Bukovo

Bukovo Буково
A private home: traditional architecture in Bukovo.
Bukovo Location within Macedonia
Coordinates: 40°58′59″N 21°19′59″E / 40.98306°N 21.33306°E / 40.98306; 21.33306Coordinates: 40°58′59″N 21°19′59″E / 40.98306°N 21.33306°E / 40.98306; 21.33306
Country	Macedonia
Municipality	Bitola municipality
Elevation	821 m (2,694 ft)
Population (2002)
• Total	3,494
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
Postal code	7000
Area code(s)	+389 047
Car plates	BT

Bukovo (Macedonian: Буково, pronounced [ˈbukɔvɔ]) is a village in the Bitola municipality approximately three kilometers distance from the city of Bitola in the Republic of Macedonia.

Not unlike most other larger villages in the country, locals typically distinguish an "upper" (горна) and "lower" (долна) quarter (маала). Historically, the latter developed from the expansion of the former. The neighborhood Bukovski Livadi (Буковски Ливади, "Bukovo Meadows") comprises ten residential streets and is located at the entrance to the village; often considered a part of Bukovo, it is actually a suburb of the City of Bitola.

The village collectively celebrates the Feast of the Transfiguration as its local holiday — referred to as "the Day" (Денот) — after the village's eponymous monastery. The celebration of Lazarus Saturday is also upheld devotedly, a tradition which has very nearly died out in the rest of the country.

The village has been famous since at least the late 19th century for its crushed red pepper. The local variety of chili pepper is known as "буковец" (bukovec). The name of the village—or a derivative of it—is now used as a name for crushed red pepper in general in a number of Southeast European languages: "буковка" (bukovka, Macedonian), "bukovka" (Serbian, Croatian and Slovene) and "μπούκοβο" (búkovo, Greek).

Local legend has it that the first families to settle in Bukovo had come from a much older village called Neoljani (Неолјани) which was completed destroyed in a firestorm. The discovery of the ruins of a church—attested in statistical documents—at the base of nearby mountains are usually cited as proof of this.