Skopje is the capital and largest city in the Republic of Macedonia, with more than a quarter of the population of the country, as well as the political, cultural, economical and academic centre of the country.
History
The site of modern Skopje has been inhabited since at least 3500 BC; remains of Neolithic settlements have been found within the old Kale fortress that overlooks the modern city centre. The settlement appears to have been founded around the 3rd century BC by the Paionians, a people that inhabited the region of Paionia.Skupi came under Roman rule after the general Quintus Caecilius Metellus defeated Andriscus of Macedon in 148 BC, being at first part of the Roman province of Macedonia, established in 146 BC.
The Byzantine Emperor Justinian I was born near Skupi, at Tauresium, in 483. In 518, Skupi was almost completely destroyed by an earthquake. Justinian came to the aid of its inhabitants by founding a new settlement called Justiniana Prima north from the site of Skupi.
In 1392, three years after the Serbian defeat in the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, Skopje was captured by the Ottoman Empire.
In 1689, however, Skopje was burned by the Austrian general Engelberto d'Ugo Piccolomini – ostensibly to eradicate an outbreak of cholera, but quite possibly to avenge the Ottomans' 1683 attack on Vienna.
The city's fortunes waned over the next 200 years and its population shrank to only about 10,000 people by the middle of the 19th century. It revived after 1873 with the building of the railway from Belgrade to Thessaloniki, which passed through Skopje.
By 1905, Skopje had a population of approximately 32,000, which was comprised of a mixture of ethnic and religious groups. In 1910, the Roman Catholic nun [3], Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, later to become famous as Mother Teresa, was born in Skopje.
The city became a major centre of rebellion against the weakening Ottoman Empire, and in 1903 it was a key player in the unsuccessful Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising against Ottoman rule. The Ottomans were expelled from the city in August 12, 1912 by the local Slavic population. Several months later the city was captured by the Serbs at the beginning of First Balkan War.
In 1913, the allies in the First Balkan War fell out with each other and launched the Second Balkan War over the division of the spoils. Serbia retained control of Skopje, with the Vardar valley being incorporated into Serbia. This lasted until October 1915, when Bulgaria joined the Central Powers and seized much of Serbian-ruled Macedonia. The city was occupied by Serbia at end of the World War I in 1918, when it became part of the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (known as the Kingdom of Yugoslavia from 1929). Between 1941 - 1944 the city was under Bulgarian control. One month after the communists took power in Sofia and the Bulgarian army was sent to fight the Germans to the west front, Skopje was seized by Yugoslavian troops, and then joined Yugoslavia in 1944, when it became the capital of the newly established People's Republic of Macedonia. Following the wars, Skopje and the rest of Yugoslav Macedonia was incorporated into Tito's Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
On 26 July 1963, Skopje was struck by another major earthquake, measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale, which killed over 1,000 people and made another 120,000 homeless. Eighty percent of the city was destroyed by the earthquake, and numerous cultural monuments were seriously damaged.
Skopje grew rapidly druing united Yugoslavia and became a major[citation needed] industrial centre for the south-central Balkans region. In 1991 the Yugoslav federation broke up and Skopje became the capital of the independent Republic of Macedonia. Greece objected to the use of the name Macedonia by the new state, and imposed an economic blockade on the country, which severely {fact} damaged the economy of the Republic of Macedonia by closing its access to the sea through Thessaloniki. The blockade was lifted in 1995 following an agreement between the two governments on the name issue which still hasn't been resolved.
In December 2006 the government announced plans for renaming the city's airport to "Alexander the Great".[6] Skopje is also the home of the State University "Saints Cyril and Methodius" founded in 1949.
Tourist attractions
The church of Saint Panteleimon in Nerezi near Skopje is a superb example of the Comnenian art on the all-Byzantine level. Commissioned by several members of the royal Comnenus family, the church was not finished until 1164. Nerezi is famous for its frescoes, representing a pinnacle of the 12th-century trend of intimacy and spirituality. They are often compared with similarly delicate works by Giotto, who worked 140 years later. These murals underwent serious 19th-century overpainting but were restored lately.
A ancient Roman aqueduct survives to the north of the city. One of stone bridges connecting both side of Vardar River dates back to the reign of Stefan Dušan. This bridge is not to be confused with the more famous Stone Bridge in the city square built under the patronage of Sultan Mehmed III the Conqueror between 1451 and 1469, today featured as the emblem of the city of Skopje. Within Skopje, there are notable buildings from the Ottoman rule such as the Kuršumli Han (medieval Turkish inn) and several mosques.
Of these mosques, Mustapha Pasha's Mosque is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful buildings of Islamic architecture in Skopje. Located on a hill facing Fort Kale, this mosque dominates the whole surroundings and was built in the last decade of the 15th century when the military spahi system of Osmanli Turkish feudalism had reached the peak of its development. It is an endowment of Mustapha Pasha, an eminent figure in the Turkish state during the rule of Sultan Baiazid II and Sultan Selim I. The year of Mustapha Pasha's death is engraved on the entrance of his mausoluem, which is located by the mosque. It shows him to have died in 1519. The mausoleum and the mosque were both badly damaged in Skopje's 1963 earthquake, and restoration and conservation work was started in 1968. The interior of the mosque, like that of the porch, is mostly decorated with stylized plants. On the walls of the praying space are calligraphic inscriptions (lehve) with the names of Allah, Mohammed and his followers (Ebubekira, Ali, Osman and Omer) and quotations from the Qu'ran. The painted decorations are more recent, mainly from 1933 when the mosque was renovated. This can be seen from the intense blue and black color of the ornaments, which are often a confusing mass of color.
The Millennium Cross situated on the peak of the mountain Vodno is a new tourist attraction. The cross should be finished in July 2007. At 66 meters high, it is one of the biggest crosses in the world and can be seen from 30 km away.
Famous people born in Skopje
Below is a list of famous people born in Skopje or its surroundings:
