Saraj (Skopje)

Saraj (Macedonian:  Сарај ; Albanian: Saraji) is a village in Skopje, in the Republic of Macedonia. It is the seat of the Saraj municipality. The majority of its inhabitants are of Albanian ethnicity.

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Coordinates: 42°00′00″N 21°19′30″E / 42.00000°N 21.32500°E / 42.00000; 21.32500

Skopje

Skopje (Macedonian: Скопје, [ˈskɔpjɛ]; Albanian: Shkupi) is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Macedonia. It is the country's political, cultural, economic, and academic center. It was known in the Roman period under the name Scupi.

The territory of Skopje has been inhabited since at least 4000 BC; remains of Neolithic settlements have been found within the old Kale Fortress that overlooks the modern city centre. On the eve of the 1st century AD, the settlement was seized by the Romans and became a military camp. When the Roman Empire was divided into eastern and western halves in 395 AD, Scupi came under Byzantine rule from Constantinople. During much of the early medieval period, the town was contested between the Byzantines and the Bulgarian Empire, whose capital it was between 972 and 992. From 1282, the town was part of the Serbian Empire and acted as its capital city from 1346. In 1392, the city was conquered by the Ottomans who called the town Üsküp. The town stayed under Ottoman control for over 500 years, serving as the capital of pashasanjak of Üsküb and later the Vilayet of Kosovo. At that time the city was famous for its oriental architecture . In 1912, it was annexed by the Kingdom of Serbia during the Balkan Wars and after the First World War the city became part of the newly formed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (Kingdom of Yugoslavia). In the Second World War the city was conquered by the Bulgarian Army, which was part of the Axis powers. In 1944, it became the capital city of Democratic Macedonia (later Socialist Republic of Macedonia), which was a federal state, part of Democratic Federal Yugoslavia (later Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia). The city developed rapidly after World War II, but this trend was interrupted in 1963 when it was hit by a disastrous earthquake. In 1991, it became the capital city of an independent Macedonia.

Skoplje '63

Skoplje '63 is a 1964 Yugoslavian documentary film directed by Veljko Bulajić about the 1963 Skopje earthquake (Skoplje, per film title, is the Serbo-Croatian spelling of Skopje). It was screened at the 1964 Cannes Film Festival, but wasn't entered into the main competition. The film was also selected as the Yugoslav entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 37th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.

The filming started three days after the earthquake and lasted for four months. After that, Bulajić spent 12 months editing the footage at Jadran Film studios.

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Skopje 2014

Skopje 2014 (Macedonian: Скопје 2014) is a project financed by the Government of the Republic of Macedonia, with the main ideology being based on that of the ruling party VMRO-DPMNE, with the purpose of giving the capital Skopje a more classical appeal by the year 2014. The project, officially announced in 2010, consists mainly of the construction of museums and government buildings, as well as the erection of monuments depicting historical figures from the region of Macedonia. Around 20 buildings and over 40 monuments are planned to be constructed as part of the project.

The project has been criticized for constructing nationalistic historicist kitsch. Skopje 2014 has also generated controversy for its cost, for which estimates range from 80 to 500 million euros.

Background

The 1963 Skopje earthquake destroyed approximately 80% of the city, including most of the neoclassical buildings in the central part of Skopje. The rebuilding that followed saw the construction of mostly plain Socialist architecture. This is a main reason given by the government for the necessity of the project, to give Skopje a more monumental and visually pleasing image. Some of the project does consist of reconstructions of buildings destroyed or significantly damaged in the earthquake. This includes the national theatre, the old city hall, and Kale Fortress.