars and later made it the capital of Ohrid district. In Ohrid, Serbian forces killed 150 Bulgarians and 500 people consisting of Albanians and Turks. In September 1913 local Albanian and pro-Bulgarian Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization leaders rebelled against the Kingdom of Serbia. It was occupied by Kingdom of Bulgaria between 1915 and 1918 during World War I.

Bulgarian ethnographer Yordan Ivanov, professor at the University of Sofia, wrote in 1915 that Albanians, since they did not have their own alphabet, lacked a consolidated national consciousness and were being influenced by foreign propaganda, declared themselves as Turks, Greeks and Bulgarians, depending on which religion they belonged to. Albanians in Ohrid were losing their mother tongue.

During Kingdom of Yugoslavia Ohrid continued to be as an independent district (Охридски округ) (1918-1922), then it became a part of Bitola Oblast (1920-1929), and then from 1929 to 1941, Ohrid was part of the Vardar Banovina. It was occupied again by Bulgaria between 1941 and 1944 during World War II. Since the days of SFR Yugoslavia Ohrid has been the municipal seat of Municipality of Ohrid (Општина Охрид). Since 1991 the town was part of the Republic of Macedonia (now North Macedonia).

On 20 November 1993, Avioimpex Flight 110 crashed near Ohrid, killing all 116 people on board. It is the deadliest aviation disaster to occur in North Macedonia.

## Geography and climate

Ohrid is located in the south-western part of North Macedonia, on the shore of Lake Ohrid, at an elevation of 695 meters above sea level.

Ohrid has a warm-summer mediterranean climate (Köppen climate classification: Csb), bordering on an oceanic climate (Köppen climate classification: Cfb) moderated by its elevation, as the mean temperature of the warmest month is just above 22 °C (71.6 °F) and every summer month receives less than 40 millimetres (1.6 in) of rainfall. The coldest month is January with the average temperature 2.5 °C (36.5 °F) or in a range between 6.2 °C (43.2 °F) and −1.5 °C (29.3 °F). The warmest month is August with average range of 27.7 °C (82 °F) - 14.2 °C (57.6 °F). The rainiest month is November, which sees on average 90.5 mm (3.6 in) of rain. The summer months of June, July and August receive the least amount of rain, around 30 mm (1.2 in). The absolute minimum temperature is −17.8 °C (0.0 °F) and the maximum 38.5 °C (101.3 °F).

## Demographics

At the 2021 census, Ohrid had 38,818 residents with the following ethnic makeup:

- Macedonians, 28,920 (74.5%)

- Persons for whom data are taken from administrative sources, 3,421 (8.8%)

- others, 2,728 (7.0%)

- Albanians, 1,924 (5.0%)

- Turks, 1,825 (4.7%)

As of the 2002 census, the city of Ohrid has 42,033 inhabitants and the ethnic composition was the following:

- Macedonians, 33,791 (80.4%)

- Albanians, 2,959 (7.0%)

- Turks, 2,256 (5.4%)

- others, 3,027 (7.2%)

The mother tongues of the city's residents include the following:

- Macedonian, 34,910 (83.1%)

- Albanian, 3,957 (9.4%)

- Turkish, 2,226 (5.3%)

- others, 1,017 (2.4%)

The religious composition of the city was the following:

- Orthodox Christians, 33,987 (80.9%)

- Muslims, 7,599 (18.1%)

- others, 447 (1.1%)

The oldest inhabitants of Ohrid are a few families that reside in the Varoš neighbourhood. Other Macedonians have settled in Ohrid and originate from the villages of the Kosel, Struga, Drimkol, Debarca, Malesija and Kičevo regions and other areas from southern Macedonia. Albanians in Ohrid originate from Albanian villages located on the western and southern areas of Lake Ohrid. There is a sizeable amount of Turkified Albanians in Ohrid who originate from the cities of Elbasan, Durrës and Ulcinj. The local Romani population in Ohrid originates from Podgradec and speaks the southern Tosk Albanian dialect.

The earliest presence of the Aromanian population in Ohrid dates to 1778 arriving from Moscopole, others from Kavajë (late 18th century), from the Myzeqe region, Elbasan, Llëngë and Mokër region (mid. 19th century) and also from Gorna Belica and Malovišta (late 19th century). A large part of Ohrid's Aromanian population has emigrated to Trieste, Odessa and Bucharest. Orthodox Albanians are also present and settled in Ohrid during the second half of the 19th century and originate from Pogradec, Lin, Çërravë and Peshkëpi.

All Turks from the village of Peštani after selling properties and land moved to Ohrid by 1920 and today those few families are known as Peştanlı. In 1949, additional families from Aegean Macedonia settled in Ohrid.

In Yugoslav censuses, Albanophone Ohrid Romani mainly declared as Albanians. As tensions between Albanians and the state increased over numbers regarding community size and sociopolitical rights, Romani identity became politicized and contested from the 1990s onward. Ohrid Albanophone Romani refused identification as Albanians seeing it as a result of Albanisation (or to be called Gypsies) and with encouragement from Macedonian circles now refers to itself as Egyptians whose ancestors migrated from Egypt many centuries ago. The Albanian language is considered by Ohrid Albanophone Romani as only an idiom of the home and not a mother tongue. Turkish speaking Romani reside in Ohrid that during the Yugoslav period self declared themselves mainly as Turks, while within independent Macedonia they identify as Egyptians. In the latter decades of the 20th century, some Albanian speaking Muslim Romani from the villages of Krani and Nakolec have migrated to Ohrid.

## Cultural Heritage sites

Ohrid Municipality is home to over 100 sites declared as Cultural Heritage by the Ministry of Culture, of which most lie within the city of Ohrid.

- Ancient Theatre of Ohrid from Hellenistic and Roman time

- Vidobišta Roman-era tombs

- Kozluk, Roman-era settlement

- Mančevci site with early Christian basilica

- Hermeleja, Roman-era settlement

- Saint Erasmus

- Karagjulevci tombs from Ancient Macedonian era

- Samuel's Fortress and remaining portions of the city walls

- Plaošnik

- Studenčišta basilica

- Saint 40 Holy Martyrs early Christian basilica

There is a legend supported by observations by the 17th century Ottoman traveler Evliya Çelebi that there were 365 chapels within the town boundaries, one for every day of the year. Today this number is significantly smaller.

