In the location of the present-day town, there was a bridge that connected the towns of
Prilep and
Kičevo, which gave the name of the town. According to a tomb inscription found in the village of Krapa, it was determined that the area was populated by the
Romans. Later, with the arrival of Slavs to the Balkan Peninsula, the Slavic tribe
Berziti (Brsjaci) settled here. The
League of Lezhë, under
Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg, won a victory over the Ottomans nearby in the
Battle of Mokra in 1445. The village is attested in the 1467/68 Ottoman tax registry (defter) for the Nahiyah of
Kırçova. The village had a total of 15 houses, excluding bachelors (
mucerred). In the vicinity of Makedonski Brod, near the village of Devič, there are visible remnants of buildings that confirm that in this region, in the Middle Ages, there was a town/settlement which functioned as a centre for the entire area. In the late 19th and early 20th century, Makedonski Brod was part of the
Manastir Vilayet of the
Ottoman Empire. The then village of Brod was considered by Serbian authorities to be a "haven for evildoers of Kičevo". It is possible that Haki Efendi of Teqe, a contemporary Albanian political leader, was from the village, which at the time had a Bektashi
tekke.
Bukri is a former village which was located in the outskirts of modern Brod. Its etymological formation stems from Albanian
bukur. From 1929 to 1941, Makedonski Brod was part of the
Vardar Banovina of the
Kingdom of Yugoslavia. ==Demographics==