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Skopje (Template:IPAc-en Template:Respell,<ref>Template:Cite American Heritage Dictionary</ref><ref>Template:Cite Merriam-Webster</ref> Template:IPAc-en Template:Respell;<ref>Template:Citation</ref> Template:Langx {{#invoke:IPA|main}}; Template:Langx, Template:Lang-sq-definite) is the capital and largest city of North Macedonia. It lies in the northern part of the country, in the Skopje Valley along the Vardar River, and is the political, economic, and cultural center of the country. As of the 2021 census, the city had a population of 526,502. Skopje covers 571.46 km² and includes both urban and rural areas, bordered by several municipalities and close to the borders of Kosovo and Serbia.
The area of Skopje has been continuously inhabited since at least the Chalcolithic period. The city — known as Scupi at the time — was founded in the late 1st century during the rule of Domitian, and abandoned in 518 after an earthquake destroyed the city. It was rebuilt under Justinian I. It became a significant settlement under the First Bulgarian Empire, the Serbian Empire (when it served briefly as a capital), and later under the Ottoman Empire, which ruled the city for over five centuries. In 1912, following the Balkan Wars, Skopje was annexed by the Kingdom of Serbia. It became part of Yugoslavia after World War I and, following World War II, became the capital of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia, one of its constituent republics. In 1963, a major earthquake devastated the city, after which it was largely rebuilt with international assistance. Skopje became the capital of independent North Macedonia in 1991.
The city has a diverse population, with ethnic Macedonians forming a majority and Albanians a significant minority, alongside Roma, Turks, Serbs, and others. It is also religiously diverse, with Orthodox Christianity and Islam being the most widely practiced faiths. Skopje is the site of major educational and cultural institutions, including the Ss. Cyril and Methodius University, the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, and the National Theatre.
Skopje is the country's center of government and business and produces a significant share of the national GDP. Its economy is based on industry, trade, services, and finance. The city has undergone major transformations in recent decades, notably through the controversial Skopje 2014 project, which aimed to reshape the city center with neoclassical buildings and monuments.
NameEdit
The city is attested for the first name in Geography by Ptolemy Template:Circa as one of the cities of Roman Dardania. Ptolemy describes the city in Latin as {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} and ancient Greek as {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}. The toponym likely belongs to a group of similar Illyrian toponyms which have been transmitted to Slavic languages in the same way as the modern Macedonian toponym Skopje: {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} and {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} in Bosnia, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} in Dalmatia (Croatia).Template:Sfn
{{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, the name of the city in Albanian, developed directly from Roman-era {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} in agreement with the Albanian phonological development, the basis of evidence of an earlier Albanian settlement in the area.<ref>Template:Cite thesis</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Origins: Serbs, Albanians and Vlachs Chapter 2 in Noel Malcolm's Kosovo, a short history (Macmillan, London, 1998, pp. 22-40) - 'The evidence is in fact very mixed; some of the Albanian forms (of both urban and rural names) suggest transmission via Slav, but others -including the towns of Shkodra, Drisht, Lezha, Shkup (Skopje) and perhaps Shtip (Stip, southeast of Skopje) - follow the pattern of continuous Albanian development from the Latin.'</ref><ref> Popullsia shqiptare e Kosovës gjatë shek studime dhe dokumente. XV-XVI - Selami Pulaha 1984 - 'Other ancient toponyms that belong to the Albanian territories in the former Yugoslavia have evolved in accordance to the historical phonetic rules of the Albanian language. Such cases are Naissus-Nish, Scupi-Shkup, Astibos-Shtip, Scardus-Shar, Ulpiana-Lipjan and many more. The explanation of why these ancient names have arrived to us in the form they did, is that these territories have been inhabited by Albanians continuously and not intermittingly. The presence of an Albanian speaking population has been preserved mostly in the names of the towns. This evidence demonstrates that the Albanian population could not have been made up of shepherds sheltered in the highlands or the mountains. Quite on the contrary, that population was urbanized and apparently with an advanced standard of living for its time.
Among other factors, the ancient toponomastic data, such as the contemporary names of places used by Slavs, which are explainable only through the phonetic rules of the ancient Albanian language, has convinced scientists that these territories were inhabited by Albanians. Distinguished linguists such as Norbert Jokl, Gustav Weygand, and Petrovici, and even some Yugoslav scholars like Henrik Baric and others, have argued that it was precisely Dardania, defined as an enclave by the use of the ancient names such as Nish, Shkup, Shtip that was one of the centers of the formation of the Albanian people.'</ref> {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} is the definite form of {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} in Albanian.Template:Sfn Skopje, the name of the city during the Middle Ages, is the local Slavic (Macedonian) rendition of Scupi.<ref name="history">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Ottoman Turkish rendition of the city's name is {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (Template:Langx) and it was adapted in Western languages in "Uskub" or "Uskup", and these two appellations were used in the Western world until 1912. Some Western sources also cite "Scopia" and "Skopia".<ref name="britannica">Template:Cite EB1911</ref> {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} is the name of the city in Aromanian.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
When Vardar Macedonia was annexed by the Kingdom of Serbia in 1912, the city officially became {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (Template:Lang-sr-Cyrl) and many languages adopted this name. To reflect local pronunciation, the city's name was eventually spelled as {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (Template:Langx) after the Second World War, when standard Macedonian became the official language of the new Socialist Republic of Macedonia.
GeographyEdit
TopographyEdit
Skopje is in the north of the country, in the centre of the Balkan peninsula, and approximately halfway between Belgrade and Athens. The city was built in the Skopje Valley, oriented on a west–east axis, along the course of the Vardar river, which flows into the Aegean Sea in Greece. The valley is approximately Template:Cvt wide<ref name="tourism">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and it is limited by several mountain ranges to the north and south. These ranges limit the urban expansion of Skopje, which spreads along the Vardar and the Template:Interlanguage link, a small river which comes from the north. In its administrative boundaries, the City of Skopje stretches for more than Template:Cvt,<ref name="transports">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> but it is only Template:Cvt wide.<ref name="figures">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Skopje is approximately 245 m above sea level and covers 571.46 km2.<ref name="drisla"/> The urbanised area only covers 337 km2, with a density of 65 inhabitants per hectare.<ref name="nature">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Skopje, in its administrative limits, encompasses many villages and other settlements, including Dračevo, Gorno Nerezi and Bardovci. According to the 2021 census, the City of Skopje had 526,502 inhabitants.<ref name="stats2"/><ref name="meta">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The City of Skopje reaches the Kosovo border to the north-east. Clockwise, it is also bordered by the municipalities of Čučer-Sandevo, Lipkovo, Aračinovo, Ilinden, Studeničani, Sopište, Želino and Jegunovce.
- Map City of Skopje en.svg
The City of Skopje; its administrative limits are in red.
- MIHPM(Skopje).png
Location of Skopje in North Macedonia
- Wildflowers of Bardovci12.jpg
Landscape of the Skopje valley, near Bardovci
HydrographyEdit
The Vardar river, which flows through Skopje, is at approximately Template:Cvt from its source near Gostivar. In Skopje, its average discharge is 51 m3/s, with a wide amplitude depending on seasons, between 99.6 m3/s in May and 18.7 m3/s in July. The water temperature is between 4.6 °C in January and 18.1 °C in July.<ref name="vardar">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Several rivers meet the Vardar within the city boundaries. The largest is the Treska, which is Template:Cvt long. It crosses the Matka Canyon before reaching the Vardar on the western extremity of the City of Skopje. The Lepenac, coming from Kosovo, flows into the Vardar on the north-western end of the urban area. The Serava, also coming from the north, had flowed through the Old Bazaar until the 1960s when it was diverted towards the west because its waters were very polluted. Originally, it met the Vardar close to the seat of the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts. Nowadays, it flows into the Vardar near the ruins of Scupi.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Markova Reka, which originates in Mount Vodno, meets the Vardar at the eastern extremity of the city. These three rivers are less than Template:Cvt long.<ref name="figures"/>
The City of Skopje incorporates two artificial lakes, on the Treska. Lake Matka is the result of the construction of a dam in Matka Canyon in the 1930s, and the Treska Lake was dug for leisurely purposes in 1978.<ref name="figures"/> Three small natural lakes can be found near Smilkovci, on the north-eastern edge of the urban area.
The river Vardar historically caused many floods, such as in 1962, when its outflow reached 1110 m3/s−1.<ref name="vardar"/> Several works have been carried out since Byzantine times to limit the risks, and since the construction of the Kozjak dam on the Treska in 1994, the flood risk is close to zero.<ref name="kozjak">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The subsoil contains a large water table which is alimented by the Vardar and functions as an underground river. Under the table lies an aquifer contained in marl. The water table is 4 to 12 m under the ground and 4 to 144 m deep. Several wells collect its waters but most of the drinking water used in Skopje comes from a karstic spring in Rašče, west of the city.<ref name="nature"/>
- Saraj swimming pool.jpg
The Treska Lake
- Skopje X31.jpg
The Vardar and the Stone Bridge, symbol of the city
- Del od Skopje, 1950ti.jpg
The main river running through the centre of Skopje, Template:Circa
- Serava.jpg
The Serava north of the city
GeologyEdit
The Skopje valley is bordered on the west by the Šar Mountains, on the South by the Jakupica range, on the east by hills belonging to the Osogovo range, and on the north by the Skopska Crna Gora. Mount Vodno, the highest point inside the city limits, is 1066 m high and is part of the Jakupica range.<ref name="figures"/>
Although Skopje is built on the foot of Mount Vodno, the urban area is mostly flat. It comprises several minor hills, generally covered with woods and parks, such as Gazi Baba hill (325 m), Zajčev Rid (327 m), the foothills of Mount Vodno (the smallest are between 350 and 400 m high) and the promontory on which Skopje Fortress is built.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The Skopje valley is near a seismic fault between the African and Eurasian tectonic plates and experiences regular seismic activity.<ref name="damages">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> This activity in enhanced by the porous structure of the subsoil.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Large earthquakes occurred in Skopje in 518, 1555 and 1963.<ref name="damages"/>
The Skopje valley belongs to the Vardar geotectonic region, the subsoil of which is formed of Neogene and Quaternary deposits. The substratum is made of Pliocene deposits including sandstone, marl, and various conglomerates. It is covered by a first layer of Quaternary sands and silt, which is between 70 and 90 m deep. The layer is topped by a much smaller layer of clay, sand, silt, and gravel, carried by the Vardar river. It is between 1.5 and 5.2 m deep.<ref name="ohis">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In some areas, the subsoil is karstic. It led to the formation of canyons, such as the Matka Canyon, which is surrounded by ten caves. They are between 20 and 176 m deep.<ref name="macedonia.co.uk">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
- Skopje-pano.JPG
Mount Vodno in the background overlooking Skopje
- Matka2.jpg
The Matka Canyon on the western edge of the City of Skopje
- Cave lake (8172274819).jpg
A cave at the Matka Canyon
ClimateEdit
Skopje has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen: Cfa), bordering on a humid continental climate (Köppen: Dfa)<ref>Baba, A.; Tayfur, G.; Gündüz, O.; Howard, K.W.F.; Friedel, M.J.; Chambel, A: "Climate Change and its Effects on Water Resources: Issues of National and Global Security". NATO Science for Peace and Security Series C: Environmental Security. Springer. 2011, XVI, 318p. Template:ISBN.</ref><ref>Klement Bergant: "Template:Usurped". University of Nova Gorca, Centre for Atmospheric Research. September 2006.</ref> with a mean annual temperature of Template:Cvt. Precipitation is relatively low due to the pronounced rain shadow of the Accursed Mountains to the north-west, being significantly less than what is received on the Adriatic Sea coast at the same latitude. The summers are long, hot and relatively dry with low humidity. Skopje's average July high is Template:Cvt. On average Skopje experiences 88 days above Template:Cvt each year, and 10.2 days above Template:Cvt every year.