- Grave of Grigor Prličev

- Church of Saints Clement and Panteleimon

- Church of the Holy Mother of God Čelnica

- Little Church of Saint Vrači (Saints Kuzman and Damjan)

- Church of Saint Demetrius

- Church of the Holy Mother of God - Bolnička

- Church of Saint Nicholas - Bolnički

- Church of the Holy Mother of God - Perivleptos

- Little Church of Saint Clement

- Church of Saint John the Baptist - Kaneo

- Church of Saint Sophia

- Church of Saints Constantine and Elena

- Church of the Holy Mother of God Kamensko

- Church of Saint Nicholas - Gerakomija

- Church of Saint Nicholas - Arbanaški

- Church of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker

- Church of Saint Vrači (Saints Kuzman and Damjan), with frescos from the 14th century. A 14th-century icon from the church is depicted on the obverse of the 1000 denars banknote, issued in 1996 and 2003.

- Church of Saint George

- Church of Saint Nicholas

Besides being a holy center of the region, it is also the source of knowledge and pan-Slavic literacy. The restored Monastery at Plaošnik was actually one of the oldest Universities in the western world, dating before the 10th century. Several of Ohrid's best-known churches and monasteries, such as the Monastery of Saint Naum lie in its surrounding villages.

- Voska Hamam

- Eski Hamam

- Zejnel Abedin Pasha Tekke

- Sinan Çelebi Türbe

- Ali Pasha Mosque

- Hajdar Pasha Mosque

- Hadži Durgut Mosque

- Hadži Hamza Mosque

- Memorial mound on Slavej Planina

- Common grave of fallen National Liberation War soldiers

- Memorial plaque of fallen professors and students of the Ohrid Gymnasium in the National Liberation War

Dozens of individual homes and commercial buildings in Ohrid are listed as Cultural Heritage sites. Some of these, such as the Robevi family house and the Prličev family home, the Uzunov family home, function as museums today. Also included are the Saint Clement of Ohrid Gymnasium, the Ohrid Clock Tower, and the Icon Gallery.

## Transportation

There is a nearby international airport, Ohrid Airport (now known as "St. Paul the Apostle Airport").

Until 1966, Ohrid was linked to Skopje by the Ohrid line, a 167 kilometres (104 mi) long 600 mm narrow-gauge railway.

## Sports

GFK Ohrid Lihnidos is a football team playing at the SRC Biljanini Izvori stadium in the city. As of the 2021–22 season they play in the second tier of the Macedonian Football League system.

FK Voska Sport is also a football team in Ohrid that competes in the Macedonian First League as of the 2023-24 season.

RK Ohrid is a handball team playing at Biljanini Izvori Sports Hall arena, with a capacity of 3,500. As of the 2016–17 season they play in the Macedonian Handball Super League, which is the top tier.

The Ohrid Swimming Marathon is an international open water swimming competition, always taking place in the waters of Lake Ohrid. The swimmers are supposed to swim 30 km (19 mi) from the monastery of Saint Naum to the Ohrid harbor.

## Recurring events

- Ohrid Summer Festival, annual theater and music festival from July to August

- Ohrid Choir Festival, annual international choir festival at the end of August

- Balkan Folklore Festival, annual folklore music and dance festival at the beginning of July

- Balkan music square festival, music festival in August in which ethnic musicians from the whole Balkan peninsular participate

- Ohrid Fest (Охридски Трубадури), music festival in August in which musicians from the whole Balkan peninsular participate. This festival is held for four days which are divided into Debutant Night, Folk Night, Pop Night and International Night.

- Debutant Night,

- Folk Night,

- Pop Night and

- International Night.

- World Prized of Humanism in the Ohrid Academy of Humanism, created by Jordan Plevnes

- Ohrid art and scientific meetings (Охридска научна и уметничка визита), held in House of Uranija-MANU, Ohrid by Macedonian academy of science and arts

## Twin towns – sister cities

Ohrid is twinned with:

- Budva, Montenegro

- Caen, France

- Givatayim, Israel

- Inđija, Serbia

- Kragujevac, Serbia

- Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina

- Pogradec, Albania

- Piran, Slovenia

- Safranbolu, Turkey

- Stari Grad (Sarajevo), Bosnia and Herzegovina

- Vidovec, Croatia

- Vinkovci, Croatia

- Windsor, Canada

- Wollongong, Australia

- Yalova, Turkey

## Sources


Macedonian denar

# Macedonian denar

## Abstract

The denar (Macedonian: денар; paucal: denari / денари; abbreviation: den / ден; ISO code: MKD) is the currency of North Macedonia. Though subdivided into one hundred deni (дени), coins with a denomination of less than one denar have not been in use since 2013.

## History

The first denar was established as a temporary currency on 26 April 1992 in the then- Republic of Macedonia, replacing the 1990 version of the Yugoslav dinar at a 1:1 parity. In May 1993, the currency was reformed and a new denar was introduced, with one new denar being equal to 100 old denars.

### Etymology

The name denar comes from the name of the ancient Roman monetary unit, the denarius. The abbreviation is ден, the first three Cyrillic letters of its name.

## First denar (1992–1993)

The first denar was a temporary currency introduced on 26 April 1992 to replace the Yugoslav dinar at 1:1 parity and establish the monetary independence of Macedonia.

### History

Macedonia declared independence from Yugoslavia on 8 September 1991. At the time, the country was using the Yugoslav dinar. But secret preparations were begun to introduce its own currency, and by April 1992, Macedonia was ready to acquire monetary independence from Yugoslavia. On 26 April, the National Bank of Macedonia was established and the denar declared the national currency. Notes in the form of "value coupons" entered circulation the following day, and on 30 April 1992, the Yugoslav dinar ceased to be legal tender. In May 1993, the first denar was replaced at a rate of 100 to 1 by a new, permanent denar consisting of notes and coins.

