An Old City Reborn After a Disastrous Earthquake
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| North Macedonia |
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| Skopje |
Skopje is an old city, but not one renowned for its beauty. Since the Romans left it has been captured, sacked, razed and rebuilt many times. Most
recently, the 1963 earthquake destroyed 80% of the city, killing over 1,000
people and leaving 200,000 homeless. The subsequent drive to rebuild Skopje as
a model socialist city added little to its charms.
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| The Balkans |
From our balcony, though, Bulevar Partizanski Odredi looked
a pleasant enough city street and we set out with open minds.
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| Bulevar Partizanski Odredi, Skopje |
The Cathedral of St Kliment of Ohrid
Macedonia Square was only a couple of hundred metres from our hotel, but first we stopped at the Cathedral of St Kliment of Ohrid, because it was just about next-door.
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| St Kliment of Ohrid on the road by his cathedral, Skopje |
The Virgin Mary Cathedral was burnt down by fascists at the end of WW2, and St Demetri's (see later) was too small so Skopje needed a new cathedral. Built in the early 1970s, St Kliment’s is an impressive structure, traditional in form but modern in execution, both outside and in.
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| Cathedral of St Kliment of Ohrid, Skopje |
Orthodox churches have no pews, but they do always have an older person wandering round lighting candles and kissing icons.
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| Iconostasis (and an icon kisser) St Kliment of Ohrid, Skopje |
There are frescoes high on the walls and inside the dome, and at eye-level icons on the iconostasis and around the walls. I knew that hand-positions in Buddha images have coded meanings, but had not realised the same applies in Eastern Christianity. On the enormous fresco filling the dome (Christ’s eye is, apparently, 1.5m across) the position of the right hand indicates that this is Christ Pantocrator, Christ Lord of All. The paintings round the walls, all crisply executed, mimic the fifteenth century style - they might be faux-naïve but I liked them.
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| Christ Pantocrator, St Kliment of Ohrid Cathedral, Skopje |
The Musicians
Near the square we passed ‘The Musicians’. Macedonians can sometimes seem a bit chippy, particularly in their relations with Greece, and
the Skopje 2014 project is filling
the city with outsize statutes, mostly of warriors and/or nationalists. ‘The
Musicians’ is a refreshing antidote, and if this is the real self-image of the
city’s people, they cannot be all bad.
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| The Musicians, near Macedonia Square, Skopje |
Macedonia Square
Macedonia Square is dominated by the statue ‘Warrior on a Horse’ erected in 2011 to celebrate thirty years of Macedonian independence. The
warrior is obviously Alexander the Great, but to keep the Greeks happy (see Flying
into FYRoM for the background) the statue does not officially bear his
name. Most of the square is currently surrounded by barriers and work is being
done inside, so we did not see Not-Alexander at his best.
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| Warrior on a Horse, Macedonia Square, Skopje Behind, atop of Mt Vodno, is the 66m high Millennium Cross, the world's biggest cross (reputedly) |
The Stone Bridge and The Boatmen of Thessaloniki
At the end of square is the River Vardar which rises in the northern mountains and 388km later flows into the Aegean Sea. In Skopje it is
fast flowing and shallow, intermediate between a mountain stream and a mature river.
It is crossed by a stone footbridge, built in the 6th century by the Byzantine emperor Justinian who was born locally and wanted to do something for his native turf. He now sits on a huge stone chair to the left of the bridge. The symbol of the city (see Coat of Arms, above), the Stone Bridge has been rebuilt and embellished many times, most notably by the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II in the 15th century. He added the little guard tower at the far end which fell down during the 2014 restoration but has been replaced.
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| The Stone Bridge and the Boatmen of Thessaloniki, Skopje |
The group of six to the right of the bridge is the Boatmen of Thessaloniki, a Bulgarian/Macedonian anarchist group. Between 1900 and 1903 they carried out a
series of bomb attacks to draw attention to the suffering of Bulgarians, Macedonians
and Thracians under the Ottoman yoke; proof (if proof were needed) that one man’s
terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.
I prefer the bathers at the base of one of the piers. Like the musicians, it is an outbreak of humanity among the bombastic statues that
crowd out almost everything else.
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| The Bathers, Stone Bridge, Skopje |
As big and bombastic as any is the The Warrior (not on a Horse). He is not officially Philip of Macedon either, but everybody knows he is.
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| Warrior (not Philip II of Macedonia) |
St Demetri's (Sveti Dimitrija)
Just past Not-Philip we dropped into the little church of Sveti Dimitrija. Built in 1886, it is unostentatious and looks smaller than it is, which pleased the Ottoman rulers.
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| Sveti Dimitrija, Skopje |
The interior is dark and calm with an aroma of incense and candles. There is a fine iconostasis….
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| Iconostasis, Sveti Dimitrija, Skopje |
…. but the most interesting feature is the pulpit which is extra-ordinarily high and accessed by a steep spiral staircase twisted round a pillar.
