Skopje’s eccentric post office (2021)
new-east-archive.org
new-east-archive.org
As the article notes, a lot of it was destroyed in an earthquake in the 1960s, so the government seized upon the opportunity to rebuild several major landmarks (like the main post office) in the then-fashionable raw concrete brutalist style.
That said, most of the post-60s residential blocs are not identifiably "brutalist" -- it's not Belgrade -- they're just bland and basically built as functionalist housing in the unloved "Khrushchyovka" style.
But that's not the interesting part. What's interesting is that since ~2010 the government has embarked on a "nation building" (and explicitly anti-Albanian) project with gaudy neoclassical buildings that are often likened to Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. Kitsch. See, e.g., the fake galleon and its background: https://ibb.co/LTGwYZs
Much ink has been spilled on this matter.
> https://rs.boell.org/en/2021/01/29/neoliberal-manipulation-s...
Thing is, though, it looks good and Skopje is a very fun town to spend time in. The old market is great, the people are nice, and the much-criticized neoclassical buildings give the city a vibe that's both extraordinary (there are very few places like it) and coherent (the entire city is done up in just a small handful of architectural styles.)
I wouldn't be surprised if 20-30 years from now, it's all crumbling.
(Talking strictly about the neoclassical stuff.)
> With the end of the "Skopje 2014" project, not only the Macedonian nationalist hungry spirit was fed. Its counterpart, Albanian nationalism, got its part of the city to ill-treat, so the neighbouring Skanderbeg Square was turned into a nationalist showcase for another actor of the Macedonian ethnocratic elite.
But overall agree that it's over-the-top kitsch.
The Skopje 2014 project is, in a way, an attempt at forging a national identity that's equal parts Slavic and neo-Ancient-Macedonian -- and the Albainans, feeling left out, have protested quite loudly about it. More on that here: https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/soeu-2018-003...
Also on the Wiki page:
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skopje_2014
> "Sam Vaknin, a former adviser to Nikola Gruevski, has stated that the project is not anti-Greek or anti-Bulgarian, but anti-Albanian. In an interview, he said "Antiquisation has a double goal, which is to marginalise the Albanians and create an identity that will not allow Albanians to become Macedonians.""
All very interesting, I think. It's a nation that's trying to find itself, trying to build up a coherent national identity in real time.
As for the Greek thing, it's totally obvious that Ancient Macedonia is within the borders of modern Greece. Philip's palace at Aigai is a ~4 hour drive from Skopje, and indeed south of Thessaloniki. So the N.Macedonian position re: Alexander the Great is a little bit farcical. But I suppose they could say that they are inheritors, of sorts, to the Roman Province of Macedonia...
And regarding the ancient borders of macedonia being currently in greece, after the Ottoman empire collapsed borders were drawn in the region as a result of war, not as a result of ethnicity. Thessaloniki before WW1 a quarter of the population was slavic speaking bulgarians and macedonians, a quarter jewish, the rest was greek and turkish. There were pogroms against macedonians both in bulgaria and greece, all the way from around early 20th century to around WW2, and it stopped when the current borders were drawn because of the Yugoslav partisans. In fact, in the first balkan war, bulgaria could've occupied and kept thessaloniki if their army arrived a day earlier, but they were beat only by a few hours by the greek army led by the king, because the ottoman general decided to surrender the city and not fight. Not only that, but macedonia as an independent country was first theorized (not sure if its the right word) by macedonian and bulgarian revolutionaries that were operating in thessaloniki, with the goal of getting rid of the ottoman occupation. So, the current borders dont mean much. Macedonia was actually divided in 3 and stopped existing in one of the balkan wars, because all the neighbouring countries got a slice of it. Luckily Tito and the yugoslav partisans won, and hence the borders are now what they were post WW2. If the axis had won WW2, the current Macedonia would've likely been a bulgarian province right now, joining the western side of bulgaria which is also called macedonia (pirin macedonia).
As you get closer to it, the post office stands out and the tower is the one thing that always catches my attention in a sea of blandness (not to complain as these old apartment blocks are nice to live in, I live in one myself).
The windows become orange and it feels like a villain is plotting his world domination somewhere up there. The type of villain whose plans never succeed and his tower is beginning to crumble.
It is called: Bratstvo i jedinstveno (Brotherhood and equality)
To this day it's closed and without any signs of life.
It's a very thorough compilation of all brutalist buildings across former Yugoslavia built between 60s and 90s.
It looks like there are a handful of copies around, fwiw selling for about 40% more than what I paid back then.
"Designed by North Macedonian architect Janko Konstantinov"
Confusingly, the demonym for people from North Macedonia is still accepted to be just Macedonian.