### Coins

No coins were issued for the first denar.

### Banknotes

Temporary notes ("value coupons") were introduced on 27 April 1992, although preparations for producing them began much earlier. The notes remained in circulation until they were replaced by permanent notes of the second denar in 1993.

#### Production

Printing of the notes started on 15 January 1992 at the “11 October” printing firm in Prilep. The difficulties of creating a new currency in secret were reflected in the notes themselves. The paper, purchased from Slovenia, proved to be of poor quality and lacked adequate security. Although denominated in denari, the name of the currency did not appear on the notes because they were printed prior to the adoption of the Law on the Monetary Unit. Likewise, the issuer appeared as the "National Bank of Macedonia", not its successor, the National Bank of the Republic of Macedonia.

#### Design

The notes were designed by a young employee of the "11 October" printer, who had only one week and a limited budget to design them. Thus the six lowest denominations were identical, with the exception of their colours. All featured a man and two women picking tobacco leaves on the front, with the back devoted to the Ilinden monument in Kruševo, which, according to the bank, “expresses the eternal fight of citizens of Macedonia for life in peace and freedom.”

### Exchange rates

The denar was introduced with a fixed exchange rate of 360 denars to the Deutsche Mark.

## Second denar (1993–present)

### Coins

#### First series (1993)

In May 1993, coins for the second denar were introduced in denominations of 50 deni, and 1, 2, and 5 denars. The coins were designed by Dimče Boškoski and Snežana Atanasovska. In November 2008, 10 and 50 denar coins were introduced, while the 50 deni coin was withdrawn in 2013. Due to its low mintage, it had only been struck in 1993 and was practically never seen in circulation.

Since 1996, a large number of commemorative coins have been issued for collectors; a listing can be found on the national bank website.

Coins are minted at the Suvenir factory in Samokov, a village near Makedonski Brod.

#### Second series (2020)

Due to the country's name change as part of the Prespa Agreement, a new set of coins featuring the new name of North Macedonia is being released into circulation, starting with 1 denar coins in April 2021.

#### FAO coinage (1995)

In 1995, circulation coins of 1, 2, and 5 denar denominations were struck in honor of the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization.

### Banknotes

In 1993, the new denar was issued in denominations of 10, 20, 50, 100, and 500 denar notes. The 20 denar note was only issued in this first series. In 1996, 1000 and 5000 denar notes were added. In 2016, notes of 200 and 2,000 denars were issued, while the national bank began withdrawing the 5000 denar banknote from circulation to re-balance the structure of notes in circulation. In 2017, the national bank unveiled its current polymer banknotes, the 10 and 50 denar notes, and put them into circulation on May 15.

### Exchange rates

The denar is de facto pegged to Euro at a rate of 1 EUR=61.3644 MKD +/- 1% using a stabilization agreement.


Cannes

# Cannes

## Abstract

Cannes (/ k æ n, k ɑː n / KA(H)N, French:, locally; Occitan: Canas) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. The city is known for its association with the rich and famous, its luxury hotels and restaurants, and for several conferences.

## History

By the 2nd century BC, the Ligurian Oxybii established a settlement here known as Aegitna (Ancient Greek: Αἴγιτνα). Historians are unsure what the name means, but the connection to Greek αἴγες "waves, surf" seems evident. The second element could be compared to the Cretan and Thessalian towns of Itanos (Ἴτανος) and Iton (Ἴτων); also phonetically close is the Aetolian town of Aegitium (Αἱγἱτιον). The area was a fishing village used as a port of call between the Lérins Islands.

In 154 BC, it became the scene of violent but quick conflict between the troops of Quintus Opimius and the Oxybii.

In the 10th century, the town was known as Canua. The name may derive from "canna", a reed. Canua was probably the site of a small Ligurian port, and later a Roman outpost on Le Suquet hill, suggested by Roman tombs discovered here. Le Suquet housed an 11th-century tower, which overlooked the swamps where the city now stands. Most of the ancient activity, especially protection, was on the Lérins Islands, and the history of Cannes is closely tied to the history of the islands.

An attack by the Saracens in 891, who remained until the end of the 10th century, devastated the country around Canua. The insecurity of the Lérins islands forced the monks to settle on the mainland, at the Suquet. Construction of a castle in 1035 fortified the city then known as Cannes, and at the end of the 11th century construction was started on two towers on the Lérins islands. One took a century to build.

Around 1530, Cannes detached from the monks who had controlled the city for hundreds of years and became independent.

During the 18th century, both the Spanish and British tried to gain control of the Lérins Islands but were chased away by the French. The islands were later controlled by many, such as Jean-Honoré Alziary and the Bishop of Fréjus. They had many different purposes: in the middle of the 19th century, one served as a hospital for soldiers wounded in the Crimean War.

Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux bought land at the Croix des Gardes "about the year 1838, when it was little more than a fishing village on a picturesque coast" and constructed the villa Eleonore-Louise; Brougham's work to improve living conditions attracted the English aristocracy, who also built winter residences.

The 19th century saw the modernization of Cannes, spearheaded by Marie de Lametz and her son Prince Charles III to follow the successes of nearby Nice and the successful gambling industry in Bad Homburg. After several failures in 1850s, the late 1860s saw an expansion of casino, villas, hotels, roads and railway (the distance from Paris to Cannes reduced to 23 hours).

At the end of the 19th century, several more railways were completed, which prompted the arrival of streetcars. In Cannes, projects such as the Boulevard Carnot and the rue d'Antibes were carried out. After the closure of the Casino des Fleurs (hôtel Gallia), a luxury establishment was built for the rich winter clientele, the Casino Municipal next to the pier Albert-Edouard. This casino was demolished and replaced by the new Palace in 1979.

In the 20th century, new luxury hotels such as the Carlton, Majestic, Martinez, and JW Marriott Cannes were built. The city was modernised with a sports centre, a post office, and schools. There were fewer British and German tourists after the First World War, but more Americans. Winter tourism gave way to summer tourism, and the summer casino at Palm Beach was constructed.

