Skopje

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Град Скопје
Grad Skopje
City of Skopje
"Macedonia Square" in central Skopje
"Macedonia Square" in central Skopje
Flag of Град Скопје Grad Skopje City of Skopje
Flag
Location of the city of Skopje (green) in the Republic of Macedonia
Location of the city of Skopje (green) in the Republic of Macedonia
Country Republic of Macedonia
MunicipalityFile:Flag of Skopje.png Greater Skopje
Government
 • MayorTrifun Kostovski
Area
 • Total1,818 km2 (702 sq mi)
Elevation
240 m (790 ft)
Population
 (2004)
 • Total506,926
 • Density3,603/km2 (4,651/sq mi)
Time zoneUTC+2 (CET)
Postal codes
1000
Area code02
Websiteskopje.gov.mk
Patron saints: Saint Clement of Ohrid

Skopje (Macedonian: Скопје, IPA: [ˈskopje]) is the capital and largest city in the Republic of Macedonia, with more than a quarter of the population of the country, as well as the political, cultural, economical and academic centre of the country. It was known from the Roman period under the name Scupi. The city developed rapidly after World War II, but this trend was interrupted in 1963 when it was hit by a disastrous earthquake. Today Skopje is a modern city with a range of cultural monuments.

Skopje is located at 42°0′N 21°26′E / 42.000°N 21.433°E / 42.000; 21.433, on the upper course of the Vardar River and is located on a major north-south Balkan route between Central Europe and Athens. It has 506,926 inhabitants (2002 census). It is a major centre for the metal-processing, chemical, timber, textile, leather, and printing industries but has suffered many closures since 1991. Industrial development of the city has been accompanied by developments of the trade and banking sectors, as well as an emphasis on the fields of culture and sport.


History

Medieval era

The Byzantine Emperor Justinian I was born near Skupi, at Tauresium, in 483. In 518, Skupi was almost completely destroyed by an earthquake. Justinian came to the aid of its inhabitants by founding a new settlement called Justiniana Prima north from the site of Skupi. However, Justiniana and the remnants of Skupi were destroyed by invading Slavic peoples at the end of the 7th century. The Slavs renamed the site as Skopje but were eventually pushed out by the Byzantines.

During much of the early medieval period, the town was contested between the Byzantines and the Bulgarian Empire. From 972 to 992 it was the capital of the First Bulgarian Empire.[1] After that, it was a capital of Byzantine administrative region (katepanat) Bulgaria after the fall the First Bulgarian Empire in 1018. Skopje was a thriving trading settlement but fell into decline after being hit by another devastating earthquake at the end of the 11th century. It was a capital of the estate of the Bulgarian feudal lord, later Emperor Konstantin Asen in the middle of 13th century. The town was taken by the Serbs in 1282. In 1346 it was named the capital of the Serbian Empire of Stefan Dušan.

The Ottoman city

In 1392, three years after the Serbian defeat in the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, Skopje was captured by the Ottoman Empire. For the next five hundred years it was known by the Turkish name Üsküb or Üsküp. Ottoman Üsküb was the capital of the Vilayet of Kosovo (district of Kosovo), which occupied a much greater area than the modern region of Kosovo.

The city's character changed markedly during this period. The Ottomans imported Islam and built many mosques and other typically Ottoman buildings, such as hammans (baths) and travellers' inns, some of which still exist today. Many Sephardi Jews expelled from Spain also settled in the city, adding to its ethnic variety. The medieval city was badly damaged by an earthquake in 1555, but it soon recovered and prospered. By the 17th century, its population was put at between 30,000-60,000. The Turkish writer Dulgar Dede visited Üsküb during this period and wrote: "I travelled for many years across that country of Rumelia and I saw a many beautiful cities and I was amazed at Allah's blessings, but not one impressed and delighted as much as the heavenly city of Skopje across which passes the Vardar River."

In 1689, however, Skopje was burned by the Austrian general Engelberto d'Ugo Piccolomini – ostensibly to eradicate an outbreak of cholera, but quite possibly to avenge the Ottomans' 1683 attack on Vienna.

The city's fortunes waned over the next 200 years and its population shrank to only about 10,000 people by the middle of the 19th century. It revived after 1873 with the building of the railway from Belgrade to Thessaloniki, which passed through Skopje.

