Guide to Macedonia
Must See Macedonia
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Macedonia's capital, Skopje, is strategically set on the Vardar River at a crossroads of Balkan routes almost midway between Tirana and Sofia, capitals of neighbouring Albania and Bulgaria. The Romans recognised the location's importance when they made the city the centre of Dardania Province.
Later conquerors included the Slavs, Byzantines, Bulgarians, Normans and Serbs, until the Turks arrived in 1392 and managed to hold onto Skopje until 1912. After a devastating earthquake in 1963, aid poured in from the rest of Yugoslavia to create the modern urban landscape you see today.
Most of central Skopje is a pedestrian zone, with the 15th-century Turkish stone bridge over the Vardar River linking the old and new towns. North from the bridge are the Daud Pasha Baths, the City Art Gallery, the old market area and the tiny Church of Sveti Spas with a finely carved iconostasis done in 1824. It's half buried because when it was constructed, in the 17th century, no church was allowed to be higher than a mosque.