In 1931, Karan Singh the crown prince of Jammu and Kashmir was born at the Martinez Hotel.

The city council had the idea of starting an international film festival shortly after World War II.

On 3 November 2011, it hosted the 2011 G20 summit.

In 2021, Cannes was designated as the City of Film by the UNESCO Creative Cities Network.

## Climate

Cannes has a subtropical Mediterranean climate (Köppen climate classification Csa) and the city enjoys 11 hours of sunshine per day during summer (July), while in winter (December to February) the weather is mild. Both seasons see a relatively low rainfall and most rain occurs during October and November when over 100 mm (3.9 in) falls.

Cannes summers are long and warm, with summer daytime temperatures regularly hitting 30 °C (86 °F), while average temperatures are about 25 °C (77 °F). Temperatures remain high from June to September, the busiest time of the year.

Mean temperatures drop below 10 °C (50 °F) for only three months of the year (December to February). The spring and autumn are also warm, although more suited to those who prefer slightly cooler weather.

The record high temperature was 39.2 °C (102.6 °F) on 19 July 2023, while the record low temperature was −12.0 °C (10.4 °F) on 9 January 1985.

## Landmarks

The Promenade de la Croisette is the waterfront avenue with palm trees. La Croisette is known for picturesque beaches, restaurants, cafés, boutiques, and luxury hotels. Le Suquet, the old town, provides a good view of La Croisette. The fortified tower and the Chapelle Sainte-Anne house the Musée des Explorations du monde. A distinctive building in Cannes is the Russian Orthodox church.

### Villas

Cannes of the 19th century can still be seen in its grand villas, built to reflect the wealth and standing of their owners and inspired by anything from medieval castles to Roman villas. They are not open to the public. Lord Brougham's Italianate Villa Eléonore Louise (one of the first in Cannes) was built between 1835 and 1839. Also known as the Quartier des Anglais, this is the oldest residential area in Cannes. Another landmark is the Villa Fiésole (known today as the Villa Domergue) designed by Jean-Gabriel Domergue in the style of Fiesole, near Florence, which may be visited on appointment.

### Île Sainte-Marguerite

It took the Man in the Iron Mask 11 years to leave the tiny, forested St Marguerite Island. The mysterious individual was believed to be of noble blood, but his identity has never been proven. His cell can be visited in the Fort of St Marguerite, now renamed the Musée de la Mer (Museum of the Sea). This museum also houses discoveries from shipwrecks off the island, including Roman (1st century BC) and Saracen (10th century AD) ceramics.

### Île Saint-Honorat

Cistercian monks are the only inhabitants of the smaller, southern St Honorat Island. Monks have inhabited the island since AD 410 and, at the height of their powers, owned Cannes, Mougins, and Vallauris. Medieval vestiges remain in the stark church, which is open to the public, and in the ruins of the 11th-century monastery on the seashore. The monks inhabit the Lérins Abbey and divide their time between prayer and producing red and white wines.

### Museums

The Musée d'Art et d'Histoire de Provence houses artifacts from prehistoric to present, in an 18th-century mansion. The Musée de la Castre has objects from the Pacific Atolls, Peruvian relics, and Mayan pottery. Other venues include the Musée de la Marine, Musée de la Mer, Musée de la Photographie and Musée International de la Parfumerie.

### Theatre and music

Small venues stage productions and host short sketches during the annual International Actors' Performance Festival (Festival Performance d'Acteur). Local theaters include the Espace Miramar and the Alexandre III.

### Festivals and show events

- The Cannes Film Festival founded in 1946 is held annually, usually in May, at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès.

- The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity is a global event and awards show for those working in advertising and related fields, held annually in June.

- The Festival d'art pyrotechnique de Cannes is an annual fireworks competition held in the summer at the Bay of Cannes.

- Midem, the foremost trade show for the music industry.

- MIPIM, the world's largest property-related trade show.

- Carnival on the Riviera is an annual parade through the streets to mark the 21 days before Shrove Tuesday.

- The International Festival of Games is a festival of bridge, belote, backgammon, chess, draughts, tarot, and more (February).

- Cannes Yachting Festival is an event for boating enthusiasts in the Vieux Port (September).

- The International Actors' Performance Festival: comedy sketches and performances by fringe artists

- The International Luxury Travel Market brings together under one roof the top international luxury travel providers and suppliers from all around the world.

- The Global Champions Tour showjumping league has an annual event in the ports of Cannes.

- MIPCOM and MIPTV, held in October and April respectively, are the world's most important trade markets for the television industry.

- The Pan-African Film Festival, held in early April and featuring films from the African diaspora.

## Economy

The area around Cannes has developed into a high-tech cluster. The technopolis of Sophia Antipolis lies in the hills beyond Cannes. The Film Festival is a major event for the industry which takes place every year in May. In addition, Cannes hosts other major annual events such as the MIPIM, MIPTV, MIDEM, Cannes Lions, and the NRJ Music Awards. There is an annual television festival in the last week in September.

The economic environment is based on tourism, business fairs, trade, and aviation. Cannes has 6,500 companies, of which 3,000 are traders, artisans, and service providers. In 2006, 421 new companies were registered.

Cannes hosts the Cannes Mandelieu Space Center, headquarters of Thales Alenia Space, the first European satellite manufacturer.

## Sport

Cannes is home to the football side AS Cannes, which currently plays in the French third division. The club is notable for having launched the professional career of Zinedine Zidane.

The city hosts the Jumping International de Cannes international horse jumping event every June.

Cannes women's volleyball team RC Cannes has been very successful (won twenty French Championships and two CEV Champions League).

## Transport

### Nice Côte d'Azur Airport

Located 24 km (15 mi) from Cannes, Nice Côte d'Azur Airport. The smaller Cannes – Mandelieu Airport is nearby.

### Rail

Cannes station is the main railway station for the city of Cannes. It is situated on the Marseille–Ventimiglia railway.

