Skopje 2014

Skopje 2014 (Скопје 2014) was a project financed by the Macedonian government of the then-ruling nationalist party VMRO-DPMNE, with the official purpose of giving the capital Skopje a more classical appeal. The project, officially announced in 2010, consisted mainly of the construction of colleges, 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 were to be constructed as part of the project. The project was seen as politically controversial in its nature and as a nation-building endeavour, as it tried to further impose Macedonian historiography, promoting a Macedonian identity with unbroken continuity from antiquity over the Middle Ages to the modern times. It was one of the several major initiatives taken by the VMRO-DPMNE government in accordance with the policy of antiquization. It relied on a set of nondemocratic mechanisms aiming to expand the political dominance of that party and to leave its enduring stamp on city’s urban environment. Skopje 2014 has also generated controversy for its cost, for which estimates range from 80 to 500 million euros. The Skopje 2014 project encompassed the construction, from 2010 to 2014, of 136 structures built at a cost of more than US$700 million. 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 modernist architecture. This is one of the reasons given by the VMRO-DPMNE government for the necessity of the project, to give Skopje a more monumental and visually pleasing image. Another reason is to restore the missing sense of national pride and create a more metropolitan atmosphere. In a speech at the opening of Porta Macedonia in January 2012, then Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski stated that Skopje 2014 was his idea. Antiquization and Macedonian historiography The Skopje 2014 project has been criticized by various groups since the time it was first announced.