Širok Sokak — "Wide Lane" in Macedonian — is Bitola's central pedestrian boulevard, a broad paved street lined with late Ottoman and early 20th-century buildings that forms the social heart of the city. It runs north–south through the old town and is at its most animated in the evenings when half the city seems to come out for the korzo — the evening promenade that is still a daily ritual here.
The buildings along Širok Sokak are a genuine architectural mix: Macedonian baroque, Ottoman-era stone houses, and the ornate residences built for the foreign consular staff who made Bitola diplomatically significant at the turn of the 20th century. Mustafa Kemal (later Atatürk) attended the Ottoman military school here; a plaque and memorial mark the connection.
The street is lined with cafes, and sitting at a pavement table with a coffee at 5pm watching the promenade is not wasted time. It is one of the better versions of this Balkan urban ritual.