Terme Kezhovica Veles

Terme Kezhovica Veles draws bicarbonated mineral springs near Veles, the industrial and ceramic city on the Vardar river in central North Macedonia, where the hot spring waters emerge from the limestone ridges of the Babuna mountain in a gorge setting above the city whose ancient craft traditions of pottery, bronze working, and weaving were already established in the Hellenistic period when Veles was known as Bylazora, the largest Macedonian settlement north of Thessaloniki. The ceramic tradition of Veles has persisted from the Ottoman period to the present, its artisan potters working in red local clay to produce amphoras, storage jars, and decorative vessels using wheel-throwing techniques and wood-fired kilns whose products appear in every Macedonian household and are exported as craft souvenirs throughout the Balkans. The bicarbonated mineral springs of Kezhovica, flowing in a gorge landscape of limestone cliffs and oak scrub above the Vardar valley, provide a warm thermal retreat valued for muscular comfort and relaxation in a region where Macedonian craft culture and ancient urbanism coexist in the compressed landscape of the central Vardar valley.