Winters are short, relatively cold and wet. Snowfall is common in the winter period, but heavy snow accumulation is rare and the snowcover lasts only for a few hours or a few days if heavy. In summer, temperatures are usually above Template:Cvt and sometimes above Template:Cvt. In spring and autumn, the temperatures range from Template:Cvt. In winter, the day temperatures are roughly in the range from Template:Cvt, but at nights they often fall below Template:Cvt and sometimes below Template:Cvt. Typically, temperatures throughout one year range from −13 °C to 39 °C. Occurrences of precipitation are evenly distributed throughout the year, being heaviest from October to December, and from April to June. Template:Weather box
EnvironmentEdit
The City of Skopje encompasses various natural environments, having diverse fauna and flora. However, it is threatened by the intensification of agriculture and urban extension. The largest protected area within the city limits is Mount Vodno, which is a popular leisure destination. A cable car connects its peak to the downtown, and many pedestrian paths run through its woods. Other large natural spots include the Matka Canyon.<ref name="nature"/>
The city itself comprises several parks and gardens amounting to 4,361 hectares. Amongst these are the Template:Interlanguage link, built by the Ottoman Turks at the beginning of the 20th century; Žena Borec Park, in front of the Parliament; the university arboretum; and the Gazi Baba forest. Many streets and boulevards are planted with trees.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Steel processing—a crucial activity for the local economy—is responsible for soil pollution with heavy metals such as lead, zinc and cadmium, and air pollution with nitrogen oxide and carbon monoxide.<ref name="nature"/> Vehicle traffic and district heating plants are also responsible for air pollution.
Water treatment plants are being built, but much of the polluted water is still being discharged untreated into the Vardar.<ref name="nature"/> Waste is disposed of in the open-air municipal landfill site, Template:Cvt north of the city. Every day, it receives 1,500 m3 of domestic waste and 400 m3 of industrial waste. Health levels are better in Skopje than in the rest of North Macedonia, and no link has been found between the low environmental quality and the health of the residents.<ref name="security">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Template:Wide image
UrbanismEdit
Urban morphologyEdit
The urban morphology of Skopje was deeply impacted by the 1963 earthquake, which destroyed 80% of the city, and by its subsequent reconstruction.<ref name=damages/> For instance, neighbourhoods were rebuilt in such a way that the demographic density remains low to limit the impact of potential future earthquakes.<ref name=post/>
Reconstruction following the 1963 earthquake was mainly conducted by the Polish architect Adolf Ciborowski, who had already planned the reconstruction of Warsaw after World War II. Ciborowski divided the city into blocks dedicated to specific activities. The banks of the Vardar river became natural areas and parks, areas between the main boulevards were built with high-rise housing and shopping centres, and the suburbs were left to individual housing and industry.<ref name="reconstruction">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Reconstruction had to be quick to relocate families and to relaunch the local economy. To stimulate economic development, the number of thoroughfares was increased, and future urban extension was anticipated.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The south bank of the Vardar River generally comprises high-rise tower blocks, including the vast Karpoš neighbourhood which was built in the 1970s west of the city centre. Towards the east, the new municipality of Aerodrom was planned in the 1980s to house 80,000 inhabitants on the site of the old airport. Between Karpoš and Aerodrom lies the city centre, rebuilt according to plans by Japanese architect Kenzo Tange. The centre is surrounded by a row of long buildings suggesting a wall ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}).<ref name=post/>
On the north bank, where the most ancient parts of the city lie, the Old Bazaar was restored and its surroundings were rebuilt with low-rise buildings, so as not to spoil views of the Skopje Fortress. Several institutions, including the university and the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, were also relocated to the north bank to reduce borders between the ethnic communities. The north bank is mostly inhabited by Muslim Albanians, Turks, and Roma, whereas Christian ethnic Macedonians predominantly reside on the south bank.<ref name=reconstruction/>
The earthquake left the city with few historical monuments, apart from the Ottoman-era Old Bazaar, and the reconstruction, conducted between the 1960s and 1980s, turned Skopje into a modernist city. At the end of the 2000s, the city centre experienced profound changes. A highly controversial<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> urban project, Skopje 2014, was adopted by the municipal authorities to give the city a more monumental and historical aspect, and thus to transform it into a proper national capital. Several neoclassical buildings destroyed in the 1963 earthquake were rebuilt, including the national theatre, and the streets and squares were refurbished. Many other elements were also built, including fountains, statues, hotels, government buildings and bridges. The project has been criticised because of its cost and its historicist aesthetics.<ref name="objections">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The large Albanian minority felt it was not represented in the new monuments,<ref name="Albanian objections">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and launched side projects, including a new square over the boulevard that separates the city centre from the Old Bazaar.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
- Skopje X48.JPG
Vapcarov Street, located in the city centre
- Skopje - Old City (9454038410).jpg
A street in the Old Bazaar
- Towers Karpos4 Skopje.jpg
High-rise housing in Karpoš
- Macedonian Cross Aerodrom 1.jpg
The Macedonian Cross and Cevahir Towers
- Archaeological Museum of Macedonia.jpg
The archeological museum, one of the elements of Skopje 2014
Urban sociologyEdit
Skopje is an ethnically diverse city, and its urban sociology primarily depends on ethnic and religious affiliation. Macedonians form 66% of the city population, whilst Albanians and Roma account respectively for 20% and 6%.<ref name="stats1"/> Each ethnic group generally self-segregates itself to certain areas of the city. Macedonians live south of the Vardar in areas massively rebuilt after 1963, whilst Muslims live on the northern side, in the oldest neighbourhoods of the city. These neighbourhoods are considered more traditional, whereas the south side evokes modernity to Macedonians.<ref name="thiesen57">Template:Cite book</ref>
The northern areas are the poorest; this is especially true for Topaana, in Čair municipality, and for Šuto Orizari municipality, which are the two main Roma neighbourhoods. They are made of many illegal constructions not connected to the electric grid nor water supply, which are passed from one generation to another. Topaana, close to the Old Bazaar, is a very old area: it was first mentioned as a Roma neighbourhood in the beginning of the 14th century. It has between 3,000 and 5,000 inhabitants. Šuto Orizari, on the northern edge of the city, is a municipality of its own, with Romani as its local official language. It was developed after the 1963 earthquake to accommodate Roma who had lost their homes.<ref name="roma"/>
The population density varies greatly from one area to another. So does the size of the living area per person. The city average was at Template:Cvt per person Template:As of, but at Template:Cvt in Centar on the south bank, and only Template:Cvt in Čair on the north bank. In Šuto Orizari, the average was at Template:Cvt.<ref name="stats1"/>
Localities and villagesEdit
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Outside of the urban area, the City of Skopje encompasses many small settlements. Some of them are becoming outer suburbs, such as Čento, on the road to Belgrade, which has more than 23,000 inhabitants, and Dračevo, which has almost 20,000 inhabitants.<ref name="dwelling">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Other large settlements are north of the city, such as Radišani, with 9,000 inhabitants,<ref name="dwelling"/> whereas smaller villages can be found on Mount Vodno or in Saraj municipality, which is the most rural of the ten municipalities that form the City of Skopje.<ref name="region"/>
Some localities outside the city limits are also becoming outer suburbs, particularly in Ilinden and Petrovec municipality. They benefit from the presence of major roads, railways, and the airport, Skopje International, in Petrovec.<ref name="region"/>
PollutionEdit
Air pollution is a serious problem in Skopje, especially in winter.<ref name="aljazeera">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Concentrations of certain types of particulate matter (PM2 and PM10) are regularly over twelve times the WHO-recommended maximum levels. In winter, smoke regularly obscures vision and can lead to problems for motorists. Together with Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia has the most polluted urban areas in Europe.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}Template:Cbignore</ref>
Skopje's high levels of pollution are caused by a combination of smoke from houses, emissions from the industry, public and private transport, and a general lack of interest in caring for the environment. Central heating is often not affordable, and so households often burn firewood, as well as used car tyres, plastic waste, petroleum, and other possibly flammable waste, which emits toxic chemicals harmful to the population, especially to children and the elderly.<ref name="aljazeera" />
The city's smog has reduced its air quality and affected the health of many of its citizens, many of whom have died from pollution-related illnesses.
