Day 122
Location 21: Skopje, Macedonia
Mar. 2, 2023
Hidden within the buildings and bustle of Skopje are three secret cities: Rome, Berlin, and Hill Valley. Let me explain:
1. Rome
A few years back, Skopje's political leaders began erecting statues to increase tourism.
Then, despite pushback from residents, they erected more statues. When the city ran out of space, they erected more. Today, 284 statues stand in Skopje.
It's like they forced a square peg in a round, city-sized hole. And then forced 283 more square pegs into that same hole.
The odd thing is the statues—along with building facades and columns and archways—are designed to mimic that of ancient Roman architecture.
Most striking is an Alexander the Great statue so massive that if you dropped it into 5th century B.C.E. Egypt, they'd start praying to it.
Some construction is still in progress. You know how in Beauty and the Beast, the butler is transformed into a candlestick? Well, the photo on the far right shows the answer to the question "what if Batman villain Two-Face was turned into a building, Beauty and the Beast-style?". The building's left side reveals the original, brutalist design while the right side hides it behind an out-of-place, white marble facade.
2. Berlin
Inexplicably, Skopje has a mini version of Berlin's famous Brandenburg Gate. Why? I don't know. It's like a city building a random, mini Arc de Triomphe—oh wait, Skopje has that, too.
Both reproductions feel like an attempt to recreate Normal Rockwell's famous The Thanksgiving Picture painting by tracing the outline of a splayed hand to draw a turkey.
Left: Skopje's Versions | Right: Original Versions
This sort of architectural impersonation exists elsewhere: Birmingham, England has an uninspired version of New York's iconic Wall Street Charging Bull.
Not wanting to be out-copycatted, Skopje has their own bull, too! As expected, it looks like (bull)shit.
Left: Skopje | Center: Birmingham | Right: New York
3. Hill Valley
In the 1985 blockbuster Back to the Future, a bolt of lightning strikes the Hill Valley clocktower, forever suspending the clock at precisely 10:04pm. Unintentionally, Skopje has their own (much sadder) version of the Hill Valley clocktower story.
Quite tragically, a 1963 earthquake killed over 1,000 of the city's inhabitants. Since then, the city's old railway station clock has forever been suspended at precisely 5:17am, the time of the disaster. The station has since been turned into a museum to honor the victims and preserve their memory.
Instead of doing one city well, Skopje has decided to do three cities poorly, much to the chagrin of the public. There is, however, a bright spot that shines a glimmer of hope on the people of Skopje—a chance to rise up their own way.
That's not a metaphor. Skopje is home to the world's only retail elevator store, so they literally have the chance to rise up (to the top floor of a building) in any style they'd like.
Who is walking by this place and thinking "oh you know, I could really use an elevator!" and making an impulse purchase?