Never before have I seen a city like Skopje, the capital city of the Republic of Macedonia. But then again, I haven’t been to Las Vegas.
If you simply Google “Skopje”, countless images of ornate, brightly lit buildings will pop up. This seemed strange to me at first because Macedonia is a country with such deep history of inhabitance, dating back to 4,000 BC.
After a massive earthquake destroyed most of the city in 1963, reconstruction was done in a plain, socialist style. You can see this all throughout the city today. In an attempt to improve the visual appeal of the city, the Prime Minister introduced the idea of the “Skopje 2014” project in 2012, intending to give the city a more classic appeal. Essentially, the new buildings have been constructed with inspiration from historical buildings, highly decorated and original in design.
At first, this collection of monuments, government buildings, bridges and statues stand out as the stars of the city, especially in contrast to the socialist architecture that sits in the backdrop.
In the main square, the statue “Warrior on a Horse” (Воин на коњ) stands strongly in the center. It is usually considered as a reference to Alexander the Great, though not officially and is perhaps the main symbol of the entire project. I really have never seen anything like it.
Massive in size (22 meters or eight stories high), the statue sits on a platform on a main column. The column consists of three large ivory sections, with a bronze ring in between.
The column then stands in a fountain, which features eight bronze lions (each standing 2.5 m tall) around the edges.
Water falls from the top of the column…
Water sprouts from the mouths of lions…
The fountain lights up…
It also plays music…
I’m overwhelmed just writing this…
The project has faced a lot of criticism, mostly due to the high costs. The “Warrior on a Horse” statue alone cost an estimated 7.5 million euros. As well, many consider the design of the buildings to be “historicist kitsch” (as Kirstie mentioned in a recent article about her experience in Macedonia).
I’m not sure how I feel about it actually. Walking around at night, with all the lights and colors actually seems quite strange, especially when you consider the very run-down sections of the city close by.
Also, though each building, monument, fountain, etc. is so intricately constructed on their own, they don’t seem to have a natural flow, instead they are just placed in various spots throughout the center.
Since the project is still in progress, it would be hard to say one way or the other what the end result will look like. I suppose I’ll have to check back in a few years then!
Featured image from Nikolovskii via Flickr.
Azma Ibrahim
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