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| Pulpit, Sveti Dimitrija, Skopje |
Opposite are the domes of the Daud Paša Hammam, now the City Art Gallery, and a reminder that we were entering the Caršija, the old Ottoman quarter.
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| Daud Paša Hammam, Skopje |
Climbing the hill, the narrow pedestrianised lanes are lined with cafés, many with wooden platforms built out into the road. We stopped for our morning espresso which cost 30 Denars (40p) each.
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| Cafés in the Caršija, Skopje |
St Saviour's (Sveti Spas)
Detouring a little to the left off the main drag toward the
castle, the Kale Fortress, of which only a forbidding curtain wall survives, we
reached Sveti Spas (St Saviour’s) Church. The original was destroyed in a fire in
1689. The Ottoman rulers forbade the building of new churches, and it was not
until the start of the 19th century that permission was granted to rebuild
Sveti Spas. Height restrictions were imposed so that the pencil-thin minarets
of the Ottoman mosques would dominate the sky line. They still do - until the
19th century Skopje was overwhelmingly a Muslim city and still has more mosques
than churches.
In keeping with Ottoman regulations the outside is unadorned, and to keep down the height the church is dug a metre or so into the
ground. In the courtyard are some interesting old gravestones and, standing
alone and much larger, the tomb of the Macedonian nationalist Goce Delchev (see
previous
post).
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| The externally very plain Sveti Spas, Skopje |
We bought our tickets and were escorted inside by the amiable guardian. By the door the ground level of the earlier church is obvious, and there are fragments of the original frescoes. The 19th century church is dominated by its icon screen. Deep carved from single wooden blocks, the massive 10m by 6m screen represents seven years work by Makarie Frckovski and the brothers Petre and Marko Filipovski, the pre-eminent wood carvers of their day. With so much detail and intricate deep carving, they must have been busy years. Biblical scenes predominate; particularly pleasing is the depiction of the death of John the Baptist. Salome is shown dancing in traditional Macedonian costume, while Herod wears Turkish costume – in 19th century Macedonian eyes, to be a baddie was to be a Turk. I have no photos of this magnificent piece of work, the guardian stayed too close to defy the ‘no photography’ sign. I have borrowed the photograph below from Alexei Trofimov's excellent Deeper History Blog. If you have time go and pay him a visit, he is a better photographer than me.
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| The iconostasis, Sveti Spas, Skopje |
The Caršija, Skopje
Further along, the shops are grouped by type as in eastern bazaars. We passed through an area of wedding dress shops, and then one of gold sellers and jewellers.
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| The gold and jewellery area, Caršija, Skopje |
Many men wore Muslim skull caps, and the women head scarves. Muslim Albanians make up a fifth of Skopje's population, and this was where they lived.
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| Caršija, Skopje |
The Caršija ends at the Bit Pazar, largely a fruit and vegetable market which has developed a fringe selling household supplies and
bric-a-brac.
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| Bit Pazar, Skopje |
Turning back towards the river we followed signs to the Museum of Macedonia but could not find it and ended up at the rather splendid
Mustafa Pasha mosque.
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| Mustafa Pasha mosque, Skopje |
We had lunch in one of the Caršija's many restaurants; minced beef kebabs with stewed beans and a Shopska salad (tomatoes and cucumber
covered with a snowstorm of finely-grated cheese). Half a litre of
draught Skopsko beer was also very welcome.
There were a couple of spits of rain while we ate, but we
were dry beneath the restaurant’s awning. Watching people passing we noticed
several groups of young women where some wore headscarves and others did not.
Mixed Macedonian/Albanian friendship groups are rare, so presumably they were
all Albanian. Whether the wearing of more obvious Muslim dress is on the
increase (as we have observed in Cairo) or decrease we could not tell.
Skopje also has some 25,000 Roma citizens, possibly the largest Roma population anywhere. Darker skinned and thinner faced than the
Albanians, their clothes are of a more old-fashioned Muslim style and distinctly
shabbier. Here, as always, they are at the bottom of the social heap
and a couple of Roma women were begging around the restaurants. I have always
believed that the best way out of poverty – both cultural and financial – is education,
so it was worrying to watch Roma children of 9 or 10 hawking paper handkerchiefs
in the streets when they should have been in school,
The Museum of Macedonia and Kuršumli An Caravanserai
Refreshed, we decided to have another go at finding the Museum of Macedonia. After studying the map we approached it from a different
direction, came across some different signs but again found only the Mustafa
Pasha mosque. Approaching a man looking after a scruffy carpark with the
question 'museum?' elicited a finger pointing through his yard to the back of a
building we had passed earlier. Hearing childish voices we had assumed the
unmarked 1960s kit building was a school, but apparently we had been listening
to a school party visiting the museum.
