Nice story .....if this was 2014....In my recent trip to new york, i did not see any strange & out of place things. people in glass houses .............
"People here, though, believe that because their land was part of the ancient Macedonian kingdom ruled by Alexander the Great, they have every right to call themselves Macedonian."
You fail to clarify that Macedonians have been called Macedonians and the Republic of Macedonia has been called so since 1945. The border with Greece stated that the traveler is entering the Republic of Macedonia until 1991 when Greece made up the "name issue". You fail to mention that the Macedonian language is called Macedonian and has been taught as such all over the world for almost a century now. Do some research and you will find documents naming Macedonians as Macedonians, separate from Greeks, throughout history. Look at quote from the beginning of 12th Century from the Byzantine satire Timarion: "The day of Saint Demetrius in (Salonika) is as great a festival as the Panathinei in Athens or Panionii in Miletus; it is a grand Macedonian celebration in which not only the Macedonian people gather, but people of all sorts and from all directions: Greeks from different regions of Hellada, the Mizian tribes..."
Do your homework!
4
"A house dedicated to Mother Teresa... done up in an opulent style that can best be described as Miami meets the Flintstones."
I once interviewed Vangel Božinovski, the architect who designed the Mother Teresa Memorial House. I found him to be a rather crabby individual, who became quite testy when I failed to grasp some of the symbolism he had employed in his design. At the conclusion of the interview, I asked him what he was working on at the moment. He said, "I'm designing a brand-new city." If that project has survived the recent change in government, Macedonians should be afraid. Very afraid.
9
My mother was from Macedonia (Ohrid). Her father's name was Achilles and mother's name was Eleni. You can't get more Greek than that!
So they were Greek... which does not mean other people in Ohrid are Greek. Ask them!
Hmmmm...heroic statuary might appeal to a certain someone we all know. Maybe right after the big military parade....
6
Indeed, the whole architectural program seems so very Trumpish!
1
Post-World War II architecture in all the republics that once constituted Yugoslavia was often a mix of the bizarre and/or the brutalist. The Adriatic coast of Croatia is dotted with soulless boxy hotels built in the 1960s and 1970s to attract foreign tourists; ditto for one side of Slovenia's fabulous Lake Bled. The Holiday Inn in Sarajevo was clad in bright canary yellow panels, while its counterpart in Ljubljana sported bright purple.
When I was working in Sarajevo in the late 1980s, my boss from Belgrade made his first visit to the city. "It's an attractive city," he observed, "but everything attractive was either built before 1945 (i.e., during rule by either the Ottoman or Austro-Hungarian empire) or put here by God" (i.e., the spectacular mountain setting).
I guess Skopje is keeping up the tradition of...interesting...architectural design and public monuments.
8
Great article. Good taste should not overwhelm fun and it looks funny and silly while at the same time expensive and ridiculous. Well, whatever, they need some type of claim to fame - Macedonia has a long complex combative history and looks just beautiful, its people have a rep for being nice and friendly so bring on the weird!
https://www.globotreks.com/destinations/macedonia/14-facts-you-might-not... The country also produces talented basketball players https://www.ranker.com/list/famous-basketball-players-from-republic-of-m...
7
What does a native of Macedonia think if he sees Las Vegas the first time?
13
Authentic Kitsch. Love it.
6
Having lived in Skopje, Macedonia for several years while bringing wireless internet connectivity to the country I went to every corner of the country. What I saw was a poor country working to make itself less poor. I am surprised to see that an excessive amount of money was spent on opulence rather than on the populace. Unmentioned was the very expensive and huge cross which sits on the hill overlooking Skopje which makes certain that the Muslim population knows that they live in a Christian Orthodox country.
18
In 1998 I was in Macedonia for several months producing a documentary on the UN Blue Berets that were policing the country just before the Kosovo War. I had never seen such a mix of peoples and languages - and a relatively friendly one- anywhere in my travels. Besides the semi-Slavic speaking "natives", there were Serbians, a good many Greeks, Albanians, and one of the largest populations of Gypsies (Roma) that I'd ever run into....and everyone seemed to get along reasonable well. While there I attended a day of musical perfomances in the mountains of the north, which included a Native American drumming performance by a tribe not far from where I had recently lived Montana. If anyone is interested is seeing a bit of the people and land of Macedonia, you can see excerpts of the documentery on my You Tube Channel. Definitely a place that I'd return to.....
14
It would have been better to reconstruct the caravanserais the earthquake destroyed and turn them into hotels, real end of the Silk Road exotic places. At least the Ottoman bazaar looks to have been mostly left untouched by the "new style". I think there used to be a traditional music store on the corner of the little street near the minaret and a traditional opanke (shoe) maker. The facades used to be more stucco-like and the metal grates were not to be seen. Given the history of earthquakes, I would think nature may undo some of the disney-like stuff. Someone somewhere would surely buy the boat for an amusement park.
4
They should recreate the slave trading markets as well.
4