Wandergliding: The Statues of Skopje

November 9^th-10^th, 2026

Today, I had 4-5 items on my list of places to see. The first one was to see the outside of the old train station.

Skopje was devastated by a magnitude 6.1 earthquake in 1963. It destroyed about 80% of the city and killed over a thousand people. Over 200,000 were left homeless so in a way, it’s surprising that the death toll wasn’t higher. During the rebuild, the city was divided into blocks dedicated to specific activities. The banks of the Vardar River became natural areas and parks, regions between the main boulevards were built with high-rise housing and shopping centres, and the suburbs were left to individual housing and industry.

The old train station is one of the city's most powerful historical landmarks, serving as a permanent memorial to the catastrophic earthquake. Roughly two-thirds of the building collapsed, and the surviving portion was never repaired for active railway use. The main facade's clock was permanently halted at 5:17 (am), capturing the exact moment the disaster struck.

There are a lot of red, double-decker buses in Skopje.

Lovely autumn leaves while walking towards the center of town.

There was no info as to what this tower was.

Right next to my next stop, I briefly walked into the Church of Saints Constantine and Helena. The original church was built in 1927 but also suffered significant damage in the 1963 earthquake and it was razed to make way for the City Trade Centre. A new church was built between 2012 and 2025 thanks to 4 million Euros of donations, so it is brand spanking new.

It was a lovely area of town.

The actual stop that I had planned was the Mother Teresa Memorial House. When I was a kid, I remember hearing about Mother Teresa, especially from my friends’ parents who were Catholic. I didn’t realize until yesterday that Mother Teresa, whose actual name was Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu, was born in Skopje in 1910. She lived most of her life in India, specifically in the city of Calcutta to serve the “poorest of the poor”. She died in 1997 and in 2016, she was canonised by the Catholic Church as Saint Teresa of Calcutta.

The main floor of the memorial house.

Mother Teresa in Calcutta.

A young Mother Teresa.

Mother Teresa with the Reagans. She doesn't look terribly amused.

And now with another spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

A lovely chapel on the top floor of the building.

There was a peaceful protest that passed by. I had no idea what they were chanting or what the posters said, but with the power of the Internet, I later found out that they were chanting "Not one more!". The march was sparked by the murder of 17-year-old woman from Bogdanci, a small town in the eastern part of the country, who was killed despite having previously reported violence and receiving a court protection order. Very sad.

I walked through Macedonia Square again, passing by the massive statue of Alexander the Great on his horse, then walked over the Stone Bridge, a symbol of the city, which was built between 1451-1469.

Officially, it is not called "The Alexander the Great Statue", but the "Warrior on Horseback".

It was part of the Skopje 2014 project, which I'll talk about shortly. The foreign minister told a newspaper in October 2010 that the statue depicted Alexander the Great which was an "up yours" to Greece, due to the two nations' disputes over the identity of the ancient Macedonians. Since then, North Macedonian politicians have taken a less controversial stance and have referred to it as a generic soldier.

It is an impressive 12-meter tall statue on top of a 10-meter pedestal. Look at the little people below it. And believe it or not, but it cost somewhere between 5-9 million Euros!

The buildings around the square and across the river were rebuilt or renovated as part of a big and controversial project called Skopje 2014. It was financed by the government with the official purpose of giving the capital a more classical appeal but also designed to make the buildings more earthquake-proof. The project added over 130 structures, including dozens of bronze monuments, bridges, museums, and neoclassical facades at a reported cost between €500–700 million. Oh, and statues galore! I’ve never seen so many statues in a such a small area.

Some of the projects finished products.

The project was controversial for a few reasons, the main one being the exorbitant costs while the country was struggling with low wages and unemployment. Additionally, the monuments overwhelmingly celebrated ethnic Macedonian and Orthodox Christian history, largely ignoring the country's significant ethnic Albanian Muslim population and Ottoman heritage. Many new facades were built using inexpensive materials like painted styrofoam and plaster over existing buildings, leading to rapid deterioration. I saw that as I got closer to some of the buildings. Also, there was also a loss of green space in central Skopje.

On the Stone Bridge.

Reaching the other side of the bridge.