An application called AirCare (Template:Langx) has been launched by local eco-activist Gorjan Jovanovski to help citizens track pollution levels. It uses a traffic light system, with purple for heavily polluted air, red for high levels detected, amber for moderate levels detected, and green for when the air is safe to inhale.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The application relies on both government and volunteer sensors to track hourly air pollution. Unfortunately, government sensors are frequently inoperable and malfunctioning, causing the need for more low-cost, but less accurate, volunteer sensors to be put up by citizens. Faults on government sensors are especially frequent when the pollution is measured is extremely high, according to the AQILHC (Air Quality Index Levels of Health Concern).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Skopje topped the ranks in December 2017 as one of the most polluted cities in the world.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> In 2017, as part of the city's efforts to reduce pollution, a CityTree was installed, and promoted by German ambassador Template:Interlanguage link.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}Template:Dead link</ref>
On 29 November 2019, a march, organised by the Skopje Smog Alarm activist community,<ref name="skopje-smog">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> attracted thousands of people who opposed the government's lack of action in dealing with the city's pollution, which has worsened since 2017, contributing to around 1300 deaths annually.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="skopje-smog"/>Template:Wide image
HistoryEdit
{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} Template:For timeline
OriginsEdit
The rocky promontory on which Skopje Fortress stands was the first site to be settled in Skopje. The earliest vestiges of human inhabitance found on this site date from the Chalcolithic (4th millennium BC).<ref name="kalepre">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Although the Chalcolithic settlement must have been of some significance, it declined during the Bronze Age. Archeological research suggests that the settlement always belonged to the same culture, which progressively evolved due to contacts with Balkan and Danube cultures, and later with the Aegean. The locality eventually disappeared during the Iron Age<ref name="kaleant">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> when Scupi emerged on Zajčev Rid hill, some Template:Cvt west of the fortress promontory. At the centre of the Balkan peninsula and on the road between the Danube and Aegean Sea,<ref name="provincial">Template:Cite book</ref> it was a prosperous locality, although its history is not well known.<ref name="provincial"/>
During the Iron Age, the area of Skopje was inhabited by the Dardani. Illyrian tribes lived in most of the area west of Skopje and Thracian groups (Maedi) to the east, whilst Paeonians lived to the south of Skopje.Template:Sfn The Dardanians had remained independent after the Roman conquest of Macedon, and it seems most likely that Dardania lost its independence in 28 BC.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Roman ScupiEdit
Roman expansion east brought Scupi under Roman rule as a colony of legionaries, mainly veterans of the Legio VII Claudia during the reign of Emperor Domitian (AD 81–96). However, several legions from the Roman province of Macedonia of Crassus' army may already have been stationed there around 29–28 BC before the official imperial command was instituted.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The first mention of the city was made at that period by Livy, who died in AD 17.<ref name="history"/> Scupi first served as a military base to maintain peace in the region<ref name="provincial"/> and was officially named "{{#invoke:Lang|lang}}", {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} being the name of the emperor's dynasty.<ref name="archeology">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Shortly afterwards it became part of the province of Moesia during Augustus's rule. After the division of the province by Domitian in AD 86, Scupi was elevated to colonial status and became a seat of government within the new province of Moesia Superior. The district called Dardania (within Moesia Superior) was formed into a special province by Emperor Diocletian, with the capital at Naissus. In Roman times the eastern part of Dardania, from Scupi to Naissus, remained inhabited mostly by a local population, mainly of Thracian origin.Template:Sfn
The city's population was very diverse. Engravings on tombstones suggest that only a minority of the population came from Italia, whilst many veterans were from Dalmatia, southern Gaul and Syria. Because of the ethnic diversity of the population, Latin maintained itself as the main language in the city at the expense of Greek, which was spoken in most of the Moesian and Macedonian cities.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> During the following centuries, Scupi experienced prosperity. The period from the end of the 3rd century to the end of the 4th century was particularly flourishing.<ref name="archeology"/> The first church was founded under the reign of Emperor Constantine the Great and Scupi became the seat of a diocese. In 395, following the division of the Roman Empire into two, Scupi became part of the Eastern Roman Empire.<ref name="history"/>
An ancient funeral inscription of the Illyrian tribe Albanoi was found in Scupi.<ref>Dragojević-Josifovska 1982 Template:Webarchive, p. 32</ref>
In its zenith, Scupi covered 40 hectares and was closed by a Template:Cvt wide wall.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It had many monuments, including four necropoles, a theatre, thermae,<ref name="archeology"/> and a large Christian basilica.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Middle AgesEdit
In 518, Scupi was destroyed by a violent earthquake,<ref name=damages/> possibly the most devastating the town had ever experienced.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> At that time, the region was threatened by Barbarian invasions, and the city inhabitants had already fled to the forests and mountains before the disaster occurred.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The city was eventually rebuilt by Justinian I. During his reign, many Byzantine towns were relocated on hills and other easily defendable places to face invasions. It was thus transferred to another site: the promontory on which Skopje Fortress stands.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Despite this, Scupi was sacked by Slavs at the end of the 6th century and the city seems to have fallen under Slavic rule in 595.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The Slavic tribe which sacked Scupi was probably the Berziti,<ref name="history"/> who had invaded the entire Vardar Valley.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> However, the Slavs did not settle permanently in the region, which had been already plundered and depopulated, but continued south to the Mediterranean coast.<ref>Ivan Mikulčiḱ, Medieval towns and castles in the Republic of Macedonia, Book 5 of Makroproekt "Istorija na kulturata na Makedonija", Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, 1996, p. 27.</ref> After the Slavic invasion it was deserted for some time and is not mentioned during the following centuries.<ref name="history"/> It is possible that in the late 7th or the early 8th century the Byzantines again settled at this strategic location. Along with the rest of the Upper Vardar valley it became part of the expanding Bulgarian Empire in the 830s.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
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Starting from the end of the 10th century Skopje experienced a period of wars and political troubles. It served as the Bulgarian capital from 972 to 992, and Tsar Samuel ruled it from 976<ref name="kalemed">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> until 1004, when its governor surrendered it to Byzantine Emperor Basil the Bulgar Slayer in 1004 in exchange for the titles of patrikios and strategos.<ref>(Skylitzes-Cedr. II, 455, 13)</ref> It became a centre of a new Byzantine province called Bulgaria.<ref>Byzantine Military Organization on the Danube, 10th–12th Centuries, Alexandru Madgearu, BRILL, 2013, Template:ISBN</ref> Later Skopje was briefly seized twice by Slavic insurgents who wanted to restore the Bulgarian state. At first in 1040 under Peter Delyan's command,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and in 1072 under the orders of Georgi Voyteh.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In 1081, Skopje was captured by Norman troops led by Robert Guiscard and the city remained in their hands until 1088. Skopje was subsequently conquered by the Serbian Grand Prince Vukan in 1093, and again by the Normans four years later. However, because of epidemics and food shortage, Normans quickly surrendered to the Byzantines.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
During the 12th and 13th centuries, Bulgarians and Serbs took advantage of Byzantine decline to create large kingdoms stretching from the Danube to the Aegean Sea. Kaloyan brought Skopje back into the re-established Second Bulgarian Empire in 1203<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="John Van Antwerp Fine 1994 175–184">Template:Cite book</ref> until his nephew Strez declared autonomy along the Upper Vardar with Serbian aid only five years later.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In 1209, Strez switched allegiances and recognised Boril of Bulgaria with whom he led a successful joint campaign against Serbia's first internationally recognised King Stefan Nemanjić.<ref name="John Van Antwerp Fine 1994 175–184"/> From 1214 to 1230, Skopje was a part of the Byzantine successor state of Epirus before being recaptured by Ivan Asen II and held by Bulgaria until 1246 when the Upper Vardar valley was incorporated once more into another Byzantine rump state – the Empire of Nicaea.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Byzantine conquest was briefly reversed in 1255 by the regents of the young Michael Asen I of Bulgaria.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Meanwhile, in the parallel civil war for the Crown in Tarnovo, the Skopje boyar and grandson of Stefan Nemanja Constantine Tikh gained the upper hand and ruled until the Uprising of Ivaylo, Europe's only successful peasant revolt, led to his deposition from power.
