Skopje is the capital and largest city of North Macedonia. Even this basic designation has long carried political weight, due to the international dispute over the country’s name and historical claims associated with the wider Macedonian region. Skopje became a national capital only in 1991, following the breakup of Yugoslavia; before that, it functioned primarily as a provincial center. Its recent elevation triggered rapid urbanisation and a redefinition of the city’s political and symbolic role.

Skopje is situated along the Vardar river, a major north-south corridor through the Balkans connecting Central Europe with the Aegean. This geographic position has long shaped the city’s strategic and economic relevance. At the same time, the region is seismically active, a factor that would prove decisive for the city’s modern form and internal structure.

A defining moment in Skopje’s modern history was the earthquake of 1963, which destroyed large parts of the city. The reconstruction that followed was carried out with extensive international involvement and introduced modernist urban planning on a large scale. Wide boulevards, high-rise residential blocks, and a new city layout emerged, oriented toward a central square and aligned along the river.

Older layers of the city survived unevenly. The historic Ottoman core, including the bazaar district, suffered comparatively limited damage and remains one of the most intact pre-modern urban areas in the city. During Ottoman rule, Skopje functioned as a regional administrative and commercial center, a role still visible in its street patterns, religious buildings, and market structures.

Today Skopje is visibly divided into two urban worlds. On one side of the Vardar lies the historic city, dominated by the Ottoman-era bazaar and associated with a predominantly Albanian and Muslim population. On the other side lies the modern city, largely rebuilt after 1963 and further reshaped after independence.

In the central areas of the modern city, large numbers of monuments and statues have been added in recent decades. These projects reflect deliberate attempts to materialise a national narrative in public space. Figures such as Mother Teresa-born in Skopje and claimed by multiple national traditions-and Saints Cyril and Methodius illustrate the contested nature of historical ownership in the region. The emphasis on monumentality has generated debate over priorities and the role of symbolic politics in a country whose modern statehood is recent.