The Holocaust Memorial Center for the Jews of Macedonia. It was closed today.

The Fountain of Mothers of Macedonia. You don't often see a fountain with a statue of a pregnant woman.

A bunch of hot rods for hire.

Another massive statue on the other side of the river. It's a random ancient warrior from the Hellenic history which is from 323 BC, after the death of Alexander the Great, to 31 BC, the Roman conquest of Egypt.

My next destination was the Skopje Fortress, situated on the highest point in the city overlooking the Vardar River. It was first built in the 6^th century. I must admit, I do like castles, but I knew that it would also provide a nice view of the city.

A narrow alley on my way to the fortress.

The North Macedonian flag is interesting as it's very different than the other former Yugoslavian states. The eight-rayed sun derives from the national emblem and represents the "new sun of Liberty".

A mosque near the fortress.

Inside the fortress.

There was a young family of four with the dad taking pictures of his boy and girl who were in traditional Albanian dress. The boy here is holding an Albanian flag. They were super cute so I surreptiously took a few photos. In the background is the Todor Proeski National Arena, primarily a football (soccer) stadium that can seat over 32,000 people.

His younger sister.

Up on the walls. Gotta love some good crenulations!

The downtown core of Skopje.

The view from the fortress.

Another view of the football stadium.

The last item on my list was to stroll through the Old Bazaar, one of the oldest and largest marketplaces in the Balkans. It has been Skopje's centre for trade and commerce since at least the 12th century. Now it seems like it is a coffee and cigarette lover’s heaven! There were small tables filling many of the narrow lanes, packed with people enjoying an espresso and a smoke. Oh, and if you were looking to pick up some gawdy jewellery or a tacky suit or a bejewelled wedding dress, this was the place for you. As you can imagine, I did not stay for too long.

It's hard to see here, but there are the fronts of little scooters (the yellow, blue and red) that make up part of the tables by this cafe, and there are sun hats hanging from string across the alleyway.

Some parts of the bazaar were quite nice.

I thought this was cute. A typical tourist signpost with how many kilometres to major cities around the world, but also there was "Coffee" and "Tea" arrows pointing to the right, to the cafe.

One of the sun-shaded shopping areas.

Walking through the Old Bazaar.

Some nice graffiti. We have "Peace" with Gandhi beside it, "Justice" with I think Martin Luther King Jr..

Then on the right, cut off, is "Freedom" with Nelson Mandela and finally "Equity" but I couldn't figure out who it was. It made me look up the exact definition of "equity" as I figured that it should have been "equality" as I think of equity with regards to ownership value but it can mean the distributing resources and opportunities based on individual needs and circumstances so that everyone has a fair and just chance to reach an equal outcome.

Looking back at the fortress.

The Neo-Classical columns of the Museum of Archaeology.

One of a few bridges lined with statues. There is a status on between every lamp post you see on the bridge.

And also a statue between every lamp post along the side of this sidewalk by the river.

This is the third wedding couple taking photographs that I have seen on this trip!

Part of the Skopje 2014 project, there were a couple of these "ships" which doubled as a restaurant and even a hotel. This one was functioning whereas one further downstream was falling apart and had graffiti on it.

Yup, it is a bit tacky.

The Stone Bridge nicely lit up in the evening.

The "Warrior on a Horse" at night.

It seems like they like their gambling in this country as I saw a number of casinos.

I enjoyed one of these pale ale beers when I was out for dinner...I love the logo.

The following day I had hoped either visit nearby Matka Canyon or take a cable car up to see the Millenium Cross, a 66-meter metal crucifix, one of the tallest crosses in the world, on Vodno Mountain. The latter option was not an option as the cable car has been under repair since the spring plus the clouds were low with rain today. Couple that with the rainy weather with the fact that city buses to Matka Canyon were sporadic, I decided to kibosh that idea too and just have a chill-out day in my apartment.

This was from yesterday, but you can see the Millenium Cross on the right. It was lit up at night.

I stole this off the web, what the cross looks like up close.

On my walk to the bus station to travel to Ohrid, I happened to walk by the Porta Macedonia. At 21 meters in height, the one that Trump wants to build in Washington would be three times as tall.