There are several rail services including:TGVs from Paris Gare de Lyon to Nice,a TER from Marseille St Charles to Nice,a TER service from Cannes to Les Arcs,anda TER service from Grasse/Cannes to Ventimiglia (Italy). The formers occasional Thello (Italian train) from Marseille St Charles to Milan no longer operates since December 2021.

Cannes-la-Bocca station is both a passenger station and a goods/maintenance depot. It is situated alongside the beach and has a connection to local ferries. There are three more stations on the line to Grasse: Le Bosquet, La Frayère, and Ranguin.

### Bus

Coach services arrive at the Gare Routière de Cannes, in the centre of the city, near the Town Hall. Companies from abroad include Eurolines and Agence Phocéens. Regional services are by Rapides Côte d'Azur and CTM, with services from Nice and Grasse/Mandelieu respectively. Local bus services are provided by Bus Azur.

### Ferry

Ferries are available in the Nice harbour from Bastia and Calvi in Corsica, with services provided by SNCM Ferryterranée and Corsica Ferries. From Bastia, the journey is 4 hours, and 45 minutes on conventional ferries, and 3 hours, and 40 minutes on express ferries, while from Calvi, conventional vessels take 3 hours, and 45 minutes, and express vessels take 2 hours and 45 minutes. An average of four ferries a day sail on these routes, with more during summer.

### Port

Cannes has 2 marinas – Vieux Port de Cannes (with 800 berths up to 145 m in length) beside the Palais des Festivals and Port Pierre Canto at the far end of the Croisette. Vieux Port is the main port and is used for cruise stopovers and yacht charters.

## International relations

Cannes is twinned with:

Cannes has friendship pacts with:

## Notable people

### Public service

- Dante Livio Bianco (1909–1953), Italian civil lawyer and wartime partisan leader.

- Anne Spoerry (1918–1999), French-Kenyan doctor and pilot

- Karan Singh (born 1931), former ruler of Jammu and Kashmir, Indian diplomat and politician

- Infanta Pilar, Duchess of Badajoz (1936–2020), Spanish royal and Grandee of Spain

- Jean-Charles Terrassier (1940–2022), psychologist, specialized in childhood intellectual giftedness

- Norbert Turini (born 1954), prelate of the Catholic Church, archbishop of Montpellier.

- Catherine Guillouard (born 1965), CEO of RATP Group, state-owned public transport operator

### The Arts

- Amédée de Vallombrosa (1880–1968), classical organist

- Gérard Philipe (1922–1959), theater and film actor

- Claude Mercier-Ythier (1931–2020), a French harpsichord maker

- James de Beaujeu Domville (1933–2015), theatrical producer and Commissioner of the National Film Board of Canada.

- Gabriel Tacchino (born 1934), a French classical pianist and piano teacher.

- Vojislav Stanimirovic (1937–2022), reformed criminal, writer, journalist, and artist

- Jean-Jacques Kantorow (born 1945), violinist and conductor

- Jacques Israelievitch (1948–2015), a French violinist

- Paolo Barzman (born 1957), French-American film director

- Frédéric Boyer (born 1961), author of novels, poems, and essays

- Cécilia Cara (born 1984), a French actress and singer

### Sport

- Bernard Casoni (born 1961), a former footballer with 488 club caps and 30 for France

- Yann Bonato (born 1972), basketball player

- Johan Micoud (born 1973), footballer with 485 club caps and 17 for France

- Cyrille Sauvage (born 1973), racing driver

- Sébastien Vieilledent (born 1976), rower and gold medallist at the Rowing at the 2004 Summer Olympics – Men's double sculls

- Sarah Bouhaddi (born 1986), footballer with over 300 club caps and 149 for France women

- Anthony Modeste, (born 1988), football player with over 400 club caps

- Tony Ramoin (born 1988), snowboarder, bronze medallist at the 2010 Winter Olympics.

- Élodie Lorandi (born 1989), a swimmer and medallist at the 2008 and 2012 Summer Paralympics

- Johann Zarco (born 1990), Grand Prix motorcycle racer

- Norman Nato (born 1992), racing driver

- Brandon Maïsano (born 1993), racing driver

- Dylan Bronn (born 1995) a footballer with over 200 club caps and 35 for Tunisia

- Timothé Luwawu-Cabarrot (born 1995), NBA player

- Dorian Boccolacci (born 1998), racing driver

### Died in Cannes

- Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux (1778–1868), British statesman & Lord Chancellor.

- Charles Grant, 1st Baron Glenelg (1778–1866), a Scottish politician and colonial administrator.

- Victor Cousin (1792–1867), a French philosopher, founded " eclecticism ".

- Jean-Baptiste Dumas (1800–1884), a French chemist, worked on organic analysis and synthesis.

- T. E. Ellis (1859-1899), Welsh politician, leader of Cymru Fydd.

- Prosper Mérimée (1803–1870), a French Romanticism writer.

- Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–1859), aristocrat, diplomat, political scientist & philosopher, and historian.

- Louis Blanc (1811–1882), a French socialist politician and historian.

- Sir Monier Monier-Williams (1819–1899), an Oxford scholar who taught Asian languages.

- John Francis Campbell (1821–1885), a Scottish author and scholar.

- Sir Henry James Sumner Maine (1822–1888), a British Whig comparative jurist and historian.

- Charilaos Trikoupis (1832–1896), Greek politician, Prime Minister of Greece seven times, 1875–1895.

- Spencer Cavendish, 8th Duke of Devonshire (1833–1908), a British statesman.

- Benjamin Godard (1849–1895), a French violinist and Romantic-era composer.

- Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany (1853-1884), eighth child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert

- Nubar Gulbenkian (1896–1972), Armenian business magnate and socialite

- Jacques Monod (1910–1976), French microbiologist and biochemist, Nobel prizewinner


Dragan Lepinjica

# Dragan Lepinjica

## Abstract

Dragan Lepinjica (Serbian Cyrillic: Драган Лепињица, born 15 August 1961) is a former Serbian football player.