In 1282, Skopje was captured by Serbian King Stefan Milutin.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Under the political stability of the Nemanjić rule, the settlement spread outside the walls of the fortress, towards Gazi Baba hill.<ref name="kalemed"/> Churches, monasteries and markets were built and tradesmen from the Republic of Venice and Dubrovnik opened shops. The town greatly benefited from its location near European, Middle Eastern, and African markets. In the 14th century, Skopje became such an important city that King Stefan Dušan made it the capital of the Serbian Empire. In 1346, he was crowned as Emperor of the Serbs and Greeks in Skopje.<ref name="history"/> After his death the Serbian Empire collapsed into several principalities which were unable to defend themselves against the Ottoman Turks. Skopje was first inherited by the Lordship of Prilep and finally taken by Vuk Branković in the wake of the Battle of Maritsa (1371)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> before becoming part of the Ottoman Empire in 1392.<ref name="history"/>
In 1330, Serbian King Stefan Dečanski mentioned Albanians as being in the district of Skopje and regularly going to the Fair of Saint George which convened near the city.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Ottoman periodEdit
The Ottomans stayed in Skopje for over 520 years and the city's economic life greatly benefited from its position in the middle of Rumelia, the European province of the Ottomans. The Stone Bridge, "one of the most imposing stone bridges to be found in Yugoslavia", was built under the patronage of Sultan Mehmed II the Conqueror between 1451 and 1469.<ref name="jpm">Template:Cite book</ref> The Ottomans drastically changed the appearance of the city. They organised the Bazaar with its caravanserais, mosques and baths.<ref name="ottoman">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In the cadastral register of 1451–52, the Skopje neighborhood {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}), is mentioned, being named after the medieval Albanian Gjini family. The neighbourhood displayed mixed Christian Albanian anthroponymy with cases of Slavicisation present (e.g. {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}; {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} + Slavic suffix ić).<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> During this time period, a number of timariots of the city are recorded as bearing the name {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (meaning Albanian) alongside a Muslim name, i.e. {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}. Another group bore Slavic Christian names, whilst also carrying bearing the surname {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}/{{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, i.e. {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, etc. These individuals are noted as not having the Slavic appellatives {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} or {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, which were given by Ottoman authorities to new settlers of a given region, likely indicating they were locals.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> In the year 1451 or 1453 a neighborhood was registered bearing an Aromanian name, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}. Amongst the 45 family heads of this neighborhood, Christian Slavic and Albanian anthroponyms were recorded ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, son of {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, Koljko Bibani, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, son of {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, etc.), whilst a sizeable number of individuals bearing mixed Slavic-Vlach anthroponyms are also registered, such as: {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, son of Vllah (Iflak), {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, son of {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, etc.<ref name="Rexha 2011 167–218">Template:Cite journal</ref>
In the mahallah {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} in the year 1451 or 1453, a head of the family from the noble Albanian Muzaka family, who had converted to Islam, was re-registered amongst the Muslim heads of the family. In the other register of 1467/68, now in the Christian mahallah named {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, amongst the 29 heads of families with Slavic Christian anthroponyms, a number also carried Albanian anthroponyms.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> In the neighborhood of {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, amongst the residents with Muslim names, the head of the family was registered only with the surname Zenebishi, without mentioning his social position or his profession, indicating a higher social status. This may suggest a relation to Hasan Bey Zenebishi, a descendant of the Zenebishi family and the Soubashi of the Nahiyah of Kalkandelen. Individuals bearing Albanian anthroponyms, be they in conjunction with Islamic, Slavic or Christian ones, also appear in the neighbourhoods of Kasim Fakih, Dursun Saraç, Kujumxhi Mentesheli, Çerep, Jandro, Stanimir, Vllah Dançu and Rela.<ref name="Rexha 2011 167–218"/> A number of Sipahis were also of Albanian origin, with these individuals holding timars in areas which had a Christian Albanian symbiosis with Slavic anthroponyms in the vicinity of Skopje. The defters noted that these were old sipahis, likely having been landowners. These individual Sipahis were closely related by descent and blood, and taking account kinship ties, even though they had heterogeneous, Christian, Slavic and Oriental names, they appear to have been Albanians. Some have names indicating their origin, such as Shimerd Vardarli from Skopje, making it likely these timariotes were locals.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Around 1529, the Christians of Skopje were mostly non-converted Slavs and Albanians, but also Ragusan and Armenian tradesmen.<ref name="demographic">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Mustafa Pasha Mosque, built in 1492, is reputed to be "one of the most resplendent sacral Islamic buildings in the Balkans."<ref name="haemus">Template:Cite news</ref> In 1535 all churches were demolished by decree of the Ottoman governor.<ref name="oao">Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref>{{ safesubst:#invoke:Unsubst||date=__DATE__ |$B= Template:Fix }} In 1555, the city was hit by another severe earthquake, collapsing much of the city. The Old Bazaar of Skopje, the columns of the Stone Bridge, and the murals in the upper parts of the Church of Saint Panteleimon, Gorno Nerezi were all severely damaged.<ref name="Гергова 100">Template:Cite book</ref> Some modern sources estimate this earthquake to have been a Category XII (Extreme) on the Modified Mercalli intensity scale, although others believe this is an overestimate.<ref name="damages" />
In 1623–1624, Pjeter Mazreku, a Roman Catholic prelate, reported the town was inhabited by "Turks (Muslims), the majority of them being Albanians, the rest are of Asiatic origin", Mazreku further wrote, "there are also Jews, Serbs and some Greeks in the town".<ref>Popullsia Shqiptare e Kosoves Gjate Shekujve p. 488-489</ref><ref>Dokumente për historinë e Shqipërisë (1623-1653) - Documenti per la storia dell'Albania (1623-1653). Injac Zamputti. Parafjala Albert Ramaj</ref> In the Ottoman period, Turk was used within Christian writings as a name for a Muslim or for Islamised Albanians.<ref>Popullsia Shqiptare e Kosoves Gjate Shekujve p. 489</ref><ref>Rebels, Believers, Survivors: Studies in the History of the Albanians "Some elements of a conversionist approach can also be found in the text of the Cuneus prophetarum. At one point, for example, Bogdani declares: ‘It is better to be a Christian, the son of a Muslim, than to be a Muslim, the son of a Christian:”” (As always in Christian writings of this period, the word “Turk here is used to mean ‘Muslim:) " p. 116</ref> Sources from the years of 1689–1690 considered the town of Shkupi (Skopje) during those periods as part of Albania.<ref>Popullsia shqiptare e Kosovës gjatë shek studime dhe dokumente. XV-XVI - ' In the documents of the Austrian High Command, for example, in the promemorie on Albania of the General Marsiglio, a high ranking member of the Austrian General Staff dated April 1, 1690, in the letters of the Catholic Vicar of the Shkup, Thoma Raspasan who had substituted the leader of the Albanian uprising, the Archbishop of Albania, Pjetër Bogdani, it said clearly that “Prizren was the capital of Albania,” that “Peja and Shkup were parts of Albania,” and that in the area of Kosova people spoke the Albanian language.'</ref>
Until the 17th century, Skopje experienced a long golden age. Around 1650, the number of inhabitants in Skopje was between 30,000 and 60,000, and the city contained more than 10,000 houses. It was then one of the only big cities on the territory of future Yugoslavia, together with Belgrade and Sarajevo. At that time, Dubrovnik, which was a busy harbour, did not even have 7,000 inhabitants.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The city severely suffered from the Great Turkish War at the end of the 17th century and consequently experienced recession until the 19th century. In 1689, the Habsburgs seized Skopje which was already weakened by a cholera epidemic.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The same day, general Silvio Piccolomini began the Skopje fire of 1689, attempting to end the epidemic.<ref name="history" /> It is however possible that he wanted to avenge damages that the Ottomans caused in the Battle of Vienna in 1683.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Skopje burned for two days but the general himself perished of the plague and his leaderless army was routed.<ref name="Mark Avrum Ehrlich 2009 980">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="judah09">Template:Cite book</ref> The Austrian presence in Macedonia motivated Slav uprisings. Nevertheless, the Austrians left the country within the year and the Hajduks, the leaders of the uprisings, had to follow them in their retreat north of the Balkans.<ref name="history" /> Some were arrested by the Ottomans, such as Petar Karposh, who was impaled on Skopje's Stone Bridge.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
After the war, Skopje was in ruins. Most of the official buildings were restored or rebuilt, but the city experienced new plague and cholera epidemics and many inhabitants emigrated.<ref name="demographic"/> Ottoman Empire as a whole entered into recession and political decline. Many rebellions and pillages occurred in Macedonia during the 18th century, either led by Ottoman outlaws, Janissaries or Hajduks.<ref name=rossos08>Template:Cite book</ref> An estimation conducted by French officers around 1836 revealed that at that time Skopje only had around 10,000 inhabitants. It was surpassed by two other towns of present-day North Macedonia: Bitola (40,000) and Štip (15–20,000).<ref name="population1">Template:Cite book</ref>
Skopje began to recover from decades of decline after 1850. At that time, the city experienced a slow but steady demographic growth, mainly due to the rural exodus of Slavic Macedonians. It was also fuelled by the exodus of Muslims from the Principalities of Serbia and Bulgaria, which were gaining autonomy and independence from the Empire at that time.<ref name="history"/><ref name="demographic"/> During the Tanzimat reforms, nationalism arose in the Ottoman Empire and in 1870 a new Bulgarian Exarchate was established and its separate diocese was created, based on ethnic identity, rather than religious principles.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The Slavic population of the bishopric of Skopje voted in 1874 overwhelmingly, by 91% in favour of joining the Exarchate and became part of the Bulgarian Millet.<ref>Църква и църковен живот в Македония, Петър Петров, Христо Темелски, Македонски Научен Институт, София, 2003 г., стр. 105.</ref> Economic growth was permitted by the construction of the Skopje-Salonica railway in 1873.<ref name="history"/> The train station was built south of the Vardar and this contributed to the relocation of economic activities on that side of the river, which had never been urbanised before.<ref name="reconstruction"/> Because of the rural exodus, the share of Christians in the city population increased. Some of the newcomers became part of the local elite and helped to spread nationalist ideas<ref name="demographic"/> In 1877, Skopje was chosen as the capital city of the new Kosovo Vilayet, which encompassed present-day Kosovo, north-western Macedonia and the Sanjak of Novi Pazar.
In statistics gathered by Bulgarian ethnographer Vasil Kanchov in 1900, the City of Skopje was inhabited by 31,900 people, of whom 15,000 were Turks, 13,000 Christian Bulgarians, 1,920 Romani, 800 Jews, 450 Vlachs, 150 Christian Albanians, 50 Christian Greeks, 30 Circassians and 500 inhabitants of various other ethnicities.<ref>Vasil Kanchov (1900). Macedonia: Ethnography and Statistics. Sofia. p. 252.</ref> Kanchov wrote in the same year that many Albanians declared themselves as Turks. In Skopje, the population that declared itself Turkish "was of Albanian blood", but it "had been Turkified after the Ottoman invasion, including Skanderbeg", referring to Islamisation. Bulgarian literary historian Yordan Ivanov wrote in 1915 that Albanians, since they did not have their own alphabet, due to a lack of consolidated national consciousness and influenced by foreign propaganda, declared themselves as Turks, Greeks and Bulgarians, depending on which religion they belonged to. Albanians were losing their mother tongue in Skopje.<ref>Salajdin SALIHI. "DISA SHËNIME PËR SHQIPTARËT ORTODOKSË TË REKËS SË EPËRME". FILOLOGJIA - International Journal of Human Sciences 19:85-90.</ref> German linguist Gustav Weigand described that Skopje's Muslim population of "Turks" or "Ottomans" during the late Ottoman period were mainly Albanians who spoke Turkish in public and Albanian at home.<ref name=Hart214>Template:Citation "Aarbakke notes that Weigand says of Skopje that the "Turks" are mostly Albanians who speak Turkish in public and Albanian at home, "but should be regarded as Osmanli" (Aarbakke 1992:10)."</ref> In 1905, the city had 32,000 inhabitants, making it the largest of the vilayet, although closely followed by Prizren with its 30,000 inhabitants.<ref name="britannica"/> At the beginning of the 20th century, local economy was focused on dyeing, weaving, tanning, ironworks and wine and flour processing.<ref name="britannica"/>
Skopje was one of the five main centres of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation when it organised the 1903 Ilinden uprising. Its revolutionary network in the region led by Nikola Pushkarov was not well-developed and the lack of weapons was a serious problem. At the outbreak of the uprising, the rebel forces derailed a military train.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> On 3 and 5 August respectively, they attacked an Ottoman unit guarding the bridge on the Vardar River and fought a battle in the St. Jovan monastery. In the next few days, the band was pursued by numerous Bashibozuks and moved to Bulgaria.
