Today’s Skopje

 Skopje (Macedonian: Скопје) is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Macedonia with about a third of the total population. It is the country's political, cultural, economic, and academic centre. It was known in the Roman period under the name Skupi.

The name of Skopje is derived from an ancient name that is attested in antiquity as Latin Scupi, the name of a classical era Greco-Roman frontier  fortress  town of Paeonian origin. In modern times, the city has been known by its Ottoman Turkish name Üsküp  during the time of Ottoman rule and by the Serbian form Skoplje during the time of the Royal Yugoslavia between 1912 and 1941. Under the Kingdom of Bulgaria (1941–1944), the city was called Skopie (Скопие). Since 1945, the official name of the city in Macedonian has been Skopje, reflecting the Macedonian Cyrillic orthography for the local pronunciation. The city is called Shkup or Shkupi in Albanian and Skopia in Greek.

Skopje has a rather loose town planning, which is the result of an earthquake that destroyed 80% of the city in 1963.

The centre of Skopje is formed of two municipalities separated by the Vardar. On the north bank of the river is Čair Municipality in which the Old Town is located, while the on the south bank is Centar Municipality which is the modern part of the centre of the city.

As the center of all events, Skopje is a large construction site. There are a lot of investments in building new structures, setting new monuments and construction of many new roads. The government has made plans to erect several statues, fountains, bridges, and museums at a cost of about €200 million. The project will be finished in 2014, when we will see the new built and rebuilt Skopje.

Skopje Panorama

Skopje is the cultural hub of the Republic of Macedonia and, therefore, is home to many of the country's most important museums. One of these is the Museum of Contemporary Arts which is devoted to the preserving of contemporary art. Тhe museum was created as part of the reconstruction following 1963 earthquake. The International Association of the Plastic arts called upon the artists of the world to assist in creating a collection of works of art by which they would support the vision of the city's reconstruction. The government of Poland held a national competition for the design of the building of the Museum of Contemporary Art and donated it to Skopje. The large park areas, which now contain many sculptures, surround the museum. The Museum of Macedonia, the Natural History Museum, and the Archives of Macedonia are other significant museums in Skopje.

Skopje is a beautiful city that sees a bright future before itself.