Born in Šid, he played with Osijek, Dinamo Zagreb and Priština in the Yugoslav First League during the 1980s, and in 1990 he moved to Portugal where he played with União in the Primeira Liga until 1996.

His son Ivan, born in 1999, is also a footballer.

## External sources

- Dragan Lepinjica at Povijest Dinama

- Yugoslav First and Second League stats at B92


Gary Condit

# Gary Condit

## Abstract

Gary Adrian Condit (born April 21, 1948) is an American former politician who represented California 's 18th congressional district in the House of Representatives from 1989 to 2003. He gained significant national attention after the May 2001 disappearance of Chandra Levy, an intern with the Federal Bureau of Prisons with whom Condit was having an affair.

Although Condit was never formally a suspect in Levy's disappearance and murder, he lost the 2002 Democratic primary based in large part on negative publicity from the scandal.

## Early life

Gary Condit was born in Salina, Oklahoma, on April 21, 1948, the son of Velma Jean (Tidwell) Condit (1929–2017) and Adrian Burl Condit (1927–2021), a Baptist minister. He was raised and educated in Oklahoma, and graduated from Tulsa 's Nathan Hale High School. During the summers of his high school years, Condit worked as a roustabout in Oklahoma's oil fields. In 1967, at age 18, he married his high school sweetheart Carolyn Berry. An investigation by journalists in 2001 revealed that Condit provided the wrong birth date for his marriage license. At the time, Oklahoma required males under age 21 to have parental consent to marry; by claiming to have been born in 1942 rather than 1948, Condit appeared to be older than 18.

In 1967, Condit's father became pastor of a Baptist church in Ceres, California, near Modesto, causing his family to relocate there. Condit began attendance at Modesto Junior College and received an Associate of Arts degree in 1970. In 1972, he received a B.A. degree from California State University, Stanislaus.

While attending college and at the start of his career, Condit worked at a variety of jobs, including one at a tomato cannery, one at a factory that made munitions during the Vietnam War, and in the paint department of a Montgomery Ward department store.

## Political career

Condit began his career on the Ceres city council from 1972 to 1976—the last two years as mayor. He became the youngest mayor in the city's history at the age of 25. Condit served on the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors from 1976 to 1982, and was elected to the California State Assembly in 1982.

### California State Assembly

In 1988, Condit was a member of the "Gang of Five" – with Charles M. Calderon of Whittier, Gerald R. Eaves of Rialto, Rusty Areias of Los Banos and Steve Peace of Chula Vista – that failed to unseat Willie Brown as Speaker of the State Assembly by making a deal with Republicans. Peace co-wrote and produced the 1988 film Return of the Killer Tomatoes, in which Condit appeared in an uncredited, nonspeaking cameo during a fight sequence.

### U.S. House of Representatives

Condit was elected to Congress in 1989 in a special election after the resignation of House Democratic Whip Tony Coelho. He was elected to a full term in 1990, and reelected five more times without serious difficulty (Condit had no Republican challenger during the general elections of 1992 and 1998). His most important committee assignment was as a senior member on the House Intelligence Committee in the months and years prior to the September 11 attacks. Like most Democrats from the Central Valley, Condit was somewhat more conservative than other Democrats from California. Being a Blue Dog Democrat, Condit voted against President Bill Clinton more frequently than other members of his party in the chamber. Condit took several populist progressive positions such as opposing NAFTA despite intense lobbying from his own district's wine industry and President Clinton himself, voted against the landmark repeal of Glass-Steagall protections, and against the Iraq War and intervention in Kosovo. In the aftermath of Kosovo, Condit was a persistent force in compelling the prosecution of Slobodan Miloševic.

In 1998, during the Monica Lewinsky scandal, Condit publicly demanded that Clinton "come clean" on his relationship with the young woman; a video of this demand was aired almost daily during Condit's own scandal involving a relationship with Bureau of Prisons intern Chandra Levy. Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, interest in the Levy case declined. Condit kept his seat on the Intelligence Committee, retained his security clearance, and was one of a small number of members of Congress who were cleared to see the most sensitive information on the 9/11 attacks.

On December 7, 2001, Condit announced he would run for re-election. He lost the Democratic primary election in March 2002 to his former aide, then- Assemblyman Dennis Cardoza, and left Congress at the end of his term in January 2003. Condit's most notable vote in his last months in office was the resolution to expel Congressman James Traficant after his conviction on corruption charges. In the 420–1 vote on July 24, 2002, Condit was the sole "nay".

### Levy scandal

In 2001, Condit became the subject of national news coverage after the disappearance of Chandra Levy, a young woman working as a Washington, D.C. intern, originally from Condit's district. Police questioned Condit twice, and both times he denied having an extramarital affair with her; however, Levy's aunt eventually went public with conversations she had with her about their relationship. Police questioned Condit a third time, and he confessed to the affair. When the affair began, Condit was 53 and Levy was 23.

While Condit was not named as an official suspect in the disappearance, Levy's family suspected that he was withholding important information. His reputation suffered from the contrast between his "pro-family" politics, his adultery with a woman younger than his daughter, and his attempts to mislead the police regarding his affair. In July, two months after Levy vanished, Condit agreed to let investigators search his apartment; hours before the search, police said he was spotted throwing a gift box he had received from another woman into a dumpster in a Washington suburb. This followed news reports that Condit had had an affair with a flight attendant.

Levy's remains were not found during the extensive search that followed her disappearance, but were discovered accidentally May 22, 2002, in a secluded area of Rock Creek Park in Washington D.C.; the death was declared a homicide.

In late 2002, Condit sued writer Dominick Dunne of Vanity Fair for $11 million, claiming that Dunne defamed him by suggesting he ordered Levy killed in 2001. Condit's attorney said that the libel lawsuit was based on comments Dunne repeated on national radio and television programs in December 2001, where he suggested Condit frequented Middle Eastern embassies for sexual activity with prostitutes and that, during those times, he made it clear that he wanted someone to get rid of Levy. Condit's attorney said that Dunne's comments "conveyed that Gary Condit was involved in her kidnapping and in her murder, that friends of Gary Condit had her kidnapped, put in an airplane and dropped in the Atlantic Ocean." Dunne paid an undisclosed amount to settle that lawsuit in March 2005. Dunne said he had been "completely hoodwinked" by an unreliable informant. Subsequently, Condit sued Dunne again, charging him with "revivifying" the slander in an appearance on CNN 's Larry King Live in November 2005. In July 2008 a federal judge dismissed the second lawsuit filed against Dunne.