Following the Young Turk Revolution in 1908, the Ottoman Empire experienced democracy and several political parties were created.<ref name="history"/> However, some of the policies implemented by the Young Turks, such as a tax rise and the interdiction of ethnic-based political parties, discontented minorities. Albanians opposed the nationalist character of the movement and led local uprisings in 1910 and 1912. During the latter, they managed to seize most of Kosovo and took Skopje on 11 August. On 18 August, the insurgents signed the Üsküb agreement which provided for the creation of an autonomous Albanian province, and they were amnestied the day later.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- Ottoman Postcard of Huriet in Skopie2.jpg
Bulgarian manifestation in support of the Young Turk Revolution
- Sv. Bogorodica Skopje 01.jpg
The Church of the Nativity of the Theotokos, seat of the Bulgarian Orthodox Diocese of Skopje, built in the 19th century
- Skopje-couteliers 1919.jpg
Cutlers in the Old Bazaar around 1900
Balkan Wars to present dayEdit
Following an alliance contracted in 1912, Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia declared war on the Ottoman Empire. Their goal was to definitively expel the Ottomans from Europe. The First Balkan War started on 8 October 1912 and lasted six weeks. Serbians reached Skopje on 26 October. Ottoman forces had left the city the day before.<ref name="history" /> During the conflict, Chetniks, a Serb irregular force razed the Albanian quarter of Skopje and killed numerous Albanian inhabitants from the city.<ref name="Michailidis330">Template:Cite book</ref> The Serbian annexation led to the exodus of 725 Muslim families which left the city on 27 January 1913. The same year, the city population was evaluated at 37,000 by the Serbian authorities.<ref name="demographic" />
In 1915, during the First World War, Serbian Macedonia was invaded by Bulgaria, which captured Skopje on 22 October 1915. Serbia, allied to the Triple Entente, was helped by France, Britain, Greece, and Italy, which formed the Macedonian front. Following a great Allied offensive in 1918, the Armée française d'Orient reached Skopje 29 September and took the city by surprise.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> After the end of the World War, Vardar Macedonia became part of the new Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, which became "Kingdom of Yugoslavia" in 1929.<ref name="history"/> A mostly foreign ethnic Serb ruling class gained control, imposing large-scale repression.<ref>Rossos, Andrew (2008) Macedonia and the Macedonians: A History Hoover Institution Press, Stanford, California, page 135, Template:ISBN</ref> The policies of de-Bulgarisation and assimilation were pursued.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> At that time part of the young locals, repressed by the Serbs, tried to find a separate way of ethnic Macedonian development.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In 1931, in a move to formally decentralise the country, Skopje was named the capital of the Vardar Banovina of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Until the Second World War, Skopje experienced strong economic growth, and its population increased. The city had 41,066 inhabitants in 1921, 64,807 in 1931, and 80,000 in 1941.<ref name="demographic"/> Although in an underdeveloped region, it attracted wealthy Serbs who opened businesses and contributed to the modernisation of the city.<ref name="colophon">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 1941, Skopje had 45 factories, half of the industry in the whole of Socialist Macedonia.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
In 1941, during the Second World War, Yugoslavia was invaded by Nazi Germany. Germans seized Skopje on 8 April<ref name="history"/> and left it to their Bulgarian allies on 22 April 1941.Template:Sfn To ensure the Bulgarisation of the society, authorities closed Serbian schools and churches, opening new schools and a higher education institute, the King Boris University.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The 4,000 Jews of Skopje were all deported in 1943 to the Treblinka extermination camp where almost all of them were killed.<ref name="jews p. 47">Template:Cite book</ref>
Skopje was liberated on 13 November 1944 by units of the Bulgarian People's Army (Bulgaria having switched sides in the war in September) aided by Yugoslav Partisans of the Macedonian National Liberation Army.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Skopje became the capital city of the newly proclaimed Democratic Federal Macedonia as set up by the ASNOM on 2 August 1944 in the Bulgarian occupation zone in Yugoslavia.
After World War II, Skopje greatly benefited from Socialist Yugoslav policies which encouraged industry and the development of Macedonian cultural institutions. Consequently, Skopje became home to a national library, a philharmonic orchestra, a university, and the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts. However, its post-war development was altered by the 1963 earthquake which occurred on 26 July. Although relatively weak in magnitude, it caused enormous damage in the city and can be compared to the 1960 Agadir earthquake.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The disaster killed 1,070 people, injuring 3,300 others. 16,000 people were buried alive in ruins and 70% of the population lost their home.<ref name="post">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}Template:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore</ref> Many educational facilities, factories and historical buildings were destroyed.<ref name="reconstruction"/>
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After the earthquake, reconstruction was quick. It had a deep psychological impact on the population because neighbourhoods were split, and people were relocated to new houses and buildings they were not familiar with.<ref name="post"/> Many Albanians, some from Kosovo participated in the reconstruction effort.<ref name="Ragaru535"/> Reconstruction was finished by 1980, even if many elements were never built because funds were exhausted.<ref name="reconstruction"/> Skopje's cityscape was drastically changed, and the city became a true example of modernist architecture. Demographic growth was very important after 1963, and Skopje had 408,100 inhabitants in 1981.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> After 1963, rural youth migrated to Skopje and were involved in the reconstruction process resulting in a large growth of the urban Macedonian population.<ref name="Neofotistos893"/><ref name="Thiessen10">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="Brown417442">Template:Cite journal</ref> The Albanian population of Skopje also increased as people from the northern villages migrated to the city and others came from Kosovo either to provide manpower for reconstruction or fled the deteriorating political situation, especially during the 1990s.<ref name="Ragaru535"/> However, during the 1980s and the 1990s, the country experienced inflation and recession, and the local economy heavily suffered. The situation improved during the 2000s thanks to new investments. Many landmarks were restored and the "Skopje 2014" project renewed the appearance of the city centre.Template:Cit
EmblemsEdit
{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} The Flag of Skopje<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> is a red banner in proportions 1:2 with a gold-coloured coat of arms of the city positioned in the upper-left corner. It is either vertical or horizontal, but the vertical version was the first to be used.
The coat of arms of the city was adopted in the 1950s. It depicts the Stone Bridge with the Vardar river, the Kale Fortress and the snow-capped peaks of the Šar mountains.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
AdministrationEdit
StatusEdit
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Being the capital and largest city of North Macedonia, Skopje enjoys a particular status granted by law. The last revision of its status was made in 2004. Since then, the City of Skopje has been divided into 10 municipalities which all have a council and a mayor, like all of the country's municipalities. Municipalities only deal with matters specific of their territory, and the City of Skopje deals with matters that concern all of them, or that cannot be divided between two or more municipalities.<ref name="local">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}Template:Dead link</ref>
The City of Skopje is part of the Skopje Statistical Region, which has no political or administrative power.<ref name="local"/>
City CouncilEdit
The City Council consists of 45 members who serve a four-year term. It primarily deals with budget, global orientations and relations between the city and the government. Several commissions exist to treat more specific topics, such as urbanism, finances, environment of local development.<ref name="council">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The President of the council is elected by the Council Members. Since 2021 the president has been Trajko Slaveski, member of VMRO-DPMNE.<ref>Trajko Slaveski</ref><ref name="council"/>
Following the 2021 local elections, the City Council is constituted as follows:<ref name="council"/><ref>MTM.MK - First constitutive session of the City Council Template:Webarchive</ref>
| Party / List | Seats | File:Skopje City Council (October 2021).svg |
|---|---|---|
| SDSM | 12 | |
| VMRO-DPMNE | 18 | |
| DUI | 5 | |
| AA/A | 2 | |
| DOM | 2 | |
| Levica | 4 | |
| Total | 45 |
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MayorEdit
The Mayor of Skopje is elected every four years. The mayor represents the City of Skopje and can submit ideas to the council, manages the administrative bodies and their officials.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
MunicipalitiesEdit
Skopje was first divided into administrative units in 1945, but the first municipalities were created in 1976. There were five municiplaities: Centar, Čair, Karpoš, Gazi Baba and Kisela Voda. After the 1991 independence of the country, power was centralised and municipalities lost much of their competences. A 1996 law restored them and created two new municipalities: Ǵorče Petrov and Šuto Orizari. After the insurgency between Albanian rebels and Macedonian forces in 2001, a new law was enacted in 2004 to incorporate the Saraj Municipality into the City of Skopje. Saraj is mostly populated by Albanians and, since then, Albanians represent more than 20% of the city population. Thus, Albanian became the second official language of the city administration, something which was one of the claims of the Albanian rebels. The same year, Aerodrom Municipality separated itself from Kisela Voda, and Butel Municipality from Čair.<ref name="local"/>
Municipalities are administered by a council of 23 members elected every four years. They also have a mayor and several departments (education, culture, finances...). The mayor primarily deals with these departments.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
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EconomyEdit
Economic weightEdit
Skopje is a medium city at the European level. Being the capital and largest city of North Macedonia, Skopje concentrates a large share of the national economy. The Skopje Statistical Region, which encompasses the City of Skopje and some neighbouring municipalities, produces 45.5% of the Macedonian GDP.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 2009, the regional GDP per capita amounted to US$6,565, or 155% of the Macedonian GDP per capita.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> This figure is, however, smaller than the one of neighboring Sofia (US$10,106),<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Sarajevo (US$10,048)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> or Belgrade (US$7,983),<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> but higher than the one of Tirana (US$4,126).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Because there are no other large cities in the country, and because of political and economic centralisation, a large number of Macedonians living outside of Skopje work in the capital city. The dynamism of the city also encourages rural exodus, not only from North Macedonia, but also from Kosovo, Albania and Southern Serbia.<ref name="quality">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Firms and activitiesEdit
In 2009, Skopje had 26,056 firms but only 145 of them had a large size. The large majority of them are either small (12,017) or very small (13,625).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}Template:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore</ref> A large share of the firms deal with trading of goods (9,758), 3,839 are specialised in business and real estate, and 2,849 are manufacturers.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}Template:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore</ref> Although few in number, large firms account for 51% of the local production outside finance.<ref name="region"/>
The city industry is dominated by food processing, textile, printing and metal processing. In 2012, it accounted for 30% of the city's GDP.<ref name="region">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}Template:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore</ref> Most of the industrial areas are in Gazi Baba municipality, on the major routes and rail lines to Belgrade and Thessaloniki.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Notably, the ArcelorMittal, Makstil steel plants and the Skopje Brewery are present there. Other zones are between Aerodrom and Kisela Voda, along the railway to Greece. These zones comprise Alkaloid Skopje (pharmaceuticals), Rade Končar (electrical supplies), Imperial Tobacco, and Ohis (fertilisers). Two special economic zones also exist, around the airport and the Okta refinery. They have attracted several foreign companies, such as Johnson Controls, Johnson Matthey and Van Hool.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
As the country's financial capital, Skopje is the seat of the Macedonian Stock Exchange, of the National Bank, and of most of the country's banking, insurance, and telecommunication companies, such as Makedonski Telekom, Komercijalna banka Skopje and Stopanska Banka. The services sector produces 60% of the city GDP.<ref name="region"/>
