Strumica is the largest city in eastern Macedonia, near the Novo Selo-Petrich border crossing with Bulgaria. About 100,000 people live in the region surrounding the city. It is named after the Strumica River which runs through it. The city of Strumica is the seat of Strumica Municipality. The town is first mentioned in the 2nd century BC with the Hellenic name Astraîon by Ptolemy and Pliny. It was later known as Tiveriopolis; it received its present name from the Slavic settlers of the Middle Ages. In modern Greek the town is known as Strómnitsa, and its name in Turkish is Ustrumca. Strumica is the main agricultural center in Macedonia. It has food industry, textile factories and a developed domestic and international trade network.
Astraion fell into the second merida. In 148 B.C. Macedonia became a Roman province. In the Roman period the city changed its name to Tiveriopolis, which is evidenced by a marble statue base dedicated to the patron Tiberius Claudius Menon, who lived between the late 2nd and early 3rd century. The Roman town suffered major destruction after the Slavic migration in the 6th and 7th centuries. Throughout the Ottoman period, the Turkish administration used the name Üstrümce for Strumica. The city was added to the Kyustendil sanjak, and the timar-spahi system was established. Nomads and livestock breeders of Turkish origin were settled, which altered the general look of the city making it more oriental. According to the census of 1519, Strumica had a population of 2,780, of which 1,450 were Christians and 1,330 were Muslims. These were times when conversion to Islam was at its peak in the region, which accounts for the increased number of Muslims (2,200) compared to Christians (1,230) according to the census of 1570.
On 6 April 1941, the first day of the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia, Strumica was captured by the German Army and, as Bulgaria was allied with Germany, Strumica was turned over under occupation of the Bulgarian armies on 18 April 1941. From 1941 to 1944, Strumica, as most of Vardar Macedonia, was annexed by the Kingdom of Bulgaria. On 11 September 1944 the Bulgarian army withdraw from Strumica and on 5 November 1944, the town was left by the German army. After the war Macedonian people entered the Federation Yugoslavia as egalitarian people. However, with the referendum on 8 September 1991, Macedonia became an independent country.