In July 2006, Condit sued the Sonoran News, a free weekly newspaper, for defamation of character after the publication wrote "that Condit was the 'main focus in the Chandra Levy case in 2001, after lying to investigators about his affair with Levy.'" The case was dismissed in July 2007 when the judge ruled that Condit had not proved the statement was false, or that the paper had published it with malice. Years later, Condit publicly denied ever having an affair with Chandra Levy.

Police continued the murder investigation, and in March 2009, a warrant was issued for the arrest of Ingmar Guandique, an undocumented immigrant from El Salvador who had already been convicted and imprisoned for two other attacks on women in Rock Creek Park. He was subsequently indicted for Levy's murder. On November 22, 2010, Guandique was found guilty of first-degree murder, and was sentenced in February 2011 to 60 years in prison. Condit's lawyer Bert Fields said, "It's a complete vindication but that comes a little late. Who gives him his career back?"

However, on June 4, 2015, D.C. Superior Court Judge Gerald Fisher granted a motion for the retrial of Guandique after it was revealed that the sole witness against him, a jailhouse informant named Armando Morales, had lied about prior jailhouse testimony. Prosecutors dropped all charges against Guandique on July 28, 2016, after an associate of Morales came forward with secret recordings in which he admitted to falsifying testimony about the murder of Levy. Levy's death therefore remains unsolved.

## Business career

After his departure from office, Condit moved to Arizona and operated two Baskin-Robbins ice cream stores with his wife and son. When the franchise failed, Condit was ordered to pay the company $98,000 in a breach of contract proceeding. In 2012, he was reported to be serving as president of the Phoenix Institute of Desert Agriculture, which listed its status as 'Dissolved' in the last corporate filing as of June 4, 2015. Condit later returned to California, where he became a registered lobbyist with the J. Blonien law firm of Sacramento.

## Family

### Involvement in local politics

In 2012, Condit's son, Chad, announced his intention to run for the House of Representatives as an independent in California's redrawn 10th congressional district. He lost in the top-two election against incumbent Republican Jeff Denham and Democratic challenger José M. Hernández. In 2022 Chad ran for the State Assembly to represent the 22nd Assembly district. Chad finished in 3rd place in the jungle primary and did not advance to the general election. After his loss, Chad worked on Marie Alvarado-Gil 's campaign for State Senate, and became her chief of staff after she won her election. In December 2023 he was fired from his position, and later sued Alvarado-Gil alleging sexual harassment.

In 2020, Condit's nephew Buck was elected to the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors for district 1, defeating Modesto City Councilman Bill Zoslocki 58.77% to 41.23%.

In 2018, Condit's grandson, Channce Condit, ran unopposed for a seat on the Ceres City Council. In 2020 Channce was elected to the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors after he defeated Tom Hallinan 60% to 40%, joining his father's cousin, Buck, on the board.

In 2015, another grandson of Condit, Couper Condit, was appointed to the Ceres planning commission, but was denied reappointment in 2020 by the council. However, Couper Condit, won a seat on the Ceres City Council later in 2020 by defeating incumbent Michael "Mike" Kline by a 38.19% to 23.52% margin, with two other competitors falling short. After serving for 10 months on the Ceres City Council, Couper Condit resigned with no explanation. Couper Condit has also worked as the district director for Assemblymember Heath Flora.

In 2023, another grandson of Condit, Gary M. Condit (named after his grandfather), was appointed to the Ceres Planning Commission. Gary M. Condit ran for Mayor of Ceres in 2024. Gary M. Condit's wife, Destiny Suarez, worked in the office of State Senator Marie Alvarado-Gil, but quit the office about eight months after her father in-law, Chad Condit, was fired from the same office.


Rebecca Heineman

# Rebecca Heineman

## Abstract

Rebecca Ann Heineman is an American video game designer and programmer. Heineman was a founding member of video game companies Interplay Productions, Logicware, Contraband Entertainment, and Olde Sküül. She has been chief executive officer for Olde Sküül since 2013.

## Early life

Rebecca Ann Heineman was born William Salvador Heineman on October 30, 1963, and raised in Whittier, California. When she was young, she could not afford to purchase games for her Atari 2600, so she taught herself how to copy cartridges and built herself a sizable pirated video game collection. Eventually, she became discontented with just copying games and reverse-engineered the console's code to understand how the games were made. In 1980, Heineman and a friend traveled to Los Angeles to compete in a regional branch of a national Space Invaders championship. Although she did not expect to fall under the top 100 contestants, she won the competition. Later that year, she also won the championship in New York. Heineman is hence considered to be the first national video game tournament champion.

## Career

After she won the tournament, Heineman was offered a writing job for monthly magazine Electronic Games and a consultancy job for a book called How to Master Video Games. During this time, she mentioned to one magazine publisher that she had reverse-engineered Atari 2600 code, and the publisher arranged a meeting between Heineman and the owners of game publisher Avalon Hill. As she met with them, she was hired as a programmer instantaneously. Heineman, aged 16 at the time, moved across the U.S. for her new job, canceling her plans to acquire a high school diploma. At Avalon Hill, Heineman created a manual for the company's programming team, the studio's game engine, and the base code for several software projects, including her own first game, London Blitz, before leaving the company.

Heineman returned to California to work for another developer, Boone Corporation. For Boone, she programmed the games Chuck Norris Superkicks and Robin Hood, acquiring knowledge of programming for Commodore 64, Apple II, VIC-20 and IBM PC, of video game hardware, as well as video game design. Boone ceased operations in 1983, so Heineman got together with Brian Fargo, Jay Patel and Troy Worrell, and the four founded Interplay Productions (later known as Interplay Entertainment). Heineman acted as lead programmer for the company, working on Wasteland, The Bard's Tale, Out of This World, and the Mac OS and 3DO ports of Wolfenstein 3D.