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Besides many small traditional shops, Skopje has two large markets, the "Zelen Pazar" (green market) and the "Bit Pazar" (flea market). They are both considered local institutions.<ref name="thiesen57"/> However, since the 1970s, retailing has largely been modernised and Skopje now has many supermarkets and shopping centres. The largest, Skopje City Mall, opened in 2012. It comprises a Carrefour hypermarket, 130 shops and a cinema, and employs 2,000 people.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
EmploymentEdit
51% of the Skopje active population is employed in small firms. 52% of the population work in the services sector, 34% in industry, and the remaining is mainly employed in administration.<ref name="region"/>
The unemployment rate for the Skopje Statistical Region was at 27% in 2009, three points under the national rate (30%). The neighbouring Polog Region had a similar rate, but the less affected region was the South-West, with 22%.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Unemployment in Skopje mainly affects men, who represent 56% of jobseekers, people between 25 and 44 years old (45% of jobseekers), and non-qualified people (43%).<ref name="region"/> Unemployment also concerns Roma people, who represent 4.63% of the city population but affects 70% of the active population in the community.<ref name="roma">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The average net monthly wage in Skopje was at €400 in October 2010, which represented 120% of the national figure.<ref name="brutno">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The average wage in Skopje was then lower than in Sarajevo (€522),<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Sofia (€436),<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and in Belgrade (€440).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
DemographicsEdit
Template:Historical populations
PopulationEdit
According to the results of the 2021 census, the City of Skopje had 526,502 inhabitants.<ref name="stats2"/> Skopje's employment area covers a large part of the country, including Veles, Kumanovo and Tetovo, and totaling more than one million inhabitants.<ref name="trace">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Skopje contains roughly a quarter of North Macedonia's population. The second most populous municipality, Kumanovo, had 107,632 inhabitants in 2011,<ref name="stats">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and an urban unit of 76,272 inhabitants in 2002.<ref name="stats1"/>
Before the Austro-Turkish war and the 1689 Great Fire, Skopje was one of the biggest cities in the Balkans, with a population estimated between 30,000 and 60,000 inhabitants.<ref name="history"/> After the fire set by the retreating Austrian forces, it experienced a long period of decline and only had 10,000 inhabitants in 1836.<ref name="population1"/> However, the population started to rise again after 1850 and reached 32,000 inhabitants in 1905.<ref name="britannica"/> In the 20th century, Skopje was one of the fastest-growing cities in Yugoslavia, and it had 448,200 inhabitants in 1981. Since then, the demographic growth has continued at a steady rate.<ref name="jasna">Template:Cite book</ref>
Ethnic groupsEdit
Ethnic groups in Greater Skopje consist of the following:
| Ethnic group | 2002 | 2021 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number | % | Number | % | |
| Macedonians | 338,358 | 66.75 | 309,107 | 58.71 |
| Albanians | 103,891 | 20.49 | 120,293 | 22.85 |
| Turks | 8,595 | 1.70 | 8,524 | 1.62 |
| Roma | 23,475 | 4.63 | 18,498 | 3.51 |
| Vlachs | 2,557 | 0.50 | 2,778 | 0.53 |
| Serbs | 14,298 | 2.82 | 9,478 | 1.80 |
| Bosniaks | 7,585 | 1.50 | 7,365 | 1.50 |
| Others | 8,167 | 1.61 | 6,284 | 1.19 |
| Administrative sources | N/A | N/A | 44,175 | 8.39 |
| Total | 506,926 | 100 | 526,502 | 100 |
Skopje, just like North Macedonia as a whole, is characterised by a large ethnic diversity. The city is in a region where Macedonians and Albanians meet, and it has had populations of Bulgarians, Romani, Turks, Jews, and Serbs through its history. Skopje was mainly a Muslim city until the 19th century when large numbers of Christians started to settle there. According to the 2021 census, Macedonians were the largest ethnic group in Skopje, with 309,107 inhabitants, or 58.71% of the population. Then came Albanians with 120,293 inhabitants (22.85%), Roma people with 18,498 (3.51%), Serbs (9,478 inhabitants), Turks (8,524), Bosniaks (7,365) and Aromanians (also known as "Vlachs", 2,778). 6,284 people did not belong to any of these groups.<ref name="stats2" />
Macedonians form an overwhelming majority of the population in the municipalities of Aerodrom, Centar, Ǵorče Petrov, Karpoš and Kisela Voda, which are all south of the Vardar.<ref name="Ragaru536">Template:Harvnb</ref> They also form a majority in Butel<ref name="Ragaru536537"/> and Gazi Baba which are north of the river. Albanians form a majority in Čair which roughly corresponds to the Old Bazaar, and in Saraj.<ref name="Ragaru535537">Template:Cite journal</ref> They form a large minority in Butel<ref name="Ragaru536537">Template:Harvnb</ref> and Gazi Baba. Šuto Orizari, on the northern edge of the city, is predominantly Roma.<ref name="stats1"/> When an ethnic minority forms at least 20% of the population in a municipality, its language can become official on the local level. Thus, in Čair and Saraj schools and administration use Albanian, and Romani in Šuto Orizari.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The latter is the only municipality in the world where Romani is an official language.<ref name="roma"/>
Relations between the two largest groups, Macedonians and Albanians, are sometimes difficult, as in the rest of the country. Each group tolerates the other but they tend to avoid each other and live in what can appear as two parallel worlds.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Both Macedonians and Albanians view themselves each as the original population of Skopje and the other as newcomers.<ref name="StefoskaStojanov363">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="Ragaru535">Template:Harvnb</ref><ref name="Neofotistos893">Template:Cite journal</ref> The Roma minority is on its side very deprived. Its exact size is not known because many Macedonian Roma declare themselves as belonging to other ethnic groups or simply avoid censuses. However, even if official figures are underestimated, Skopje is the city in the world with the largest Roma population.<ref name="roma"/>
ReligionEdit
Religious affiliation is diverse: Macedonians, Serbs, and Aromanians are mainly Orthodox, with the majority affiliated to the Macedonian Orthodox Church; Turks are almost entirely Muslim; those of Albanian ethnicity are largely Muslim, although Skopje also has a sizeable Roman Catholic Albanian minority, into which Mother Teresa was born; the Roma (Gypsies) represent a mixture (in almost equal numbers) of Muslim and Orthodox religious heritage.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
According to the 2002 census, 68.5% of the population of Skopje belonged to the Eastern Orthodox Church, whilst 28.6% belonged to Islam. The city also had Catholic (0.5%) and Protestant (0.04%) minorities.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Catholics are served by the Latin bishopric of Skopje, in which is also vested the Byzantine Catholic Apostolic Exarchate of Macedonia.
| 2002 | 2021 | |||
| Number | % | Number | % | |
| TOTAL | 506,926 | 100 | 526,502 | 100 |
| Orthodox | 348,837 | 68.8 | 264,872 | 60.3 |
| Christians | 216 | 0.49 | 50,624 | |
| Catholics | 2,506 | 0.04 | 2,044 | |
| Islam | 143,770 | 28.4 | 155,245 | 29.5 |
| others | 11,597 | 1.81 | 9,542 | 1.81 |
| Administrative sources | 44,175 | 8.39 | ||
Until World War II, Skopje had a significant Jewish minority which mainly descended from Spanish Sephardis who had escaped the Inquisition. The community comprised 2,424 members in 1939 (representing about 3% of the city population), but most of them were deported and killed by Nazis. After the war, most of the survivors settled in Israel.<ref name="Mark Avrum Ehrlich 2009 980"/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Today the city has around 200 Jewish inhabitants (about 0.04% of the population).
Because of its 520-year Ottoman past, and the fact that many of its inhabitants today are Muslims, Skopje has more mosques than churches. Religious communities often complain about the lack of infrastructure and new places of worship are often built.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Skopje is the seat of many Macedonian religious organisations, such as the Macedonian Orthodox Church and the Islamic Religious Union of Macedonia. It has an Orthodox cathedral and seminary, several madrasahs, a Roman Catholic cathedral and a synagogue.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
HealthEdit
Skopje has several public and private hospitals and specialised medical institutions, such as the Filip II Hospital, a psychiatric hospital, two obstetric hospitals, a gerontology hospital, and institutes for respiratory and ocular diseases.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 2012, Skopje had a ratio of one physician per 251.6 inhabitants, a figure higher than the national ratio (one per 370.9). The ratio of medical specialists was also higher than in the rest of the country. However, the ratio of hospital beds, pharmacists and dentists was lower in Skopje.<ref name="health">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The population in Skopje enjoys better health standards than other Macedonians. In 2010, the mortality rate was at 8.6‰ in Skopje and 9.3‰ on the national level. The infant mortality rate was at 6.8‰ in Skopje and 7.6‰ in North Macedonia.<ref name="health"/>
EducationEdit
Skopje's citizenry is generally more educated than the rest of the country. 16% of Skopjans have graduated from university in contrast to 10% for the rest of the country. The number of people with a complete lack of education or ones who received a partial education is lower in Skopje at 9% compared to the provincial average of 17%. 80% of Macedonian citizens who hold a PhD take up residence in Skopje.<ref name="strategija">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Skopje has 21 secondary schools; 5 of which serve as general high-school gymnasiums and 16 vocational schools.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The city is also host to several higher education institutions, the most notable of which is Ss. Cyril and Methodius University, founded in 1949. The university has 23 departments, 10 research institutes and is attended by an average of 50,000 students.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> After the country's independence in 1991, several private universities were brought into existence. The largest private universities in Skopje are European University Skopje with 7 departments<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and FON University with 9 departments respectively.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
MediaEdit
Skopje is the largest media centre in North Macedonia. Of the 818 newspapers surveyed in 2000 by the Ministry of Information, over 600 had their headquarters in Skopje. The daily {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, founded in 1996, with 60,000 runs per day is the most printed in the country. Also based in Skopje, Večer prints 50,000 copies and the state owns one-third of its capital. Nova Makedonija, reprinted 20,000 copies. Other major newspapers in Skopje, totally private, are Utrinski Vesnik (30,000 copies), Vest (25,000 copies), and Vreme (15,000 copies). Magazines Fokus (12,000 copies), Start (10,000 copies), and Denes (7,500 copies) also have their headquarters in Skopje.<ref name="media">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The city is home of the studios of Macedonian Radio-Television (MRT), the country's public radio and television. Founded in 1966, it operates with three national broadcast channels, twenty-four hours a day. The most popular private television stations are Sitel, Kanal 5, Telma, Alfa TV, and AlsatM.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> MRT also operates radio stations with national coverage, the private station Skopje's Kanal 77 is the only one to have such a span. Radio Antenna 5 and Metropolis are two other major private stations that have their headquarters in Skopje.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Also, the city boasts big news agencies in the country, both public, such as the Media Information Agency, and private, such as the Makfax.<ref name="media"/>
SportsEdit
{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}}
As the capital and largest city of North Macedonia, Skopje has many major sporting facilities. The city has three large swimming pools, two of which feature Olympic pools. These pools are particularly relevant to coaching water polo teams. Skopje also boasts many football stadiums, like Ilinden in Čair and Železarnica, which can accommodate between 4,000 and 4,500 spectators. The basketball court Kale can accommodate 2,200 people and the court of Jane Sandanski has a 6,000-seat capacity.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The largest stadium remains Toše Proeski Arena. The stadium, built in 1947 and named until 2008, City Stadium Skopje<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> experienced a total renovation, begun in 2009 to meet the standards of FIFA. Fully renovated the stadium contains 33,460 seats,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and a health spa and fitness area. The Boris Trajkovski Sports Center is the largest sports complex in the country with 6,250 seats. It was opened in 2008 and named after former president Boris Trajkovski, who died in 2004. It includes rooms dedicated to handball, basketball, and volleyball, a bowling alley, a fitness area, and an ice hockey court. Its main hall, which regularly hosts concerts, holds around 10,000 people.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
FK Vardar and FK Rabotnički are the two most popular football teams in the city. Both plays in the first division. Their games are held at Toše Proeski Arena, like those of the national team. The city is also home to many smaller football clubs, such as: FK Makedonija Ǵorče Petrov, FK Gorno Lisiče, FK Lokomotiva Skopje, FK Metalurg Skopje, FK Madžari Solidarnost and FK Skopje, who play in first, second or third national league. Another popular sport in North Macedonia is basketball, represented in particular by the teams MZT Skopje and Rabotnički. Handball is illustrated by RK Vardar PRO and RK Metalurg Skopje, also the women's team ŽRK Metalurg and ŽRK Vardar. The city co-hosted the 2008 European Women's Handball Championship together with Ohrid,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and hosted the 2017 UEFA Super Cup, the match between Real Madrid and Manchester United.
