Skopje, Macedonia. The capital of kitsch?

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• published: 12 May 2017
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Have you ever heard anything about Macedonia? Honestly, the only thing I knew was that it is formerly a federal unit of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. We are almost ready to land at the Skopje "Alexander the Great" Airport, and you're probably wondering why is this airport named after Alexander the Great. Macedonia naming dispute is a political dispute regarding the use of the name Macedonia itself between Greece and the Republic of Macedonia. The specific naming dispute, although an existing issue in Yugoslav–Greek relations since World War II, was reignited after the breakup of Yugoslavia. Finally we are here. Skopje "Alexander the Great" Airport is one of two international airports in the country. It serves around ten destinations, and all of them are flights to Europe, except the only one to Istanbul, Turkey. It is located 17 km southeast of the national capital Skopje. You can get to the centre within 30 minutes by shuttle buses starting from the terminal almost every hour. Basically, one day for getting around the city of Skopje is more than enough. The city is a combination of Soviet architecture and modern kitsch. They say that the country received a lot of money for the development of the tourism industry, which were put on the creation of strange buildings. Yes, they look rich, but quite tasteless and pretentious. If you ask me which city has the biggest density of monuments, I would definitely say it’s Skopje. Let’s take a walk to Macedonia Square, main square of Skopje and the biggest square in Macedonia. There’s located the biggest and the highest monument with Alexander the Great on Bucephalus, which was unveiled in 2011, on the 20-year anniversary of Macedonia's independence referendum from Yugoslavia. At 22 metres, or eight storeys high, the statue makes its surroundings look small and unimportant. While the expressed aim of multi-million Euro project was to attract international investment and tourism to Skopje its international reception gives a measure of the overall cost of this project to the city’s reputation. The Guardian, for instance, ran with How Skopje became Europe’s new capital of kitsch, while CNN asked Is Macedonia’s capital being turned into a theme park? The government’s ambition has been to create a new national identity by rewriting history like many other post-socialist cities around the Europe do. But Skopje also has some great examples of brutalist architecture – a style typified by geometric themes and raw concrete. It occurs all over the formerly communist area of Yugoslavia. In 1965 famous Japanese architect Kenzō Tange was asked by the United Nations to enter a limited competition for the redevelopment of Skopje. The town had been heavily destroyed by an earthquake in 1963. Macedonian architects also took part to the reconstruction. The reconstruction turned Skopje into a proper modernist city, with large blocks of flats, concrete buildings and scattered green spaces. One of the biggest constructions in the city centre is Gradski Trgovski Centar, partly open-air shopping mall designed by Živko Popovski. Located just by the main square it is the oldest shopping mall in Skopje. This great modernist building was on the news in December, 2014 when Macedonian citizens protested the government's plan to cover this landmark with an idiotic “baroque” facade. Now let’s get up higher to the mountains. Skopje Fortress, commonly referred to as Kale, is a historic fortress located in the old town of Skopje. It is situated on the highest point in the city overlooking the Vardar River. Scholars believe that the fortress was constructed under the orders of Byzantine Emperor Justinian I. Much of information on Kale is speculative. The first academic digs began in 2006, and uncovered evidence of human activity dating back to 3000 BC. Unfortunately, there’s not a lot to see within the fortress itself; archaeologists are still slowly excavating the site. The city had begun to build a church-shaped museum inside, but this caused a violent confrontation between Muslims and Christians, so now there’s only a metal skeleton. Near the fortress you may find Old Bazaar, one of the oldest and largest marketplaces in the Balkans, it has been Skopje's centre for trade and commerce since at least the 12th century. It is the most interesting part of Skopje for visitors and tourists, offering a trip back in time and a profound experience of the Macedonian culture and tradition. But be careful about your purse and belongings.