Walking around Skopje ONE


Skopje (pronounced SKOPE-Ya) is the capital of NORTH Macedonia, a city of about a half million people. The average salary here is $500 a month, among the lowest in Europe. It was the poorest region in the former Yugoslavia. But the economy has seen steady growth over the past two decades and Skopje feels like a city on the rise. Unemployment last year went down to 12%, which is high, but that is an improvement over the previous decade where it was over 20% and has steadily declined. 



Starting in 2008  the   government went on a campaign to create a tourist-friendly city center to advertise its Ancient Macedonian roots...and bolster its a national identity.

I think they went a bit overboard! There are more than 200 statues in the city center at a cost estimated anywhere from 40 to 500 Euros....money that might have been better spent on critical infrastructure.







A few are of animals, but most are larger-than-life  bronze images of famous Macedonians. "The Great Warrior" statue (not called Alexander the Great because Greece still calls Alexander theirs) is 8-stories high and smack in the middle of the city center. The Greeks are not pleased. 





The Vardar River runs through the middle of the city and with several lovely bridges crossing it. I am reminded of the Charles River separating Cambridge from Boston. But I suspect the designers of this city were/are trying to emulate the Seine in Paris or other great European cities, with the lighting, bridges and cafes dotting the riverside. 





Not sure who this guy is, but he looks like Bill Clinton doing karaoke!




 

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