In the 20th century

By 1905, Skopje had a population of approximately 32,000, which was comprised of a mixture of ethnic and religious groups. In 1910, the Roman Catholic nun [2], Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, later to become famous as Mother Teresa, was born in Skopje.

The city became a major centre of rebellion against the weakening Ottoman Empire, and in 1903 it was a key player in the unsuccessful Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising against Ottoman rule. The Ottomans were expelled from the city in August 12, 1912 by the local Slavic population. Several months later the city was captured by the Serbs at the beginning of First Balkan War.

In 1913, the allies in the First Balkan War fell out with each other and launched the Second Balkan War over the division of the spoils. Serbia retained control of Skopje, with the Vardar valley being incorporated into Serbia. This lasted until October 1915, when Bulgaria joined the Central Powers and seized much of Serbian-ruled Macedonia. The city was occupied by Serbia at end of the World War I in 1918, when it became part of the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (known as the Kingdom of Yugoslavia from 1929). Between 1941 - 1944 the city was under Bulgarian control. One month after the communists took power in Sofia and the Bulgarian army was sent to fight the Germans to the west front, Skopje was seized by Yugoslavian troops, and then joined Yugoslavia in 1944, when it became the capital of the newly established People's Republic of Macedonia. Following the wars, Skopje and the rest of Yugoslav Macedonia was incorporated into Tito's Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

1963 earthquake

Main article: 1963 Skopje earthquake

On 26 July 1963, Skopje was struck by another major earthquake, measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale, which killed over 1,000 people and made another 120,000 homeless. Eighty percent of the city was destroyed by the earthquake, and numerous cultural monuments were seriously damaged. The losses from the quake amounted to a massive 150% of Macedonia's GNP at the time and 15% of Yugoslavia's GNP. A major international relief effort saw the city rebuilt quickly, though much of its old Ottoman aspect was lost in the process. The ruins of the old Skopje train station which was destroyed in the earthquake remain today as a memorial to the victims along with an adjacent museum.

Skopje grew rapidly druing united Yugoslavia and became a major[citation needed] industrial centre for the south-central Balkans region. In 1991 the Yugoslav federation broke up and Skopje became the capital of the independent Republic of Macedonia. Greece objected to the use of the name Macedonia by the new state, and imposed an economic blockade on the country, which severely {fact} damaged the economy of the Republic of Macedonia by closing its access to the sea through Thessaloniki. The blockade was lifted in 1995 following an agreement between the two governments on the name issue which still hasn't been resolved.

In December 2006 the government announced plans for renaming the city's airport to "Alexander the Great".[2] Skopje is also the home of the State University "Saints Cyril and Methodius" founded in 1949.

Administrative division

Skopje is an administrative division within the Republic of Macedonia constituted of 10 municipalities. As a such administrative unit Skopje is the capital of the Republic of Macedonia. It is part of Skopje statistical region (Скопски регион).

The organisation of Skopje, like a distinct unit of the local-selfgovernment is defined by the Law of Skopje.

1 . Centar
2 . Gazi Baba
3 . Aerodrom
4 . Čair
5 . Kisela Voda
6 . Butel
7 . Šuto Orizari
8 . Karpoš
9 . File:MMCA(Gjorche Petrov).png Gorche Petrov
10 . Saraj

Demographics

According to the 2002 census,[3] the population of Skopje was 506,926 people. The main ethnic group are Macedonians - 338,358, who make up 66.75% of the population, followed by Albanians - 103,891 (20.49%), Roma - 23,475 (4.63%), Serbs - 14,298 (2.82%), Turks - 8,595 (1.70%), Bosniaks - 7,585 (1.50%) and Aromanians (Vlachs) - 2,557 (0.50%) and others - 8,167 (1.61%)

97.5% of the population over the age of 10 is literate.

Climate

The city experiences a continental climate, with warm summers and cool winters.

Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Maximum. [°C] 5 10 13 18 23 28 31 30 26 20 10 7
Minimum temperature [°C] -5 2 5 7 12 16 18 18 15 11 6 -2
Rainfall (mm) 100 103 113 175 201 123 132 102 109 127 124 141

Tourist attractions

The church of Saint Panteleimon in Nerezi near Skopje is a superb example of the Comnenian art on the all-Byzantine level. Commissioned by several members of the royal Comnenus family, the church was not finished until 1164. Nerezi is famous for its frescoes, representing a pinnacle of the 12th-century trend of intimacy and spirituality. They are often compared with similarly delicate works by Giotto[citation needed], who worked 140 years later. These murals underwent serious 19th-century overpainting but were restored lately.

A ancient Roman aqueduct survives to the north of the city. One of stone bridges connecting both side of Vardar River dates back to the reign of Stefan Dušan. This bridge is not to be confused with the more famous Stone Bridge in the city square built under the patronage of Sultan Mehmed II the Conqueror between 1451 and 1469, today featured as the emblem of the city of Skopje. Within Skopje, there are notable buildings from the Ottoman rule such as the Kuršumli Han (medieval Turkish inn) and several mosques.

Of these mosques, Mustapha Pasha Mosque is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful buildings of Islamic architecture in Skopje. Located on a hill facing Fort Kale, this mosque dominates the whole surroundings and was built in the last decade of the 15th century when the military spahi system of Osmanli Turkish feudalism had reached the peak of its development. It is an endowment of Mustapha Pasha, an eminent figure in the Turkish state during the rule of Sultan Bayezid II and Sultan Selim I. The year of Mustapha Pasha's death is engraved on the entrance of his mausoluem, which is located by the mosque. It shows him to have died in 1519. The mausoleum and the mosque were both badly damaged in Skopje's 1963 earthquake, and restoration and conservation work was started in 1968. The interior of the mosque, like that of the porch, is mostly decorated with stylized plants. On the walls of the praying space are calligraphic inscriptions (lehve) with the names of Allah, Mohammed and his followers (Ebubekira, Ali, Osman and Omer) and quotations from the Qu'ran. The painted decorations are more recent, mainly from 1933 when the mosque was renovated. This can be seen from the intense blue and black color of the ornaments, which are often a confusing mass of color. Most of the city's 1930s 'Balkan Art Nouveau' buildinigs were also destroyed in 1963 but some characteristic examples remain.

The Millennium Cross situated on the peak of the mountain Vodno is a new tourist attraction. The cross should be finished in July 2007. At 66 meters high, it is one of the biggest crosses in the world and can be seen from 30 km away.

Skopje Culture

Museum of Contemporary Arts Skopje[3], is one of the most important institution of Macedonia in discovering, treasuring and preserving the Contemporary Arts. Тhe international community manifested an exceptionally wide solidarity in assisting the reconstruction of Skopje. An important part of that solidarity was also the action initiated by the International Association of the Plastic Arts which on its convention held in October 1963 in New York, called upon the artists of the world to assist in creating a collection of works of art by which they would support the vision of the city reconstruction. The building project was donated by the Polish Government which made a national competition to this and where the joint work of the Polish architects: J. Mokrzynski, E. Wierzbicki and W. Klyzewski was accepted. Having a total area of 5000 sq. m., the Museum building is made up of three connected wings which include the halls for temporary exhibitions, the premises for the permanent exhibition, the hall for lecturers, film and video presentation, the library and the archives, the administration, the conservation workshop, the depots and other departments. The great park areas, that enable the installation of various sculptural projects, as well as the spacious parking further relate to the immediate environment of the Skopje Museum of Contemporary Art.

Skopje Jazz Festival is one of the most importan jazz events held in Macedonia. Every year it brings to Skopje the international Jazz scene. The Artists swipe from Fusion, Acid Jazz, Latin Jazz, Smooth jazz, Avant-garde jazz, and bring great variey and richness to this Festival. Ray Charles, Tito Puente, Gotan Project, have taken part of this festival, just to name a few. The Skopje Jazz Festival is a part of the European Jazz Network and The European Forum of World Wide Festivals. It is held in October.

Famous persons born in Skopje

Below is a list of famous people born in Skopje or its surroundings:

Sister cities

Notes

  1. ^ Pavlov, Plamen (2002). Цар Самуил и "Българската епопея" (in Bulgarian). Sofia, Veliko Tarnovo: VMRO Rousse.
  2. ^ Focus News Agency [1]
  3. ^ 2002 census results in English and Macedonian (PDF)

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Skopje.

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