TransportEdit
Main connectionsEdit
Skopje is near three other capital cities, Pristina (Template:Cvt away), Tirana (291 km) and Sofia (245 km). Thessaloniki is Template:Cvt south and Belgrade is Template:Cvt north.<ref name="rimed">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Skopje is also at the crossroad of two Pan-European corridors: Corridor X, which runs between Austria and Greece, and Corridor VIII, which runs from the Adriatic in Albania to the Black Sea in Bulgaria. Corridor X links Skopje to Thessaloniki, Belgrade, and Western Europe, whilst Corridor VIII links it with Tirana and Sofia.
Corridor X locally corresponds to the M-1 motorway (E75), which is the longest highway in North Macedonia. It also corresponds to the Tabanovce-Gevgelija railway. Corridor VIII, less developed, corresponds to the M-4 motorway and the Kičevo-Beljakovce railway. Skopje is not quite on the Corridor X and the M-1 does not pass on the city territory. Thus the junction between the M-1 and M-4 is some Template:Cvt east, close to the airport. Although Skopje is geographically close to other major cities, movement of people and goods is not optimised, especially with Albania. This is mainly due to poor infrastructure. As a result, 61.8% of Skopjans have never been to Tirana, whilst only 6.7% have never been to Thessaloniki and 0% to Sofia. Furthermore, 26% of Thessalonians, 33% of Sofians and 37% of Tiranans have never been to Skopje.<ref name="rimed"/>
The first highways were built during the Yugoslav period, when Skopje was linked through the Brotherhood and Unity Highway to, what was then, the Yugoslav capital Belgrade to the North, and the Greek border to the South.
Rail and coach stationsEdit
The main railway station in Skopje is serviced by the Belgrade-Thessaloniki and Skopje-Pristina international lines.<ref name="mz">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> After the completion of the Corridor VIII railway project, currently scheduled for 2030, the city will also be linked to Tirana and Sofia.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Daily trains also link Skopje with other towns of North Macedonia, such as Kumanovo, Kičevo, Štip, Bitola or Veles.<ref name="mz"/>
Skopje has several minor railway stations, but the city does not have its own railway network, and they are only serviced by intercity or international lines. On the railway linking the main station to Belgrade and Thessaloniki are Dračevo and Dolno Lisiče stations, and on the railway to Kičevo are Skopje-North, Ǵorče Petrov and Saraj stations. Several other stations are freight-only.<ref name="stations">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Skopje coach station opened in 2005 and is built right under the main railway station. It can host 450 coaches in a day.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Coach connections reach more destinations than train connections, connecting Skopje to many domestic and foreign destinations including Istanbul, Sofia, Prague, Hamburg and Stockholm.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Public transportEdit
_JSP_(1).jpg){kind=link}
Skopje has a bus network managed by the city and operated by three companies. The oldest and largest is JSP Skopje, a public company founded in 1948. JSP lost its monopoly on public transport in 1990 and two new companies, Sloboda Prevoz and Mak Ekspres, obtained several lines. However, most of the network is still in the hands of JSP which operates 67 lines out of 80. Only 24 lines are urban, the others serving localities around the city.<ref name="transpower">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Many of the JSP vehicles are red Yutong City Master double-decker buses built by Chinese bus manufacturer Yutong and designed to resemble the classic British AEC Routemaster.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
A tram network has long been planned in Skopje and the idea was first proposed in the 1980s. The project became real in 2006 when the mayor Trifun Kostovski asked for feasibility studies. His successor Koce Trajanovski launched a call for tenders in 2010 and the first line is scheduled for 2019.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Needs update
A new network for small buses started to operate in June 2014, not to replace but to decrease the number of big buses in the city centre.
AirportEdit
The airport was built in 1928. The first commercial flights in Skopje were introduced in 1929 when the Yugoslav carrier Aeroput introduced a route linking the city with the capital, Belgrade.<ref name="aeroput">Drustvo za Vazdusni Saobracaj A D – Aeroput (1927–1948) Template:Webarchive at europeanairlines.no</ref> A year later the route was extended to Thessaloniki in Greece, and further extended to Greek capital Athens in 1933.<ref name="aeroput"/> In 1935 Aeroput linked Skopje with Bitola and Niš, and also operated a longer international route linking Vienna and Thessaloniki through Zagreb, Belgrade and Skopje.<ref name="aeroput"/> After the Second World War, Aeroput was replaced by JAT Yugoslav Airlines, which linked Skopje to a number of domestic and international destinations until the dissolution of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s.
Skopje International Airport is in Petrovec, Template:Cvt east of the city. Since 2008, it has been managed by the Turkish TAV Airports Holding and it can accommodate up to four million passengers per year.<ref name="tav">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The annual traffic has constantly risen since 2008, reaching one million passengers in 2014.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Skopje's airport has connections to several European cities, including Athens, Vienna, Bratislava, Zürich, Brussels, Oslo, Istanbul, London and Rome. It also maintains a direct connection with Dubai and Doha, Qatar.
CultureEdit
Cultural institutionsEdit
Skopje is home to the largest cultural institutions of the country, such as the National and University Library "St. Kliment of Ohrid", the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, the National Theatre, the National Philharmonic Orchestra and the Macedonian Opera and Ballet. Amongst the local institutions are the Brothers Miladinov Library which has more than a million documents, the Cultural Information Centre which manages festivals, exhibitions and concerts, and the House of Culture Kočo Racin which is dedicated to contemporary art and young talents.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Skopje also has several foreign cultural centres, such as a {{#invoke:Lang|lang}},<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> a British Council,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> an Alliance française,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}Template:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore</ref> an American Corner.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The city has several theatres and concert halls. The Univerzalna Sala, seating 1,570, was built in 1966 and is used for concerts, fashion shows, and congresses. The Metropolis Arena, designed for large concerts, has 3,546 seats. Other large halls include the Macedonian Opera and Ballet (800 seats), the National Theatre (724), and the Drama Theatre (333).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Other smaller venues exist, such as the Albanian Theatre and the Youth Theatre. A Turkish Theatre and a Philharmonic hall are under construction.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
MuseumsEdit
The largest museum in Skopje is the Museum of the Republic of North Macedonia which details the history of the country. Its icons and lapidary collections are particularly rich.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Macedonian Archeological Museum, opened in 2014, keeps archeological finds in North Macedonia, dating from Prehistory to the Ottoman period. The National Gallery of Macedonia exhibits paintings dating from the 14th to the 20th century in two former hammams of the Old Bazaar. The Contemporary Art Museum was built after the 1963 earthquake thanks to international assistance. Its collections include Macedonian and foreign art, with works by Fernand Léger, André Masson, Pablo Picasso, Hans Hartung, Victor Vasarely, Alexander Calder, Pierre Soulages, Alberto Burri and Christo.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The Skopje City Museum is inside the remains of the old railway station, destroyed by the 1963 earthquake. It is dedicated to local history, and it has four departments: archeology, ethnology, history, and art history.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Memorial House of Mother Teresa was built in 2009 on the original site of the church in which the nun had been baptised.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}Template:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore</ref> The Museum of the Macedonian Struggle is dedicated to the modern national history and the struggle of Macedonians for their independence. Nearby is the Holocaust Memorial Center for the Jews of Macedonia. The Macedonian Museum of Natural History showcases some 4,000 items<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> whilst the 12-ha Skopje Zoo is home to 300 animals.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
ArchitectureEdit
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Although Skopje has been destroyed many times throughout its history, it still has many historical landmarks which reflect the successive occupations of the city. Skopje has one of the biggest Ottoman urban complexes in Europe, with many Ottoman monuments still serving their original purpose. It was also a ground for modernist experiments in the 20th century, following the 1963 earthquake. At the beginning of the 21st century, it is again the subject of massive building campaigns, thanks to the Skopje 2014 project. Skopje is thus an environment where old, new, progressist, reactionary, eastern and western perspectives coexist.<ref name="colophon"/>
Skopje has some remains of Prehistorical architecture which can be seen on the Tumba Madžari Neolithic site.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> On the other side of the city lies the remains of the ancient Scupi, with ruins of a theatre, thermae and a basilica.<ref name="archeology"/> The Skopje Aqueduct, between Scupi and the city centre, is rather mysterious because its date of construction is unknown. It seems to have been built by the Byzantines or the Turks, but it was already out of use in the 16th century.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> It consists of 50 arches, worked in cloisonné masonry.<ref name="strategic">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Skopje Fortress was rebuilt several times before it was destroyed by the 1963 earthquake. Since then, it has been restored to its medieval appearance. It is the only medieval monument in Skopje, but several churches around the city illustrate the Vardar architectural school which flourished around 1300. Amongst these churches are the ones around Matka Canyon (St Nicholas, St Andrew and Matka churches). The church of Saint Panteleimon in Gorno Nerezi dates from the 12th century. Its expressive frescoes anticipate the Italian primitives.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Examples of Ottoman architecture are in the Old Bazaar. Mosques in Skopje are usually simple in design, with a square base and a single dome and minaret. Their entrance is usually emphasised by a portico, as on Mustafa Pasha Mosque, dating from the 15th century. Some mosques show some originality in their appearance: Sultan Murad and Yahya Pasha mosques have lost their dome and have a pyramidal roof, whilst Isa Bey Mosque has a rectangular base, two domes and two side wings. The Aladža Mosque was originally covered with blue faience, but it disappeared in the 1689 Great Fire. However, some tiles are still visible on the adjoining türbe. Other Ottoman public monuments include the 16th-century clock tower, a bedesten, three caravanserais, two hammams and the Stone Bridge, first mentioned in 1469.<ref name="ottoman"/><ref name="oldskopje">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The oldest churches in the city centre, the Ascension and St Dimitri churches, were built in the 18th century, after the 1689 Great Fire. They were both renovated in the 19th century. The Church of the Ascension is particularly small as it is half-buried in order to not overlook neighbouring mosques.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In the 19th century, several new churches were built, including the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, which is a large three-nave building designed by Andrey Damyanov.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
After 1912, when Skopje was annexed by Serbia, the city was drastically westernised. Wealthy Serbs built mansions and town houses such as the 1926 Ristiḱ Palace. The architecture of that time is very similar to the one of Central Europe, but some buildings are more creative, such as the Neo-Moorish Arab House and the Neo-Byzantine train station, both built in 1938.<ref name="colophon"/> Modernism appeared as early as 1933 with the former Ethnographic Museum (today the City Gallery), designed by Milan Zloković.<ref name="colophon"/> However, modernist architecture only fully developed in Skopje after the 1963 earthquake. The reconstruction of the city centre was partially planned by Japanese Kenzo Tange who designed the new train station.<ref name="colophon"/> Macedonian architects also took part in the reconstruction: Georgi Konstantinovski designed the City Archives building in 1968 and the Hall of residence Goce Delčev in 1975, whilst Janko Konstantinov designed the Telecommunication Centre and the main post office (1974–1989). Slavko Brezovski designed the Church of St. Clement of Ohrid.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> These two buildings are noted for their originality although they are directly inspired by brutalism.<ref name="colophon"/>
The reconstruction turned Skopje into a proper modernist city, with large blocks of flats, austere concrete buildings and scattered green spaces. The city centre was considered as a grey and unattractive place when local authorities unveiled the Skopje 2014 project in 2010.<ref>PM Gruevski: Yes, Skopje 2014 was my Idea Template:Webarchive, Macedonian International News Agency, Saturday, 7 January 2012</ref><ref>Skopje 2014: The new face of Macedonia Template:Webarchive, BalkanInsight</ref> It made plans to erect a large number of statues, fountains, bridges, and museums at a cost of about €500 million.<ref>Macedonian Arch May Be Wedding Scene Template:Webarchive, BalkanInsight</ref>
The project has generated controversy: critics have described the new landmark buildings as signs of reactionary historicist aesthetics.<ref name="Skopje2014">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Also, the government has been criticised for its cost and the original lack of representation of national minorities in the coverage of its set of statues and memorials.<ref name="Skopje2014"/> However, representations of minorities have since been included amongst the monuments. The scheme is accused of turning Skopje to a theme park,<ref>Is Macedonia's capital being turned into a theme park? CNN International, 10 October 2011</ref> which is viewed as nationalistic kitsch,<ref>Macedonia statue: Alexander the Great or a warrior on a horse? Template:Webarchive The Guardian, 14 August 2011</ref> and has made Skopje an example to see how national identities are constructed and how this construction is mirrored in the urban space.Template:Sfn
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Fresco in the Church of Saint Panteleimon
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Interior of Mustafa Pasha Mosque
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Daut Pasha Hammam
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The historic clock tower
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The Arab House
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Macedonian National Theater
- Skopje 2014 - Art Bridge.JPG
FestivalsEdit
Template:More citations needed section The Skopje Jazz Festival has been held annually in October since 1981. It is part of the European Jazz Network and the European Forum of World Wide Festivals. The artists' profiles include fusion, acid jazz, Latin jazz, smooth jazz, and avant-garde jazz. Ray Charles, Tito Puente, Gotan Project, Al Di Meola, Youssou N'Dour, amongst others, have performed at the festival. Another music festival in Skopje is the Blues and Soul Festival. It is a relatively new event in the Macedonian cultural scene that occurs every summer in early July.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Past guests include Larry Coryell, Mick Taylor & the All-Stars Blues Band, Candy Dulfer & Funky Stuff, João Bosco, the Temptations, Tolo Marton Trio, Blues Wire, and Phil Guy.
The Skopje Cultural Summer Festival is a cultural event that takes place in Skopje each year during the summer. The festival is a member of the International Festivals and Events Association (IFEA) and it includes musical concerts, operas, ballets, plays, art and photograph exhibitions, movies, and multimedia projects that gather 2,000 participants from around the world each year including the St Petersburg Theatre, the Chamber Orchestra of the Bolshoi Theatre, Irina Arkhipova, Viktor Tretiakov, The Theatre of Shadows, Michel Dalberto, and David Burgess.
May Opera Evenings is a festival that has occurred annually in Skopje since 1972 and is dedicated to promoting opera amongst the general public. Over the years, it has evolved into a stage on which artists from some 50 countries have performed. There is one other major international theatre festival that takes place each year at the end of September, the Young Open Theater Festival (MOT), which was organised for the first time in May 1976 by the Youth Cultural Center – Skopje.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> More than 700 theatrical performances have been presented at this festival so far, most of them being alternative, experimental theatre groups engaging young writers and actors. The MOT International Theatre Festival is also a member of the International Network for Contemporary Performing Arts or IETM.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Within the framework of the MOT Festival, the Macedonian National Center of the International Theater Institute (ITI) was established, and at the 25th ITI World Congress in Munich in 1993, it became a regular member of this theatre association. The festival has an international character, representing theatres from all over the world that present and enhance the exchange and circulation of young-fresh-experimental-avant-garde theatrical experience between its participants and their audience.
The Skopje Film Festival is an annual event held in the city every March. Over 50 films are shown at this five-day festival, mostly from North Macedonia and Europe, but also including some non-commercial film productions from all over the world.
NightlifeEdit
Skopje has a diverse nightlife. There is a large emphasis on casinos, many of which are associated with hotels. In 2010, the Colosseum club was named fifth on a list of the best clubs in South-eastern Europe. Armin van Buuren, Above and Beyond, The Shapeshifters are just some of the many musicians that have visited the club.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Nighttime concerts in local, regional and global music are often held at the Toše Proeski Arena and Boris Trajkovski Sports Center.<ref name="Nightlife">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> For middle-aged people, places for having fun are also the kafeanas where traditional Macedonian food is served and traditional Macedonian music (Starogradska muzika) is played, but music from all the Balkans, particularly Serbian folk music is also popular. Apart from the traditional Macedonian restaurants, there are restaurants featuring international cuisines.<ref name="Nightlife"/> The Old Bazaar was a popular nightlife destination in the past. The national government has created a project to revive nightlife in the Old Bazaar. The closing time in shops, cafés and restaurants was extended due to the high attendances recorded. In the bazaar's restaurants, along with the traditional Macedonian wine and food, dishes of the Ottoman cuisine are also served.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
People from SkopjeEdit
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International relationsEdit
Twin towns – sister citiesEdit
Skopje is twinned with:<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Template:Div col
- Template:Flagicon Bradford, United Kingdom (since 1961)
- Template:Flagicon Dijon, France (since 1961)
- Template:Flagicon Dresden, Germany (since 1967)
- Template:Flagicon Tempe, United States (since 1971)
- Template:Flagicon Roubaix, France (since 1973)
- Template:Flagicon Waremme, Belgium (since 1974)
- Template:Flagicon Nuremberg, Germany (since 1982)
- Template:Flagicon Chlef, Algeria (since 1983)
- Template:Flagicon Nanchang, China (since 1985)
- Template:Flagicon Manisa, Turkey (since 1985)
- Template:Flagicon Suez, Egypt (since 1985)
- Template:Flagicon Pittsburgh, United States (since 2002)
- Template:Flagicon Istanbul, Turkey (since 2003)
- Template:Flagicon Ljubljana, Slovenia (since 2007)
- Template:Flagicon Podgorica, Montenegro (since 2007)
- Template:Flagicon Zaragoza, Spain (since 2008)
- Template:Flagicon Zagreb, Croatia (since 2011)
- Template:Flagicon Tirana, Albania (since 2016)
- Template:Flagicon Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina (since 2017)
PartnershipsEdit
- Template:Flagicon Ankara, Turkey (since 1995)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}</ref>
- Template:Flagicon Belgrade, Serbia (since 2012)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}</ref>
See alsoEdit
- History of Skopje
- List of honorary citizens of Skopje
- List of people from Skopje
- Old Bazaar, Skopje
- Sports in Skopje
NotesEdit
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CitationsEdit
General sourcesEdit
Further readingEdit
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External linksEdit
Template:Sister project Template:Wikivoyage
- Discover Skopje (archived 24 May 2013)
- City of Skopje Official Portal
- Skopje at night, picture gallery (archived 26 April 2011)
- Online tourist guide for Skopje
Template:Skopje Template:Skopje (close area) Template:Towns in North Macedonia Template:List of European capitals by region Template:Capital cities of the European Union candidates Template:Historical capitals of Serbia Template:Capitals of Bulgaria Template:Authority control