Florina (Greek: Φλώρινα, Flórina; known also by some alternative names) is a town and municipality in the mountainous northwestern Macedonia, Greece.

Furthermore, the town and the surrounding valley is usually covered in thick fog during the winter months that may last even for weeks under specific conditions.

Snowfalls, sometimes heavy, thick fog and below-freezing temperatures are common during the winter months, while the summers are warm to hot.

[16] Under Ottoman rule, Florina was a regional economic and administrative centre, the seat of a kaza and belonged to a sanjak within the Vilayet of Monastir.

[20] During the Macedonian Struggle the Greek makedonomachoi gained significant advantage towards the Bulgarian Exarchists within 10 months in 1905 and extended their zone of control in various regions of western Macedonia including the plains north and south of Florina.

[21] The Balkan Wars (1912–1913) brought an end to Ottoman rule when Florina and the surrounding area was taken by Greece during November 1912.

[15] In 1916, Florina became a World War I battleground of the Macedonian front and was occupied by Bulgaria and later retaken by the French army.

[22] Many pro–Bulgarian people or Muslims of Florina and in nearby areas were shot by Greek irregular troops of the Entente following the French capture of the town.

[23] Florina continued to be a multiethnic town following the Greek–Turkish population exchange, and as a consequence became a place with strict surveillance by the Greek state with cooperation from the local government and the Orthodox Church.

[25] During the Axis Occupation of Greece in World War II, Florina was under German control[26] and the town became a centre of Slavic separatism.

[38] Carsi i Yakosu Bey mosque was built in the eighteenth century, the building and most of the minaret, excluding its base, were demolished between 1953–1954.

[24] Florina underwent change and sites or buildings associated with diverse past cultures and peoples such as mosques, synagogues and cemeteries disappeared.

[48] Instead the school was demolished in late 1978 by the local municipal authority with support from Florina's Archbishop Kantiotis who opposed the building's Bulgarian Church origins.

[51] There are twelve monuments of fighters such as Kapetan Kottas and politicians involved in the Macedonian Struggle placed mainly after 1960 in Florina to mark the success of Greek efforts over the Bulgarians.

[51] In the town square named George Modis, there are busts of Macedonian Struggle figure L. Pyrzas and the General I. Pappous of the National Army during the Civil War with a display of cannons taken from the Communists, the losing side in the conflict.

[31] The Greek Communist Party bought the site in 2009 and erected a memorial in 2016 encompassing several sculpted individuals on the field commemorating the fighters.

[31][56] In 2005, three marble reproductions of funerary monuments were placed in the town centre, the ancient Greek originals dating from Classical and Roman antiquity are displayed in the Florina Archaeological Museum.

[54] There have been some efforts by local people to showcase Florina's heritage from the Ottoman period and other less highlighted or neglected parts of the town's past through an exhibition, a documentary film and a scholarly lecture.

[17] Austrian diplomat Johann Georg von Hahn visited the city in 1861 and wrote about it in his travel log From Belgrade to Salonica.

[60] Bérard wrote "these Slavs nonetheless call themselves Greek and speak Greek—with us at least", while in Florina a few hundred were Bulgarian supporters and the Ottoman administration in the area was pro–Bulgarian.

[62] Under Ottoman rule, the Jews of Florina had close ties with the Jewish community of Monastir (modern Bitola).

[70] Mazon wrote Florina was populated by Turkicized Albanians and Christian Slavs, split almost evenly between 9000 inhabitants, with the remainder consisting of Greeks, Aromanians and Jews who had recently arrived from Bitola after its 1917 destruction.

[70] Much of the Christian population remained Patriarchists, even during the period of the Exarchate, with some becoming Hellenised and apart from a few exceptions they spoke (Macedonian) Bulgarian in their homes.

[70] Following the Balkan Wars (1912–1913), the large Aromanian community in Monastir (modern Bitola) was disappointed that the city became part of Serbia and they migrated to Greece.

[71] Many went to Thessaloniki and others settled in Florina, where in the late 1920s a new neighbourhood was established named Agia Paraskevi with a population of 600 refugee Aromanian families.

[72] The arrival of many hellenised Aromanians from Monastir to Florina resulted in the establishment of a large Greek speaking population in the region.

[76] Muslim Albanians from Florina and the wider region during the Greek–Turkish population exchange (1923) based on religious criteria were sent to Turkey, and mainly resettled in Bursa.

[7][77] Following the Greek–Turkish population exchange, Greek refugee families in Florina were from East Thrace (79), Asia Minor (54), Pontus (7) and the Caucasus (44) in 1926.

[90] Florina and the surrounding area during the late Ottoman and population exchange periods is the setting for the novel Devastated Hills: Macedonia 1900 by writer Necati Cumalı.

[91] In Greek cinema, several movies filmed in Florina by Theodoros Angelopoulos are The Suspended Step of the Stork, Ulysses' Gaze[92] and The Beekeeper.