Heineman went on to design The Bard's Tale III: Thief of Fate, Dragon Wars, Tass Times in Tonetown, Borrowed Time, Mindshadow and The Tracer Sanction, among others, for Interplay. As the company grew to more than 500 employees, Heineman, wishing to return to her small-team roots, left the company in 1995 and co-founded Logicware, where she acted as chief technology officer and lead programmer. Aside from original games, Heineman oversaw the company's porting activities, which included Out of This World, Shattered Steel, Jazz Jackrabbit 2 and a canceled Mac OS port of Half-Life.

In 1999, Heineman founded Contraband Entertainment, operating as its chief executive officer. The company developed several original games alongside ports to various platforms for other developers. Projects led by Heineman include Myth III: The Wolf Age and Activision Anthology, and Mac OS ports for Aliens vs. Predator, Baldur's Gate II and Heroes of Might and Magic IV. During this time, she also provided consultancy work directly for other companies: She acted as "Senior Engineer III" for Electronic Arts, upgraded engine code for Barking Lizards Technologies and Ubisoft, optimized code for Sensory Sweep Studios, acted as senior software architect for Bloomberg L.P. and Amazon, provided training on Xbox 360 development for Microsoft 's development studios, and worked on the kernel code for the PlayStation Portable and PlayStation 4 at Sony. During her tenure at Amazon, Heineman was, in addition to her technological role, also the "Transgender Chair" of Amazon's LGBTQ+ group, known as Glamazon.

Contraband was wound down in 2013, and Heineman founded a new company, Olde Sküül, together with Jennell Jaquays, Maurine Starkey, and Susan Manley. At Olde Sküül, Heineman acts as CEO.

## Personal life

Around 2003, Heineman was diagnosed with gender dysphoria and began transitioning to live as a woman. She formally changed her given name to Rebecca Ann. Since the transition, Heineman has been living as a lesbian. She has five children and was married to Jennell Jaquays until the death of the latter. Heineman resides in El Cerrito, California, where her company Olde Sküül is located.

## Board service

Heineman has been part of the advisory board of the Video Game History Museum since 2011, and was part of the board of directors of LGBTQ+ organization GLAAD.

## Accolades

Heineman is recognized as the first national video game tournament champion for winning the 1980 National Space Invaders Championship. Sailor Ranko, a Sailor Moon -based fanfiction comic by Heineman based on an earlier work written by Duncan Zillman, has won multiple awards. She also tried to qualify for the Fortnite World Cup. In 2017, she became an inductee for the International Video Game Hall of Fame.

## Games

- Robin Hood (1983, VIC-20 port)

- Chuck Norris Superkicks (1984, C64/VIC-20 ports)

- The Bard's Tale (1985)

- Borrowed Time (1985)

- Racing Destruction Set (1986, Atari 8-bit port)

- Tass Times in Tonetown (1986)

- The Bard's Tale III: Thief of Fate (1988)

- Neuromancer (1988)

- Crystal Quest (1989, Apple IIgs port)

- Dragon Wars (1989)

- Track Meet (1991)

- RPM Racing (1991)

- Another World (1992, SNES port)

- Rescue Rover (1993, Apple IIgs port)

- Interplay's 10 Year Anthology: Classic Collection (1993)

- Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness (1994, Apple IIgs port)

- Wolfenstein 3D (1995, Mac/3DO ports)

- Kingdom: The Far Reaches (1995)

- Doom (1996, 3DO port)

- Killing Time (1996, PC port)

- Defiance (1997)

- Tempest 2000 (1998, Mac port)

- Remington Top Shot: Interactive Target Shooting (1998)

- Redneck Rampage (1999, Mac port)

- Jazz Jackrabbit 2 (1999, Mac port)

- Galactic Patrol (1999, Mac port)

- Bugdom (1999)

- Myth III: The Wolf Age (2001)

- Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn (2001, Mac port)

- Nanosaur Extreme (2002)

- Icewind Dale (2002, Mac port)

- Hexen II (2002, Mac port)

- Activision Anthology (2002)

- Medal of Honor: Rising Sun (2003)

- Pitfall: The Lost Expedition (2004)

- Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault (2004)

- GoldenEye: Rogue Agent (2004)

- Medal of Honor: European Assault (2005)

- Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars (2007)

- Alvin and the Chipmunks (2007)

- Chip's Challenge (2015, Windows re-release)


Erich Rutschke

# Erich Rutschke

## Abstract

Erich Rutschke (26 May 1926 – 12 February 1999) was a German ornithologist and conservationist who specialized in wetland birds and their biology. Rutschke was responsible for making East Germany a signatory of the Ramsar Convention.

Rustchke was born in Neu-Golm, Bad Saarow in Germany. During the war he served as a paratrooper and was wounded. He became a teacher in 1946. He was interested in birds from childhood but took an interest in ornithology as a career after meeting Erwin Stresemann. He received a PhD for his work on water resistance in plumage in 1958 which included studies on the feathers of penguins. He became a professor of animal physiology at Potsdam and later became a professor at the Pedagogical Highschool in 1991.

He took an interest in waterbirds and the conservation of their habitats establishing a waterbird research centre in East Germany in 1967 and conducting bird censuses. He conducted research on greylag geese and their migration. Rutschke helped make the German Democratic Republic a signatory to the Ramsar Convention on 31 July 1978.

During the Cold War years, he was actively watched by Stasi intelligence agents and informants who followed him to Ornithological Congresses. One intelligence agent reported that while in Hungary, Rutschke had invited Sir "Walter Scott" (actually Sir Peter Scott) and other foreign delegates into his room in order to celebrate and sing (Rutschke was known for his voice) and therefore considered to have broken protocol.

He published books on wild geese, ducks, the swans of Europe and a monograph on the cormorant.