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| The Museum of Macedonia, Skopje I have just noticed that a corner of this building can be seen in my photo of the Mustafa Pasha mosque! |
Even knowing the right building we could not at first find the appropriate door but eventually found a friendly ticket seller who directed
us first to the frescoes and icons. They have a magnificent collection, but
some explanation in a language other than Macedonian would be helpful to
foreign visitors.
The history sectioned covered the two world wars and the
period in between. There are more English captions here, and a feeling that they
were written not just in the time of Marshall Tito, but before Yugoslavia broke
with the USSR. I discussed the anti-Greek rhetoric in the previous
post.
We finished with the ethnographic section - which
necessitated locating another door. The collection of costumes and mock-ups of
old buildings were interesting but best were the photographs of people in their
homes wearing the costumes. Looking at a photo of a child my initial reaction
was that it was from the late 19th century, I was taken aback when I clocked
the date and realised that the child was younger than I am – he is probably
still out there somewhere, though not dressed like that. National costume, it
seems, was everyday dress in rural parts of this country well into the 1960s.
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| Ruined mosque (I think) in an overgrown and forgotten corner by the museum, Skopje |
According to the Lonely Planet the archaeology department is housed in Kuršumli An, a 16th century caravanserai and reputedly the largest
and finest remaining in Skopje. Taking a short cut back to the road we found it
by accident, behind a ruined mosque in an overgrown corner beyond the carpark.
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| Kuršumli An |
There was, again, no sign, but the door was open so we walked, or rather stooped, in.
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| Open door, Kuršumli An, Skopje |
It was indeed a magnificent two storey caravanserai, the ground floor for animals and goods, the upstairs for people. Except for a middle-aged
woman apparently employed to sit at a desk in the courtyard and read a newspaper, we
were alone. Our exploration revealed a remarkable building and a small and
apparently forgotten cache of ancient gravestones but no other archaeology.
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| Kuršumli An and the newspaper reader, Skopje |
Skopje’s Museum of the Macedonian Struggle and Archaeological Museum are housed in impressive new buildings. We only went to the Museum of Macedonia because we passed a sign for it in the street. Very much the poor relation, it has some fine exhibits, but the building was appalling; unsigned – no wonder we had it to ourselves – and rotting with stains on walls and carpets where the cheap flat roofs had leaked.
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| Lynne at Kuršumli An, Skopje |
Back over the River
From the Caravanserai we walked back down through the Caršija, missing our way in the narrow alleys and reaching the river some way downstream
of the Stone Bridge. We walked along the river past two modern footbridges,
both lined with statues, as was the walkway itself. The Art Bridge bears the statues of 35 people who contributed to the arts
in Macedonia, the other unnamed bridge the likenesses of 35 warriors.
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| Lynne on the Art Bridge, Skopje |
Porta Macedonia
Crossing the Stone Bridge we walked to the Porta Macedonia, a triumphal arch built in 2010/11 and designed by Valentina Stefanovska, who was
also responsible for Not-Alexander the Great. The Museum of Macedonia seems
starved of funds and I wonder if this was best way to spend €4 million.
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| Porta Macedonia, Skopje |
Mother Teresa
Nearby on the pedestrian Macedonia Street is the Memorial House
of Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Opened in 2009, it is on the site of the Sacred
Heart Church where Mother Teresa was baptised. She was born in Skopje in 1910
and lived in the city until she joined the Sisters of Loreto in 1928. A
Catholic ethnic Albanian (most Albanians are Muslims) of Kosovan origin she was
born a subject of the Ottoman Empire but by the age of 8 she had been Ottoman, Serbian, Bulgarian and
then Yugoslav – such was the state of flux in the Balkans. The Albanians claim
her as one of theirs as do the Macedonians, but she chose Indian citizenship in
1948 and she belonged to India and to the world.
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| Mother Teresa Memorial House, Skopje |
Later we walked back to the restaurants around Macedonia Square. Plenty of tables were occupied by drinkers, but few people were eating. After wandering around for a while we chose the inappropriately named London Bistro. ‘Traditional’ Macedonian pork and mushroom stew with sour cream was very good – we seem unable to buy mushrooms which taste of mushroom at home - though not very large (nor was it very expensive which might be connected). Lynne had a pizza, but it was a ‘Macedonian pizza’, with sour cream and pickled chillies. A bottle of Vranac, a grape who’s dark, smoky, plumminess I especially like, was an excellent accompaniment.
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| Macedonian pork and mushroom stew and a bottle of Vranac, Skopje |
Part 2 Sarajevo (2): The Seige
Part 3 Mostar
Part 5 Korčula
Part 6 Dubrovnik (2): Inside the Walls
Part 8 Skopje
Part 9 The Matka Canyon and Stobi
Part 10 Prilep and Bitola
Part 11 The Mariovo and Lake Prespa
Part 12 Ohrid, the Heart of Slavic Macedonia
Part 13 Ohrid to Albania The East Coast of the Lake
Part 14 Struga and Ohrid Trout
Part 15 Debar and back to Skopje
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