North Macedonia 2018

Macedonia - The country of Alexander the Great

  In May, I went to Macedonia for a long weekend. I arrived in Skopje at night and after finding my hotel, I made a little tour through the night of Skopje. I was really impressed by the big fountain with a monument of Alexander the Great on the main square. Moreover, it was possible to have a nice view over the city after entering the Fortress of the city. On the way back to the hotel, I crossed the Vardar river by the Stone Bridge, also one of the nice sightseeing places in the center of Skopje.

   On Friday morning, I went to Ohrid, which is the largest city on Lake Ohrid and close to the border of Albania. Ohrid, known as "Jerusalem of the Balkans",  and Lake Ohrid, one of Europe's deepest and oldest lakes, were accepted as Cultural and Natural World Heritage Sites by UNESCO in 1979 and 1980. On the harbor, from where it was possible to book boat trips around the lake, was the "Catcher of a Cross Monument", a protector for the fishermen, which also showed the importance of the religion in Ohrid. 

   In the past, there were 365 churches in Ohrid, one for each day of the year, but nowadays, there are just a few left. One of them is the Church of St.Sophia, which is one of the most important monuments of Macedonia because of its important frescos. Therefore, a detail from the church is depicted on the reverse of the Macedonian 1000 denars banknote. Another famous and beautiful church is the Saint John at Kaneo, a Macedonian Orthodox church, built in the 13th century and located on the cliff over Kaneo Beach. By walking around, I also found many little handcraft shops like the National Workshop for Handmade Paper or for Wood Carving, but I also found the Ancient Theatre of Ohrid, the only Hellenistic-type theatre in Macedonia, which is still in use for concerts.

   The next morning, I took a half-day guided tour to the Matka Canyon, one of the most popular outdoor destinations in Macedonia, located approximately 20 km in the west of Skopje. At first, we made a boat tour on the Treska river, until we reached the Vrelo Cave, one of the caves, which is open for tourists. The tour at the river remembered me to the fjord tour, I made in Norway in 2017 and it was so breathtakingly. But since I only booked a half-day tour, I could only take the short boat tour, but there were also possibilities to rent a kayak or even go hiking at the Matka pathway. There were also a lot of monasteries, which include the unique fresco-paintings.

   It was quite amazing to see beautiful places outside of Skopje, but I was also surprised by the capital of Macedonia. Macedonia isn't only famous for Alexander the Great, another famous person, who was born in Skopje, was Mother Teresa. I didn't know it before, so I was quite interested, why there's a Mother Teresa Memorial House even close to my hotel. The museum opened in 2009 and shows some of her relics and also sculptures of Mother Teresa and her family members. In generally, it was interesting, that there were a lot of statues and monuments in the whole city. Most of them were financed by the government of Macedonia due to the Skopje 2014 project for rebulding the city and making it more attractive for tourists. Another important place is the historical Stone Bridge, which connects the Macedonian Square to the Old Bazaar.

   Before I had a dinner at the Old Bazaar, I made a stop at the Skopje Fortress, which is located on the highest point inside the city and was firstly constructed in the 6th century AD. When there was the last earthquake in 1963, the fortress was also partially destroyed, but not completely reconstrcuted again. So inside the castle weren't many interesting points to see, but from one of the towers, where it was possible to climb up, I could see a beautiful sunset. After enjoying the beautiful view, I decided to make a walk to the Old Bazaar and the Turkish area of the city. There were many Turkish coffee shops as well as restaurants. There were also many other places like the Çifte Hamam, the Mustafa Pasha Mosque, which was built in 1492 nearby the fortress or the Kurşumli Han, the largest of the three remaining caravanserais in Skopje.

   The big earthquake of 1963 didn't only destroy parts of the foretress, almost 80% of the buildings in the capital of Macedonia were damaged or completely destroyed. Therefore it was concluded to give Skopje a more modern and more monumental image by adding a lot of monuments of famous personalities. After all the renovations and rebuildings, Skopje was also seen as the "Las Vegas of the Balkan". There is a huge list of new constructions or monuments like the Monument of Fallen Heroes of Macedonia, the Monument of the Founders of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation or the Eye Bridge, which connects the main square with the new Museum of Archaeology. But one of the main important symbols of the Skopje 2014 project is the Porta Macedonia, a 21 meter tall triumphal arch, which was completed in 2012, which should be a symbol for the independance of the country.